Incontinence in men, as well as unchastity in women, was thought to be punished by these little insects. Thus in the lines of Pindarus: Thou painful Bee, thou pretty creature, Who honey-combs six angled, as the be, With feet doest frame, false Phœcus and impure, With sting has prickt for his lewd villany.[620] Pliny says: “Certain it is, that if a menstruous woman do no more but touch a Bee-hive, all the Bees will be gone and never more come to it again.”[621] In Western Pennsylvania, it is believed that Bees will invariably sting red-haired persons as soon as they approach the hives. It is a common opinion that Bees in rough and boisterous weather, and particularly in a violent storm, carry a stone in their legs, in order to preserve themselves by its weight against the power of the wind. Its antiquity is also great, for in the writings of Plutarch we find an instance of this remarkable wisdom. “The Bees of Candi,” says this philosopher, “being about to double a point or cape lying into the sea, which is much exposed to the winds, they ballase (ballast) themselves with small grit or petty stones, for to be able to endure the weather, and not be carried away against their wills with the winds through their lightness otherwise.”[622] Virgil, too, about a century earlier, mentions this curious notion in the following lines: And as when empty barks on billows float, With sandy ballast sailors trim the boat; So Bees bear gravel stones, whose poising weight Steers through the whistling winds their steady flight.[623] Swammerdam, who has noticed this belief of the ancients, makes the following remarks: “But this, as Clutius justly observes, has not been hitherto remarked by any Bee-keeper, nor indeed have I myself ever seen it. Yet I should think that there may be some truth in this matter, and probably a certain observation, which I shall presently mention, has given rise to the story. There is a species of wild Bees not unlike the smallest kind of the Humble-Bee, which, as they are accustomed to build their nests near stone walls, and construct their habitations of stone and clay, sometimes carry such large stones that it is scarcely credible by what means so tender insects can sustain so great a load, and that even flying while they are obliged also to support their own body. Their nest by this means is often so heavy as to weigh one or two pounds.”[624] It was the general opinion of antiquity that Bees were produced from the putrid bodies of cattle. Varro says they are called Βουγόναι by the Greeks, because they arise from petrified bullocks. In another place he mentions their rising from these putrid animals, and quotes the authority of Archelaus, who says Bees proceed from bullocks, and wasps from horses.[625] Virgil, however, is much more satisfactory, for he gives us the recipe in all its details for producing these insects: