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In Egypt and the East

THE most fascinating records of the Egyptian bees are to be found in the hieroglyphics, those picture-writings that furnish the principal part of what we know concerning ancient Egypt.

As long ago as the fourth dynasty, nearly four thousand years B.C., the bee figured in the symbolical history of Egypt, for when under the reign of Menes the country was divided into Upper and Lower Egypt, the bee was the symbol of Lower or Southern Egypt, while the lotus was the symbol of the Upper or Northern country.

It is a quaint bee and a quaint lotus that play their parts for centuries as symbols in the history of the Land of the Nile.

The lotus and the bee standing side by side before the names of the kings signify jurisdiction over both parts of the country, and the bee alone, while it sometimes means a king, is also employed to express a people loyal and industrious, the following being the delightful sign for the country of Lower Egypt.

It is of interest to know that the bee as the symbol of kingly power appears upon the hieroglyphical portion of the famous Rosetta Stone.

The pleasing cartouche of Chufu, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, illustrates the method of inscribing a king's name.

Next in importance to the kingly office was oftentimes the office of the keeper of the treasury, and his title also contains the form of the royal and industrious bee, thus :

That the bee figured in the religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians would seem to be indicated by its presence in the symbol denoting one of the priestly orders, and also in that denoting one of this order of priests.