Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/182

116 form in subterraneous cavities; and the honey is sour and somewhat bitter. The Tlalpipiolli, which is the sixth species, is black and yellow, of the size of the common bee, but has no sting."

He also adds, in a foot-note on page 68, the following statement: "The honey of Estabentùn is in high estimation with the English and French who touch at the ports of Yucatan; and I have known the French of Guarico buy it sometimes for the purpose of sending it as a present to the king."

Landa, in speaking of these festivals, makes particular mention of beekeepers, or keepers of beehives.

Third. A careful study of these plates of the Manuscript I think will satisfy any one that the bee is the insect' intended, although the figures are inexact.

Take, for example, the yellow figure in the middle division of Plate V*. The hair indicates that this is a female, and the long tongue shows it has a sucking apparatus. There can be but little doubt that it is intended as a representation of the queen bee, or Ahaulil-cab, "the queen of bees."

As but few particulars in regard to the festivals of the apiarists have been recorded we have but little to guide us in an attempt to explain the figures in these plates. Landa states in reference to them that "In the month Tzoz the bee-keepers (or masters of the hives) prepare themselves for the celebration of their festival in Tzec. * * * * They had for their patrons the Bacabs, especially Hobnil. They made at that time great offerings, particularly to the four Chacs, to which they presented four plates, with pellets of incense in each one and painted round the border with figures of honey [honeycomb?], in order to obtain an abundance by this feast."

Some of the figures appear to relate to the operations and incidents of the industry, as we have seen is true of those that refer to hunting and the hunters' festivals. We see here what appear to be their hives, either artificial—made for domesticated bees—or those cut from the tree containing the honey of the wild bees. Notice, for example, the figure in the hands of the female in the right of the lower division of Plate V*. The