Honey of the Maiden in La Antigua, GTA - BILINGUE- Miel de doncella

"Honey of the Maiden", "Miel de doncella"

As we were strolling along Calzada Santa Lucia in La Antigua we were approached by a woman in native Guatemalan garb offering us honey. Her demeanor was kind and not pushy so we tarried with her. Under her shawl she had a large store of bottled honey. It seemed like she had brought them with her from one of the nearby villages to sell near the market. We asked the price and she gave us two although the large one liter glass bottles were the same size. According to her one was the regular honey; the other, more expensive one, for Q35, was “de la doncella.” This term intrigued and amused me because my Spanish was good enough to grasp “the maiden.” I thought this lighter-colored honey was “of/for the maiden” or meant for virgins or young women as opposed to the darker-colored destined for male consumption.

Until another local woman disavowed me as I told my amusing story about my encounter with the indigenous woman selling “honey for the maiden.” She explained that “doncella” was the species of bees that produced that lighter-colored, sweeter and more liquid honey. So much for my ignorance! That poor, humble native woman had been right in offering us “miel de la doncella”, the superior class honey coming from that peculiar species of bee a rank above your regular big honey wild bees.                                                                                                                                                        

 La anciana indigena se nos acerco por la Calzada de Santa Lucia, no lejos del mercado. Bajo su chal en un bulto llevaba varias botellas de vidrio lleno de miel. Cuando preguntamos el precio nos dio 2 cifras; una para la miel ordinaria y otra para la miel "de doncella"... Yo crei que doncella significaba que la miel era para doncellas, esa palabras de castellano antiguo, para senoritas, virigenes.....

hasta que otra persona me dijo que las abejas que producian esa miel mas clara se llamaban "abejas doncella". Ai, !que ignorancia la mia!