346 النحل TRANSLATION FROM THE ARABIC. في الناد From a Zoological Dictionary, called Hayat Alhaywan, or Life of Animals, by Kemal-aldin Muhammad Aldamiri: he died in the year of the Hijrah, 808. a.d. 1405. THE BEE. "THIS is the honey-fly. I have already said, in what goes before in the chapter on Flies, that the prophet, on whom may God's benediction and peace rest, has declared, that all flies go to hell fire except the Bee. The dignity of the Bee is sufficiently established by the saying of the Most High God;—'The Lord spake by inspiration unto the Bee, saying, Provide thee houses in the mountains, and in the trees, and of those materials wherewith men build Hives for thee; then eat of every kind of fruit, and walk in the beaten paths of thy Lord,' (Coran: chapter, The Bee: see Sale's Coran, 4to. Edit. p. 219.) It is said, in a work entitled 'The Wonders of the Creation,' that the Bee is an intel TRANSLATION FROM THE ARABIC. 347 ligent animal, possessed of much cunning and courage, that it foresees consequences, is acquainted with the seasons of the year, with the rainy period and the time for the meadows, is very obedient and submissive to its governor and leader, and is an admirable artisan. Aristotle says, that Bees are of nine kinds, six of which visit each other. Its food is of the superabundance of sweet and moist matter with which the flowers and leaves are sprinkled; this it gathers and stores up, and this is the honey. It gathers also with this other moist matter, from which it makes the cells for the honey; and this matter is the wax which it gathers with its trunk, and places it upon its thighs, and shifts it from its thighs to its loins. So much says he. The Coran also shows that it feeds upon flowers, then turns this food in its stomach into honey, and then discharges the honey from its mouth and gathers it into its cells. The difference of the colour of the honey depends upon the difference of the Bees, and also of what they feed upon; its taste also differs according to the place where the Bee feeds. In providing for its means of living, when it finds a clean place, it constructs in it, its comb of wax first of all; then it constructs the cells which the kings are to inhabit; then the cells of the males, which do not labour at all, and are less in size than the females; they generally continue within the Hive, but if they fly, they go out altogether into the air, and then return to the Hive. The Bee makes the wax first, and then deposits in it the eggs, for this is the same to the Bee as a nest to a bird; and when it has deposited the eggs it sits upon them, and cherishes them in the same manner as a bird. The eggs then become white maggots; afterwards the maggot rises and eats, then afterwards it flies. "It is the practice of the Bee when it sees any thing corrupt in the king, either to depose him, or to kill him; and generally he is killed outside of the Hive. The king never goes out except with all the Bees; if then he be too weak to fly they carry him. One of the peculiarities of the king is that 348 TRANSLATION FROM THE ARABIC. he has no sting to sting with. The Bees assemble together and divide the work; some make the wax, and some the honey; others bring water, and others again build their cells. Their cells are some of the most wonderful things in the world, for they are built in hexagonal form, as though they had been constructed by a geometrical rule. They are formed in hexagons, without any difference of sides; and when they are joined together they form one piece; for of all the figures, from the triangle to the decagon, the hexagon is the only one of which the sides will join one to another and form one piece. All this is done without any rule or instrument; and this is the sign of the art of a clever and skilful creature; or, indeed, it is rather a sign of inspiration, as has been said by the Most High God (here he quotes again the passage of the Coran above cited). Stop, then, and consider, and admire the perfect obedience of the Bees, and the beauty of their compliance with the commands of their Lord. How they build their houses in these three,— in the mountains, and in the trees, and in the materials wherewith men build Hives for them; for the Bees never build their houses at all in any other than these three; and consider, moreover, how their houses are generally in the mountains, which are the first mentioned in the verse of the Coran; then in the trees, which are the next mentioned; and, last of all, they make their houses in the materials wherewith men build Hives for them less frequently than in any other. Look, then, how they yield the beauty of obedience even to the taking their houses before they eat; for they take them first, and when they have established their houses they go out and eat of the fruits, and then come back to their houses; for their Lord, to whose name be praise, ordered them to take their houses first, and then to eat afterwards." Here follows an extract from Zamakhshari,* very much The celebrated Mahmoud Zamakhshari, surnamed Jar-allah, or the Neighbour of God, died A.H. 538. A.D. 1143. TRANSLATION FROM THE ARABIC. 349 like the preceding, from the "Wonders of the Creation," by Kazwini.* "It is the nature of Bees to rob one another, and to fight with one another, and to sting whosoever approaches the Hive; it often happens that the sting is fatal. When any one of them dies the living ones throw it out of the Hive. It is the nature of Bees to be very clean; for this cause they throw their dung out of the Hives because it stinks. They labour during the season of spring and autumn; but that which they make in spring is the better. The small Bees are more industrious than the large ones. They drink water when it is sweet and clear, and they go to search it wherever it may be. They never eat more than just enough to satisfy them; and when the honey in the Hive becomes scarce they sprinkle it with water, out of fear lest it should fail; for when it does fail they destroy the cells of the kings, and the cells of the males, and often kill all that they find there." * Zakariyya Kazwini, who has been denominated the Pliny of the East, died A.H. 682. THE beautiful forest in which we were encamped abounded in Bee trees; that is to say, trees in the decayed trunks of which wild Bees had established their Hives. It is surprising in what countless swarms the Bees have overspread the far West within but a moderate number of years. The Indians consider them the harbinger of the white man, as the buffalo is of the red man; and say that, in proportion as the Bee advances the Indian and the buffalo retire. We are always accustomed to associate the hum of the Bee-Hive with the farm-house and the flower-garden, and to consider those industrious little animals as connected with the busy haunts of men; and I am told that the wild Bee is seldom to be met with at any great distance from the frontier. They have been |