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In Egypt and the East: Palestine

Palestine is frequently referred to as a land flowing with milk and honey. In this way is expressed its extreme fertility and desirability as a place of abode, and it reminds us of the Arabic figure of fertility, - a man with his mouth to a honey-bottle.

The "chosen people" were frequently fed upon honey, and thus did the Lord provide for Jacob : - "He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock."

The food of John the Baptist while sojourning in the wilderness was locusts and wild honey, quite an epicurean diet could one but overcome an unreasonable occidental prejudice against "locusts."

When Christ had risen from the dead he appeared to his disciples and asked for food. "And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honey-comb. And he took it and did eat before them."

In the mystical language of the Revelation we read the following: - "And I went unto the angel and said unto him, 'Give me the little book.' And he said unto me, 'Take it and In Egypt and the East eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.' "And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey."

The following is a description of Palestine by a Sanebat from Egypt, the time supposed to be some 2500 years B. C. : "There were figs and grapes; its wine was more plentiful than water; abundant was its honey, many were its oil-trees, and all fruits were upon its trees; there, too, was barley and spelt, and cattle of all kinds without end." Palestine may be less of a garden than in those days, still, flowers and bees abound there, and the bees of the Holy Land are said to be a race distinct by themselves. Their near relation, the Syrian bees, whose home is north of Mount Carmel, have been brought to this country, where they have won the favor of the bee-keepers, who consider them among the best that have been imported to enrich our apiaries.