That other
writers have alluded to the time when bees were first introduced into
Ireland, and that the migration of some birds thither, among others
the magpie, took place at a comparatively modern period. He does not
add, however, that Solinus states that the very dust of Ireland was
so distasteful to the bees, where they are now as much at home as in
Hymettus, that if it is scattered about their hives even in another
country they abandon their combs. Thus writes quaint Arthur
Golding:--
"There is not any Bee among them, and if a man bring of the dust of
the stones from thence, and strew them among Bee-hyves, the swarme
forsake ye combes."
Another misstatement of Solinus may be pointed out. He says:--
"The sea that is betweene Ireland and Britayne, being full of
shallows and rough all the yeere long, cannot be sayled but a few
dayes in the summer time."
With the following picturesque passage referring to the warlike
training of their children by the Irish, as recorded by a Roman
writer in the third century of the Christian era, we take leave of
Solinus, who we have no doubt was the author referred to by Montalvan
and Calderon under the name of "Solino:"--
"If a woman be delivered of a man childe, she layes his first meate
upon her husband's sworde, and putting it softly to his prettie mouth
gives him the first hansel of his sworde upon the very point of the
weapon, praying (according to the manner of their country) that he
may not otherwise come to his death, than in Battel and among
weapons.
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