GEOGRAPHY OF THE GENERA. 
93 
rity of time, necessarily takes the domestication of the 
bee back also to that anterior period now only dimly 
traceable. 
There can be but little doubt that the majority of the 
creatures now domesticated by man were in those ancient 
days subjected to his sway, and to which later times 
have not added any, or but few fresh ones. A natural 
instinct possibly prompted him originally in the selec¬ 
tion ; and if the reindeer of the Laplander seem an aber¬ 
ration, this has happened through the contingency of 
climate, for in the high latitudes it inhabits, it, in its 
uses to man, supplies the double function performed in 
more southern regions by the equine and bovine tribes. 
In the Greek and in the Teutonic languages, two 
branches of the Aryan stem, the names of the bee, 
melissa and biene, are clearly derived from the con¬ 
structive faculty of the insect, and to which the root 
of the Sanskrit word madhukara, above noticed, also 
points. It would seem, therefore, that an earlier notice 
of its skill than of its honey, had suggested its name. 
Thus everything points to a very early acquaintance 
with the bee, its economy, and its properties, and this 
familiarity might be easily traced down in regular suc¬ 
cession to the present times, were it desirable to recapi¬ 
tulate what has been so often repeated in the history of 
the “ Honey-bee.” The facts I have gathered together 
above, do not seem to have been hitherto strung to¬ 
gether, and may be suggestive of reflection, as well as 
affording some amusement. 
