Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-01-09
TRADITION ABOUT BEES.
Thooe Insects Object to he Kept by a
Quarrelsome Family.


QuarreIsoms Family.
There is probably no insect in which
mankind takes more interest than the
bee. says the London Standard, and
there certainly is none around which
so many superstitions have clustered
from time immemorial. The impor-
tant part the busy little bee has ever
played in our domestic life, how It's
deeds have been sung by cur poets and
moralized on by our preachers, it is
not proposed to dilate on here; but
some of the current supersttions con-
nected with it, though very amusing.
may not be generally known. Pr
marily. qnarrelsome people, if inclined
to live in the country and keep bees,
are warned to mend their ways, or
their hives will soon become deserted.
Bees may be, and we believe are, very
pugnacious among themselves, bu9
they strongly object, so say the country
folk, TO belong to- a contentious house
hold. A querulous family, we are as
sured, will get no honey. keep as many
bees as they may. Another good ex-
ample set by them is that they object
to thrive If dishonesty come by; on
tho contrary. they forthwith pine away
and die. thereby showing highly
commendable respect for the eighth
commandment. And if they must not
be stolen, neither must they DO sold.
To sell them for money is considered q
most unlucky proceeding, but they
may be bartered away, and all will 40.
right.
A bushel of corn was always consid-
cred fair equivalent for swarm, or
small pig would be taken in ex--
change. SO long as the bees are bar
tered they are happy, but to be guilty
of selling them is grievous omen in.
deed, than which nothing can be more
dreadful" evidently their self-respect
is touched, and they refuse to work for
an owner who has bought them into
slavery. Their sympathy with man.
kind and his troubles were shown in a
variety of ways. 1t is common say
ing in Hampshire that bees do not suo-
coed at all in storing up honey When
ever there are wars abroad. A large
bee keeper says he has constantly
noticed this during the last European
wars. though ordinary people will re-
feet that they can not remember any
ticular times. But the most commonly
accepted belief is that the bees in cer-
tain cases share our troubles. and this
is more particularly noticeable in con-
nection with death.
In some districts the entrance of a
bumble-bee into a cottage is looked
upon as a certain sign of death, 'and in
others their swarming upon piece of
dead wood is regarded as equally ON
inous. A story is told of the wife of
respectable cottager, living in Sussex.
who died in childbirth. whose husband
accepted the blow quite philosoph-
ically, because he said they had been
warned of the event fortnight before
her confinement. The woman went
into the garden and saw that their
bees in the act of swarming. had made
choice of a dead hedge-stake for their
settling place. This is considered an
infallible token of approaching death
in the family, and in this instance it is
more than probable that the prediction
brought about it's own fulfillment.
Informing bees of death in the
family is a custom still. we believe,
practiced in many parts of England.
The necessary formalities were very
precise, and if they we're not fully con-
formed with the bees would certainly
take otfense and leave their hives
never to return. SO universal was the
custom few years ago that an inquiry
after a cottager's bees would OCCASION
ally elicit some such reply as this:
They have all gone away since the
death of poor Dick. for we forgot to
I. L. 1t. 4. ii
was gone dead" The answer would
be given with as much gravity as if
the speaker were relating how her hen
reost had been devastated by fox, or
her pigs had died of swine fever. IL
neighbors were talking of the death of
a friend some one in the company
would most likely wonder if the bees
had been informed of the sad circum-
stance, and would be comforted by a
reply in the affirmative, and that
piece of the funeral cake had been de.
posted in their hives. A correspond
ent writing on this subject says this
superstition is common among the
small farmers of Devon. He once
knew an apprentice boy sent back
from the funeral cortege by the nurse
to tell the bees Of it. as it had been for
gotten. and, to make up for the omis-
sion. little wine and honey was put
in front of the hives rs n solace to the
inmates in their presumable sorrow.
In some districts the country people GO
even further than this. Not only do
they. on a death occurring. deck their
apiaries with Grape after duly inform
ing the inmates of the cause. but they
invite the bees to the funeral.