MANNA.
No travellers in the East have given us much in formation respecting the treatment of bees, or any peculiar modes of preparing the honey.
Honey was not permitted to be offered on the altar (Lev. ii. t). As it is coupled with leaven in this prohibition, it would seem to amount to an in terdiction of things sour and sweet. Aben Ezra and others allege that it was because honey partook of the fermenting nature of leaven, and when burnt yielded an unpleasant smell—qualities incompatible with offerings made by fire of a sweet savour unto the I,ord. But Maimonides and others think it was for the purpose of making the difference be tween the religious customs of the Jews and the heathen, in whose offerings honey was much em ployed. The first-fruits of honey were, however, to be presented, as these were destined for the sup port of the priests, and not to be offered upon the altar.
Under the diffeient heads to which we have re ferred, the passages of Scripture relating to honey are explained. The remarkable incident related in Sam. xiv. 24-32, requires, bow ever, to be here noticed. Jonathan and his party coming to the wood, find honey dropping from the trees to the ground, and the prince extends his rod to the honeycomb to taste the honey. On this the pre sent writer is unable to add anything to what he has stated elsewhere (Pictorial Bible, in loc.), which is to the following effect :—First, we are told that the honey was on the ground, then that it dropped, and lastly, that Jonathan put his rod into the honeycomb. From all this it is clear that the honey was bee-honey, and that honey-combs were above in the trees, from which honey dropped upon the ground ; but it is not clear whether Jona than put his rod into a honcy-comb that was in the trees or shrubs, or into one that had fallen to the ground, or that had been formed there.
Where wild bees are abundant they form their combs in any convenient place that offers, particu larly in cavities or even on the branches of trees ; nor are they so nice as is commonly supposed in the choice of situations. In India particularly, and in the Indian islands, the forests often swarm with bees. The forests,' says Mr. Roberts, literally flow with honey ; large combs may be seen hanging on the trees, as you pass along, full of honey ' ( Oriental Illustrations). We have had good reason to con
clude, from many allusions in Scripture, that this was also, to a considerable extent, the case for merly in Palestine. Rabbi Ben Gershom and others indeed fancy that there were bee-hives placed ' all of a row' by the wayside. If we must needs have bee-hives, why not suppose that they were placed in the trees, or suspended from the boughs ? This is a practice in different parts where bees abound, and the people pay much attentioi, to realise the advantages which their wax and honey offer. The woods on the western coast of Africa, between Cape Blanco and Sierra Leone, and particularly near the Gambia, are full of bees, to which the negroes formerly, if they do not now, paid con siderable attention for the sake of the wax. They had bee-hives, like baskets, made of reeds and sedge, and hung on the out-boughs of the trees, which the bees easily appropriated for the purpose of forming their combs in them. In some parts these hives were so thickly placed that at a distance they looked like fruit. There was also much wild honey in the cavities of the trees (Jobson's Golden Trade, p. 3o, in Astley's Collection). Moore confirms this account, and adds, that when he was there, the Mandingoes suspended in this way straw bee-hives not unlike our own, boarded at the bottom, and with a hole for the bees to go in and out ( Travels into the inlana' parts of Afrita, Drake's Collection). As to the other supposition, that the honeycomb had been formed on the ground, we think the context rather bears against it ; but the circum stance is not in itself unlikely, or incompatible with the habits of wild bees. For want of a better re source they sometimes form their honey in any tolerably convenient spot they can find in the ground, such as small hollows, or even holes formed by animals. Mr. Burchel, in his Travels in South Africa, mentions an instance in which his party (Hottentots) obtained about three pounds of good honey from a hole which had formerly belonged to the weazel kind. The natives treated this as a usual circumstance, and indeed their experience in such affairs was demonstrated by the facility with which they managed to obtain the honey without being injured by the bees.—J. K.