There are other trees, again, which should be planted as near the hives as possible, as they attract the swarm when it first wings its flight, and so prevent the bees from wandering to any considerable distance.
CHAP. 42.—THE MALADIES OF BEES, AND THE REMEDIES FOR THEM.
The greatest care, too, should be taken to keep the cornel[2106] at a distance from the hives; for if the bees once taste the blossoms of it, they will speedily die of flux and looseness. The best remedy in such case is to give them sorb apples beaten up with honey, or else human urine or that of oxen, or pomegranate seeds moistened with Aminean[2107] wine. It is a very good plan, too, to plant broom about the hives, the bees being extremely fond of the blossoms.
CHAP. 43.—THE FOOD OF BEES.
In relation to the food of bees, I have ascertained a very singular fact, and one that well deserves to be mentioned. There is a village, called Hostilia, on the banks of the river Padus: the inhabitants of it, when food[2108] fails the bees in their vicinity, place the hives in boats and convey them some five miles up the river in the night. In the morning the bees go forth to feed, and then return to the boats; their locality being changed from day to day, until at last, as the boats sink deeper and deeper in the water, it is ascertained that the hives are full, upon which they are taken home, and the honey is withdrawn.
(13.) In Spain, too, for the same purpose, they have the hives carried from place to place on the backs of mules.
CHAP. 44.—POISONED HONEY, AND THE REMEDIES TO BE EMPLOYED BY THOSE WHO HAVE EATEN OF IT.
Indeed, the food of bees is of the very greatest importance, as it is owing to this that we meet with poisonous[2109] honey even. At Heraclia[2110] in Pontus, the honey is extremely pernicious in certain years, though it is the same bees that make it at other times. Authors, however, have not informed us from what flowers this honey is extracted; we shall, therefore, take this opportunity of stating what we have ascertained upon the subject.
There is a certain plant which, from the circumstance that it proves fatal to beasts of burden, and to goats in particular, has obtained the name of “ægolethron,”[2111] and the blossoms of which, steeped in the rains of a wet spring, contract most noxious properties. Hence it is that it is not every year that these dangerous results are experienced. The following are the signs of the honey being[2112] poisonous: it never thickens, the colour is redder than usual, and it emits a peculiar smell which immediately produces sneezing; while, at the same time, it is more weighty than a similar quantity of good honey. Persons, when they have eaten of it, throw themselves on the ground to cool the body, which is bathed with a profuse perspiration. There are numerous remedies, of which we shall have occasion to speak in a more appropriate place;[2113] but as it will be as well to mention some of them on the present occasion, by way of being provided for such insidious accidents, I will here state that old honied wine is good, mixed with the finest honey and rue; salt meats, also, taken repeatedly in small quantities, and as often brought up again.
It is a well-known fact that dogs, after tasting the excretions of persons suffering from these attacks, have been attacked with similar symptoms, and have experienced the same kind of pains.