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In Egypt and the East: Hafiz

Again, the Turkish army having been defeated, the son of the defeated king blames his father for having undertaken the war, as the Persian army was so strong, - "For the world is not delivered of the race of Irij, and the noxious poison hath not been converted into honey." From the "Divan" of Hafiz we get the following: - "At her tyranny, I grieve not. For, without the thorn, The rose, none obtaineth; without the sting, the honey." This is a favorite idea with the poets of many nations, and Hafiz again uses it in one of his odes: - "At harshness I have ceased to grieve, for none to light can bring A rose that is apart from thorns, or honey void of sting." We miss in all this that simple joy in the flowers and bees that makes the Hindu literature so charming, and yet the saying of the Bedouins, when they wish to describe a region or a kingdom blessed by nature, that its inhabitant "sleeps with his mouth at a honey bottle," is sufficient proof of the estimation in which honey was held. And travellers tell us that to-day the Arab offers his guest a bowl of milk and a honeycomb for refreshment.

In the "Koran " too the sixteenth chapter is entitled "The Bee," and in it occurs the following address made by God to the bee, this creature being honored above all others by a direct command from the Lord: - "The Lord spoke by inspiration with the bee, saying, 'Provide thee houses in the mountains and in the trees, 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 colors, wherein is a medicine for men. Verily here is a sign unto people who consider."