and filth, nor touch the rotten web. Nay, if any man donned the loathsome garb, feverish blisters and foul sweat would run along his fetid limbs, and not long had he to wait ere the accursed fire was feeding on his stricken limbs. LIBER IV PROTINUS aërii mellis caelestia dona exsequar. hanc etiam, Maecenas, aspice partem. MPR 5 Principio sedes apibus statioque petenda, quo neque sit ventis aditus (nam pabula venti ferre domum probibent) neque oves haedique petulci floribus insultent, aut errans bucula campo 11 decutiat rorem et surgentis atterat herbas. absint et picti squalentia terga lacerti pinguibus a stabulis, meropesque aliaeque volucres et manibus Procne pectus signata cruentis : omnia nam late vastant ipsasque volantis ore ferunt dulcem nidis immitibus escam. at liquidi fontes et stagna virentia musco adsint et tenuis fugiens per gramina rivus, palmaque vestibulum aut ingens oleaster inumbret, ut, cum prima novi ducent examina reges vere suo, ludetque favis emissa iuventus, vicina invitet decedere ripa calori, 15 21 11 campi P. 20 aut] atque P. BOOK IV NEXT will I discourse of Heaven's gift, the honey from the skies. On this part, too, of my task, Maecenas, look with favour. The wondrous pageant of a tiny world-chiefs great-hearted, a whole nation's character and tastes and tribes and battles-I will in due order unfold to thee. Slight is the field of toil; but not slight the glory, if adverse powers leave one free, and Apollo hearkens unto prayer. 8 First seek a settled home for your bees, whither the winds may find no access-for the winds let them not carry home their food-where no ewes or sportive kids may trample the flowers, nor straying heifer brush off the dew from the mead and bruise the springing blade. Let the spangled lizard with his scaly back be also a stranger to the rich stalls, and the bee-eater and other birds, and Procne,1 with breast marked by her blood-stained hands. For these spread havoc far and near, and, while the bees are on the wing, carry them off in their mouths, a sweet morsel for their cruel nestlings. But let clear springs be near, and moss-green pools, and a tiny brook stealing through the grass; and let a palm or huge wild olive shade the porch, so that, when the new kings lead forth the early swarms in the spring they love, and the youth revel in their freedom from the combs, a bank near by may tempt them to quit 1 i.e. the swallow. obviaque hospitiis teneat frondentibus arbos. 25 30 35 utraque vis apibus pariter metuenda; neque illae MP nequiquam in tectis certatim tenuia cera spiramenta linunt, fucoque et floribus oras explent, collectumque haec ipsa ad munera gluten 40 ungue fovens circum, et raras superinice frondes. 45 50 aut ubi odor caeni gravis aut ubi concava pulsu saxa sonant vocisque offensa resultat imago. Quod superest, ubi pulsam hiemem Sol aureus egit sub terras caelumque aestiva luce reclusit, 25 profluit P. 43 fodiere M1: fodere Ma. the heat, and a tree in their path may hold them in its sheltering leafage. In the midst of the water, whether it stand idle or flow onward, cast willows athwart and huge stones, that they may have many bridges whereon to halt and spread their wings to the summer sun, if haply the East-wind has sprinkled the loiterers or with swift gust has plunged them in the flood. All about let green cassia bloom, and wild thyme with fragrance far borne, and a wealth of strong-scented savory; and let violet-beds drink of the trickling spring. 33 Then, let the hive itself, whether it be sewn of hollow bark, or woven of pliant osier, have its entrances narrow; for winter with its cold congeals the honey, while heat thaws and makes it run. Either trouble is alike to be feared for the bees; nor is it to no purpose that in their homes they smear the tiny crevices with wax, fill the chinks with paste from flowers, and keep a store of glue, gathered for this very purpose, more binding than lime or the pitch of Phrygian Ida. Oft, too, if report be true, they have made a snug home in tunnelled hiding-places underground, and are found deep in the hollows of pumice rock, or the cavern of a decayed tree. Yet do you keep them snug, smearing the chinks of their chambers with smooth clay, and flinging thereon a few leaves. And suffer no yew too near the hive, nor roast the reddening crab at your hearth; and trust not a deep marsh or a place where the smell of mud is strong, or where the hollow rocks ring when struck, and the echoed voice rebounds from the shock. winter in 51 For the rest, when the golden Sun has driven rout beneath the earth, and with summer light unlocked the sky, straightway they |