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THE HONEY-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND. 59

better,—the harder, for spreading on linen, to apply to any
sore made by long confinement in bed. An excellent
ointment for a burn is made by dissolving a lump of
camphor in the oil before you add it to the wax. Remember
what I said about stirring.

Many other things may be made of waz—lip salve, &c.;
but I shall not stop now to give receipts for them, as
almost any old woman knows how to make them.

Now, to speak of the hses of honey : It will save you
many a sugar bill if you have plenty of it; and many a
bill for other things too. Excellent wine may be made
from it, which, when it has been kept for some few years,
can hardly be told from sherry. First-rate beer may be
made from honey, it is found to stand the maker at a penny a gallon.
And what hard working man can have any excuse for
sotting in a pothouse, when he can have a drink so
strengthening and wholesome as this, if taken in modera-
tion ; with his wife, too, to share it after the labour of the
day is over?

Mead or Hydromel.

This is of two sorts ; the weaker, and the stronger mead,
or metheglin.

If your mead be not strong enough by the refuse of your
combs, then put so much of your coarse honey into it as
will make it strong enough to bear an egg the breadth of
a twopence above the top of the liquor, which is sufficient
for ordinary mead ; and afterwards, till night, ever and
anon, stir it about the vat. If you would make a greater
quantity, then you must add a greater measure of water
and honey ; namely, six gallons of water to one of honey.
Some will boil this proportion of six to one, to four ; but I
think to five is very sufficient. The spices to this propor-
tion are cinnamon, ginger, pepper, grains of paradise,
cloves, of each two drams. The next morning, put to the
liquor some of the scum of the honey ; stir them together,
and stoop the vat a little backwards : when it hath settled
an hour or two, draw it off to be boiled : and when you see
the sediment appear, stop, and let the rest run into some

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