21 
origin of the Bugonia, It contains an account of the process 
used for obtaining bees, which agrees, in the main, with that 
of Florentinus (p. 7 above). I give a detailed analysis of both 
processes in the already quoted Supplement I. 
Kgypt, under the Ptolemies, seems to have been a centre 
of this superstition, and Virgil, in the above-quoted episode, 
refers to it too (verses 287—291). But the principal author 
quoted is Antigonus Carystius, who lived in the third century 
B. C.; he relates that ,in several places in Egypt, when an ox 
is buried in such a way that his horns portrude, and these 
horns are sawn off, bees are said to emerge, the putrefying ox 
being transformed into these insects.“ The reason alleged for 
this experiment was that the yearly inundation of the Nile 
often destroyed the hives, and rendered the renewal of the 
stock necessary! (Comp. Joh. Beckmann; Antig. Car. hist. mir. 
collectanea. Lipsiae 1791, p. 36.) 
Half a century before Virgil, Varro, ,the most learned of 
the Romans“, as he was called, a contemporary of Cicero, in 
his book on Agriculture (De re rustica, book II, Ch. 5) praises 
the oxen in the most extravagant terms: ,They are peculiarly 
Italian animals, because even the name of Italy is derived from 
them.... they are associates of man in field-labour, and ser- 
vants of Ceres; .... the ancients respected them so much that 
killmg them was punished with death (1) .... Such is their 
greatness (majestas) that their name is added to things described 
as excessive, a large fig (busycon), a big child (bupais), excessive 
hunger (dulimos), ox-eyed (boopis), and a large bunch of grapes 
(uva bumamma).... Jupiter chose to assume the shape of an ox 
when he carried Europa over the sea; an ox saved the children 
of Neptune and Melanippa from being crushed by a herd in 
the stable; finally, it is from rotten oxen that are born the sweet 
bees, the mothers of honey, which the Greeks, for this reason called 
bugenes.“ .... (2) 
(1) This reminds us of the Hindu’s reverence for oxen. 
(2) After this follows a passage the text of which is evidently corrupt and 
