First, in a place, by nature close, they build A narrow flooring, gutter’d, wall’d, and til’d. In this, four windows are contriv’d, that strike To the four winds oppos’d, their beams oblique. A steer of two years old they take, whose head Now first with burnished horns begins to spread: They stop his nostrils, while he strives in vain To breathe free air, and struggles with his pain. Knock’d down, he dies: his bowels bruis’d within, Betray no wound on his unbroken skin. Extended thus, in his obscene abode, They leave the beast; but first sweet flowers are strow’d Beneath his body, broken boughs and thyme, And pleasing Cassia, just renew’d in prime. This must be done, ere spring makes equal day, When western winds on curling waters play; Ere painted meads produce their flowery crops, Or swallows twitter on the chimney tops. The tainted blood, in this close prison pent, Begins to boil, and thro’ the bones ferment. Then wond’rous to behold, new creatures rise, A moving mass at first, and short of thighs; Till shooting out with legs, and imp’d with wings, The grubs proceed to Bees with pointed stings: And more and more affecting air, they try Their tender pinions and begin to fly.[626] This absurd notion was also promulgated by the great English chronicler, Hollingshed; for, says this author, “Hornets, waspes, Bees, and such like, whereof we have great store, and of which an opinion is conceived, that the first doo breed of the corruption of dead horses, the second of pears and apples corrupted, and the last of kine and oxen; which may be true, especiallie the first and latter in some parts of the beast, and not their whole substances, as also in the second, sith we never have waspes but when our fruit beginneth to wax ripe.”[627] To conclude the history of this belief, the following remarks of the learned Swammerdam will not be inappropriate. He says: “It is probable that the not rightly understanding Samson’s adventure of the Lion, gave rise to the popular opinion of Bees springing from dead Lions, Oxen, and Horses; and this opinion may have been considerably strengthened, and indeed in a manner confirmed, by the great number of Worms that are often found during the summer months in the carcasses of such animals, especially as these Worms somewhat resemble those produced from the eggs of Bees. However ridiculous this opinion must appear, many great men have not been ashamed to adopt and defend it. The industrious Goedaert has ventured to ascribe the origin of Bees to certain dunghill Worms, and the learned de Mei joins with him in this opinion; though neither of them had any observation to ground their belief upon, but that of the external resemblance between the Bee and a certain kind of Fly produced from these Worms.”[628]