in their mouths by a greedy deſire, or for eagerneſſe ſake. Now after the ſeauen ſtarres named Vergiliæ, be once riſen in ſight aboue our horizon, then do they hyde thē in their proper holes, ſo that they go ſeldome after abroade, vntill the Beanes doe bud, and if they happen to beginne at any tyme to flye abroade when as a fayre daye moueth them forwarde, then lacke they no ſuche dayes afterwarde, but occupy themſelues. And firſte they prepare and make their combes, which they faſhion into apt houſes, or rather celles of waxe, after this they haue yong, and then beginne they to gather hony. They liue alſo the longer by hauing their ſtings, for that once gone, or taken away, they dye forthwith through the lacke of their intrailes, whiche they loſe togither with their ſtings.
¶Who firſt taught the preparation and increaſing of Bees, and founde oute the vſe of Honny. Cap. ij.
THe reporte goeth, that one Ariſtomachus firſt founde out and taught the increaſing of Bees, whome Plinie writeth to be ſo earneſt in the ſame, that ſetting apart al other affayres, he only ſtudied night & day how he might beſt intreate and vſe Bees, according to their kinde. But others aſcribe this inuention to one Thaſsius, who (as they ſaye) deſerued no leſſe commendation, both for his diligence and ſkill among Bees: but this he ſpecially followed in the fielde, and that farre from the Towne. And of this the common people (as by a nickname) no more named him Thaſsius, but Agrius, for his wilde or rather ſtraunge life, whiche he then led in the fielde, Whome Plinie alſo affyrmeth to haue written a Booke of the increaſing and multiplying of Bees. And Columella ascribeth this inuention, to the inhabitaunts of the hill (named Hymetus) being in the Countrey of Attica, for there (ſaieth he,) was one Ericthonius, who taught (as mē write) the true and perfect ordering of thē: Plinie againe aſcribeth the inuention of Hony to one Ariſteus a man of Athens. Diodorus Siculus in the firſte Booke of hys makes, writeth, that Curetes, a people of Creta, did firſte finde
