Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1854-06-28
Removed by death between Feb. s. Dec. 25
Thus bringing the family down to Feb nmb'r, 900
Great indeed Is the annual mortality in a

Thus bringing the family down to Feb. nmb'r, 5000
Great indeed is the annual mortality in
hive Of bees, but yet sufficient provision for
the perpetuation of the colony is made.
The race and realm from age to age remain.
Time still renewing with her links the chain"
The ancients had many fabulous notions
about b,es: They supposed that they were
not produc d in the ordinary mode, but by
an extraordinary process. Aristotle and
Plny were both OF this opinion. and Virgil,
who was, we suspect, more OF theorl>t
than a practical man, lnculcates the same
ID. as. The queen bee he calls king, and
says that they, The bees, do not bring forth
Young, but with their mouth Gull their pro-
yeny from leaves and fragrant herbs, and
thus raise up new king and little subjects.
building for them new palaces and waxen
realms. This is sufficiently fancIfnl; but,
IN addition, Virgil teaches US a marvellous
mode of managing the generation of bees,
which, as he asserts, will spring spontane-
pu.Iy from the tainted gore of young bull
lock, half strangIed and beaten to death,
and then laid upon bed oil aromatic herbs
aud with this receipt, and history Of its
discovery, he closes his Georges
We have heard much of the powers of
music, and the hum of bees has figured in
the pages Of poetry but bees, if they have
ears at all, must have them attuned for any
thing but the concord of sweet sounds that
is, if the popular prejudice of their being
delighted with an upIoar of horrid noises
has any foundation. The practice of ma
KING noise, by beating iron or sounding
instruments, while bees are swarming, in
order to induce the swarm to settle, is Of
great antiquity. Virgil says, when you be-
hold the swarm just issuing from the hive,
watch them attentively, "and raise tinkling
sounds, and clash the cymbals of Cybele
around" Cybele was worshipped by her
priests with tie sound of the drum, tabor,
cymbal, ETC., and it is probable that the IN
struments were sounded in order to induce
the mother of the gods. the daughter Of
heaven and earth, by this worship, to arrest
the flight OF the swarm, and give the new
colony all prosperity. If this view be cor
rect, the dscord of instruments was meant
only in secondary sense for The benefit Of
the bees, who were to be ruled in their
movements by the deity thus propiiated
But, as is often the case, custom continues
when the original motive which led to it is
passed away and forgotten-whiIe rev
reason for it becomes popular. Thus the
noise which was designed to please the ears
of Cybele continued to be made, after the
fall of her deityshp, to please the ears of
the bees! Was this custom-not yet opso-
lete-introduced by the Romans into Brit
ain, or was it practised by the ancient Brit
ons before the island became Roman pro-
vince That the ancient Britons kept bees
may be safely inferred from the fac; of me-
thegin prepared from honey being their fa-
vorite beverage indeed, Whitaker, in his
History Of Manchester" says that the
hives were made of close basket-work-a
manufacture in which the Brtons greatly
excelled.
That the hive-bee is social insect, and
necessarily so, is point on which we need
not insist. In state of nature, the hive
bee is not an inhabtant of dense forests or
woods, but gives preference to the open
country, 10 hills covered with thyme and
fragrant shrubs, to meadows and pasture
lands; the colony tenant the hollow tree
or the holes of rockg add caYens and at