From India also, but to which no special locality is assigned, come Apis Perrottetii, Apis lobata, as likewise Apis Peronii, which is equally native to the Isle of Timor. The honey produced by this last bee is yellow, more liquid than ours, and of a very agreeable flavour.
Thus science dissipates the popular supposition, that a multiplicity of the individuals of one species of this insect produces the tons of wax and the myriads of gallons of honey that are annually consumed.
Which of these bees first benefited the human race, in its primitive seat, and before the multiplication of mankind forced them to take divergent courses from the cradle of their birthrace, “to people the whole earth,” it is impossible to say. And it is equally impossible to conjecture whether, like man, they by this course of migration have assumed the features they now exhibit of distinctly different species; yet they do not vary so considerably among themselves as do many other creatures that have come under the direct influence of man,—the chief differences consisting in the comparatively slight distinctions of colour and of size, but which are sufficiently marked to constitute them good species.
The earliest manuscript extant, which is the Medical papyrus, now in the Royal Collection at Berlin, and of which Brugsch[[2]] has given a facsimile and a translation, dates from the nineteenth or twentieth Egyptian dynasty, accordingly from the reign of Ramses II., and thus goes back to the fourteenth century before our era. But a portion of this papyrus indicates a much higher antiquity, extending as far back as the period of the sovereigns who built the Pyramids, consequently to the very earliest period of the history of the world.
[2]. ‘Recueil de Monuments Égyptiens dessinés sur les lieux.’ In Three Parts. 4to. Leipzig, 1862.
It was one of the medical treatises contained within the Temple of Ptah, at Memphis, and which the Egyptian physicians were required to use in the practice of their profession, and if they neglected such use, they became responsible for the death of such patients who succumbed under their treatment, it being attributed to their contravening the sacred prescriptions. This pharmacopœia enumerates amongst its many ingredients, honey, wine, and milk; we have thus extremely early positive evidence of the cultivation of bees. That they had been domesticated for use in those remote times, is further shown by the fact mentioned by Sir Gardiner Wilkinson of a hive being represented upon an ancient tomb at Thebes.
It may have been in consequence of some traditional knowledge of the ancient medical practice of the Egyptians, that Mahomet, in his Koran, prescribes honey as a medicine. One of the Suras, or chapters, of that work, is entitled ‘The Bee,’ and in which Mahomet says:—“The Lord spake by inspiration unto the Bee, saying, ‘Provide thee houses in the mountains and in the trees [clearly signifying the cavities in rocks and hollows of trees, wherein the bees construct their combs], 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.’ There proceedeth from their bellies a liquor of various colours, wherein is a medicine for men. Verily herein is a sign unto people who consider.”
It is remarkable that the bee is the only creature that Mahomet assumes the Almighty to have directly addressed. Al-Beidawi, the Arabic commentator upon the Koran, whose authority ranks very high, in notes upon passages of the preceding extract, says, “The houses alluded to are the combs, whose beautiful workmanship and admirable contrivance no geometrician can excel.” The “beaten paths of thy Lord,” he says, “are the ways through which, by God’s power, the bitter flowers, passing the bee’s stomach, become honey; or, the methods of making honey he has taught her by instinct; or else the ready way home from the distant places to which that insect flies.” The liquor proceeding from their bellies, Al-Beidawi says, “is the honey, the colour of which is very different, occasioned by the different plants on which the bees feed; some being white, some yellow, some red, and some black.” He appends a note to where Mahomet says, “therein is a medicine for man,” which contains a curious anecdote. The note says, “The same being not only good food, but a useful remedy in several distempers. There is a story that a man once came to Mahomet, and told him his brother was afflicted with a violent pain in his belly; upon which the Prophet bade him give him some honey. The fellow took his advice; but soon after, coming again, told him that the medicine had done his brother no manner of service. Mahomet answered: ‘Go and give him more honey, for God speaks truth, and thy brother’s belly lies.’ And the dose being repeated, the man, by God’s mercy, was immediately cured.”
That the primitive Egyptians were familiar with the peculiar economy of the bee in its monarchical institution is proved by the figure of the bee being adopted as the symbolical character expressive of the idea of a people governed by a sovereign. This figure is frequently met with upon Egyptian sculptures and tablets, dating as far back as the twelfth dynasty; but upon these the bee is very rudely represented, being figured with only four legs and two wings; but upon a tablet of the twentieth dynasty the bee is correctly represented with four wings and six legs.
All these facts take us far back in the history of the bee. But the indication of a higher antiquity of its domestication may be traced in the Sanskrit, wherein ma signifies honey, madhupa, honey-drinker, and madhukara, honey-maker, the root of the latter signifying “to build.” Madhu has clearly the signification of our mead, thence we may thus trace an affinity, pointing to those early times, for the origin of a drink still in use amongst us. In Chinese mih, or mat (in different dialects) signifies honey, thus clearly showing a second derivation, in this Turonian term, from a more primitive language whence both flowed. In the Shemitic branch nothing analogous is to be traced. But this double convergence to a more distant point veiled in the obscurity of time, necessarily takes the domestication of the bee back also to that anterior period now only dimly traceable.