HYMENOPTERA.

THE BEE.

The Hebrew word Deborah-The Honey Bee of Palestine-Abundance of Bees in the Holy Land-Habitations of the wild Bee-Hissing for the Bee-Bees in dead carcases-' s-The honey of Scripture-Domesticated Bees and their hivesStores of wild honey-The story of Jonathan-The Crusaders and the honey— Butter and honey-Oriental sweetmeats-The Dibs, or grape-honey, and mode of preparation-Wax, its use as a metaphor.

PASSING for the moment the order of insects called Neuroptera, which may possibly be represented in the Scriptural writings by the Termites, which would be classed with the ants, we come to the vast order of Hymenoptera, of which we find several representatives. Beginning with that which is most familiar to us, we will take the BEE, an insect which is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures, and to which indirect allusion is made in many passages, such as those which mention honey, honeycomb, and wax.

FORTUNATELY, there is no doubt about the rendering of the Hebrew word deborah, which has always been acknowledged to be rightly translated as "Bee." There has, however, been a difference of opinion as to the derivation of the word, some Hebraists thinking that it is derived from a word which signifies departure, or going forth, in allusion to its habit of swarming, while others derive it from the Hebrew dabar, a word which signifies speech, and is appropriate to the Bee on account of the varied sounds of its hum, which were supposed to be the language of the insect.

The Honey Bee is exceedingly plentiful in Palestine, and in some parts of the country multiplying to such an extent that the precipitous ravines in which it takes up its residence are almost impassable by human beings, so jealous are the Bees of

their domains. Although the Bee is not exactly the same species as that of our own country, being the Banded Bee (Apis fasciata), and not the Apis mellifica, the two insects very much resemble each other in shape, colour, and habits. Both of them share the instinctive dislike of strangers and jealousy of

intrusion, and the Banded Bee of Palestine has as great an objection to intrusion as its congener of England.

Several allusions are made in the Scriptures to this trait in the character of the Bee. See, for example, Deut. i. 44: "And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah." All those who have had the misfortune to offend Bees will recognise the truth of this metaphor, the

Amorites swarming out of the mountain like wild Bees out of the rocky clefts which serve them as hives, and chasing the intruder fairly out of their domains.

A similar metaphor is employed in the Psalms: "They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about; but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

"They compassed me about like bees, they are quick as the fire of thorns, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them."

There is another passage in which the Bee is mentioned in the light of an enemy: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes" (Isa. vii. 18, 19). Some commentators have thought that the word which is translated as "Bee" may in this case refer to some noxious fly, which, although it is not a Bee, and does not even belong to the same order of insects, has a sufficiently Bee-like appearance to cause it to be classed among the Bees by the non-zoological Orientals. The context, however, sets the question at rest; for the allusions to the resting of the insect in the holes of the rock, upon the thorns, and on the bushes, clearly refers to the mode in which the Honey Bee throws off its swarms.

The custom of swarming is mentioned in one of the earlier books of Scripture. The reader will remember that, after Samson had killed the lion which met him on the way, he left the carcase alone. The various carnivorous beasts and birds at once discover such a banquet, and in a very short time the body of a dead animal is reduced to a hollow skeleton, partially or entirely covered with skin, the rays of the sun drying and hardening the skin until it is like horn.

In exceptionally hot weather, the same result occurs even in this country. Some years before this account was written there was a very hot and dry summer, and a great mortality took place among the sheep. So many indeed died that at last their owners merely flayed them, and left their bodies to perish. One of the dead sheep had been thrown into a rather thick

copse, and had fallen in a spot where it was sheltered from the wind, and yet exposed to the fierce heat of the summer's sun. The consequence was that in a few days it was reduced to a mere shell. The heat hardened and dried the external layer of flesh so that not even the carnivorous beetles could penetrate it, while the whole of the interior dissolved into a semi-putrescent state, and was rapidly devoured by myriads of blue-bottles and other larvæ.

It was so thoroughly dried that scarcely any evil odour clung to it, and as soon as I came across it the story of Samson received a simple elucidation. In the hotter Eastern lands, the whole process would have been more rapid and more complete, and the skeleton of the lion, with the hard and horny skin strained over it, would afford exactly the habitation of which a wandering swarm of Bees would take advantage. At the present day swarms of wild Bees often make their habitations within the desiccated bodies of dead camels that have perished on the way.

As to the expression "hissing" for the Bee, the reader must bear in mind that a sharp, short hiss is the ordinary call in Palestine, when one person desires to attract the attention of another. A similar sound, which may perhaps be expressed by the letters tst, prevails on the Continent at the present day. Signor Pierotti remarks that the inhabitants of Palestine are even now accustomed to summon Bees by a sort of hissing sound.

Whether the honey spoken of in the Scriptures was obtained from wild or domesticated Bees is not very certain, but, as the manners of the East are much the same now as they were three thousand years ago, it is probable that Bees were kept then as they are now. The hives are not in the least like ours, but are cylindrical vases of coarse earthenware, laid horizontally, much like the bark hives employed in many parts of Southern Africa.

In some places the hives are actually built into the walls of the houses, the closed end of the cylinder projecting into the interior, while an entrance is made for the Bees in the other end, so that the insects have no business in the house. When the inhabitants wish to take the honey, they resort to the operation which is technically termed "driving" by bee-masters.

They gently tap the end within the house, and continue the tapping until the Bees, annoyed by the sound, have left the hive. They then take out the circular door that closes the end of the hive, remove as much comb as they want, carefully put back those portions which contain grubs and bee-bread, and replace the door, when the Bees soon return and fill up the gaps in the combs. As to the wasteful, cruel, and foolish custom of "burning" the Bees, the Orientals never think of practising it.

In many places the culture of Bees is carried out to a very great extent, numbers of the earthenware cylinders being piled on one another, and a quantity of mud thrown over them in order to defend them from the rays of the sun, which would soon melt the wax of the combs.

In consequence of the geographical characteristics of the Holy Land, which supplies not only convenient receptacles for the Bees in the rocks, but abundance of thyme and similar plants, vast stores of bee-comb are to be found in the cliffs, and form no small part of the wealth of the people.

Reference to this kind of property is made by the Prophet Jeremiah. When Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had treacherously killed Gedaliah and others, ten men tried to propitiate him by a bribe: "Slay us not, for we have treasures in the field, of wheat, of barley, and of oil, and of honey" (chap. xli. 8). References to the wild honey are frequent in the Scriptures. For example, in the magnificent song of Moses the Lord is said to have made Israel to "suck honey out of the rock" (Deut. xxxii. 13). See also Psalm 1xxxi. 16: "He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee."

The abundance of wild honey is shown by the memorable events recorded in 1 Sam. xiv. Saul had prohibited all the people from eating until the evening. Jonathan, who had not heard the prohibition, was faint and weary, and, seeing honey dripping on the ground from the abundance and weight of the comb, he took it up on the end of his staff, and ate sufficient to restore his strength.

Thus, if we refer again to the history of St. John the Baptist and his food, we shall find that he was in no danger of starving for want of nourishment, the Bees breeding abundantly in the desert places he frequented, and affording him a plentiful supply

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