CHAP. 45.—MADDENING HONEY.
In the country of the Sanni, in the same part of Pontus,
there is another kind of honey, which, from the madness it
produces, has received the name of "mænomenon."
1 This
evil effect is generally attributed to the flowers of the rhododendron,
2 with which the woods there abound; and that people,
though it pays a tribute to the Romans in wax, derives no
profit whatever from its honey, in consequence of these dangerous properties. In Persis, too, and in Gætulia, a district
of Mauritania Cœsariensis, bordering on the country of the
Massæsyli, there are poisonous honeycombs found; and some,
too, only partly so,
3 one of the most insidious things that
possibly could happen, were it not that the livid colour of the
honey gives timely notice of its noxious qualities. What can
we suppose to have possibly been the intention of Nature in
thus laying these traps in our way, giving us honey that is
poisonous in some years and good in others, poisonous in some
parts of the combs and not in others, and that, too, the produce
in all cases of the self-same bees? It was not enough, forsooth,
to have produced a substance in which poison might be administered without the slightest difficulty, but must she herself
administer it as well in the honey, to fall in the way of so
many animated beings? What, in fact, can have been her
motive, except to render mankind a little more cautious and
somewhat less greedy?
And has she not provided the very bees, too, with pointed
weapons, and those weapons poisoned to boot? So it is, and
I shall, therefore, without delay, set forth the remedies to
counteract the effects of their stings. It will be found a very
excellent plan to foment the part stung with the juice of mallows
4 or of ivy leaves, or else for the person who has been stung
to take these juices in drink. It is a very astonishing thing,
however, that the insects which thus carry these poisons in
their mouths and secrete them, should never die themselves
in consequence; unless it is that Nature, that mistress of all
things, has given to bees the same immunity from the effects
of poison which she has granted against the attacks of serpents
to the Psylli
5 and the Marsi among men.