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In Egypt and the East: Herodotus

Turning from this rather ghastly pot of honey to that most delightful of ancient historians, Herodotus, we listen with interest to his description of a part of the ceremony by which sacrifices were prepared in Egypt: - "When they have flayed their steer they pray, and when their prayer is ended, they take the paunch of the animal out entire, leaving the intestines and the fat inside the body; they then cut off the legs, the end of the loins, the shoulders, and the neck; and having so done, they fill the body of the steer with clean bread, honey, raisins, figs, frankincense, myrrh, and other aromatics. Thus filled they burn the body, pouring over it great quantities of oil." We also hear from the same author of four wax figures that were put into a body that was being embalmed.

Wax was used for embalming purposes in different parts of the East, and Herodotus tells us the following: - When a king of Scythia dies "they dig a large square hole in the ground; and having prepared this, they take up the corpse, having the body covered with wax, the belly opened and cleaned, filled with bruised cypress, incense, and parsley and anise-seed, and then sewn up again, and carry it in a chariot to another nation."

To-day, as of old, Egypt prizes her bees, and we learn that "Bees are kept in Egypt, and their honey is much prized by the inhabitants, who usually eat it in a clarified state. It is inferior to that of England, and also to the famous Greek honey."