CHAPTER V. INSECTS-REPTILES. The Bee — Ant — Spider — Butterfly — Moth — Dragon-fly — Fly — Daddy-longlegs- Gnat Snake Glow-worm - Cricket - Wasp - Flea - Ladybird- Toad. OUR forefathers, says Couch,* appear to have been amongst those who considered bees as possessing a portion "divinæ mentis"; for there is a degree of deference yet paid to them which would scarcely be offered to beings endowed with only ordinary animal instinct. Indeed, the varied kinds of superstitions connected with these remarkable little insects presuppose the idea that they possess a certain amount of understanding or instinct whereby they are able to take cognizance of things which otherwise they could not do. Thus, to remove bees on any day but Good Friday would, it is said in Cornwall, most certainly ensure their death. In Bedfordshire, it is by no means uncommon for the peasantry to sing a psalm in front of hives in which bees are not doing well, as afterwards they are sure to thrive. In Yorkshire there is a custom, which has been revived, more or less, by the country people, ever since the alteration of the style, *History of Polperro,' p. 168. of watching, on the midnight of the new and old Christmas Eve, by the beehives, in order to determine on the right Christmas from the loud humming noise which they suppose the bees will make when the birth of our Saviour took place. The sale of bees is considered by some a very unlucky proceeding; and they are not unfrequently transferred from one owner to another, with the tacit understanding that a bushel of corn-the constant value of a swarm-is to be given in return. In Sussex, we are informed, no one would think of buying a stock of bees, or of paying for them in anything else but gold or hay-half-a-sovereign is the usual price. Virgil's precept is followed everywhere :— "Tinnitusque cie, et matris quate cymbala circum;" the instruments used for ringing them down being generally the frying-pan and one of the house doorkeys. In allusion to this practice, we find the following remarks in 'Tusser Redivivus,' 1744, p. 62 :-"The tinkling after them with a warming-pan, frying-pan, kettle, is of good use to let the neighbours know you have a swarm in the air, which you claim wherever it lights; but I believe of very little purpose to the reclaiming of the bees, who are thought to delight in no noise but their own." Borlase, in his 'Antiquities of Cornwall,' tells us that "the Cornish to this day invoke the Spirit Browny, when their bees swarm; and think that their crying Browny, Browny, will prevent their returning into their former hive, and make them pitch and form a new colony. As to the time of their swarming, there are many rhymes, of which we give a specimen : "A swarm of bees in May A swarm of bees in June Is worth a silver spoon; A swarm of bees in July Is not worth a butterfly." Tusser, in his 'Five Hundred Points of Husbandry,' under the month of May, says: "Take heed to thy bees, that are ready to swarme, The losse thereof now is a crown's worth of harme." It is a common saying in Hampshire that bees are idle or unfortunate whenever there are wars. In Northamptonshire, a notion prevails that they will not thrive in a quarrelsome family. Stolen bees, too, will not flourish, but will by degrees pine away and die. In Suffolk it is looked upon as unlucky for a stray swarm of bees to settle on a person's premises, unclaimed by their owner. "Going to my father's house," says a correspondent of Chambers's 'Book of Days' (vol. ii. p. 752), one afternoon, I found the household in a state of excitement, as a stray swarm of bees had settled on the pump. A hive had been procured, and the coachman and I hived them securely. After this had been done, I was saying that they might think themselves fortunate in getting a hive of bees so cheap; but I found that this was not agreed to by all, for one man employed about the premises looked very grave, and shook his head. On my asking him what was the matter, he told me in a solemn undertone that he did not mean to say that there was anything in it, but people did say that if a swarm of bees came to a house, and were not claimed by their owner, there would be death in the family within the year; and it was evident that he believed in the omen. As it turned out, there was a death in my house, though not in my father's, about seven months afterwards, and I have no doubt but that this was taken as a fulfilment of the portent." In Cumberland, there is a popular notion that when bees die, their owner will soon die also. A vulgar prejudice prevails too in many places in England, that, when bees remove or go away from their hives, the owner of them will die soon after.* In Rutlandshire,† if a bee fly in at the window, it is a sure sign of a visitor. A superstition very prevalent, not only in this country but also abroad, consists in announcing to bees the death of their master, as unless this is done, it is believed they will either all die or desert the hive, and in some parts the hives are even put in mourning. Many curious anecdotes are told of the misfortune befalling bees where this practice has not been strictly adhered to. "A neighbour of mine," says a correspondent of the 'Book of Days' (vol. i. p. 753), *See Brand's 'Popular Antiquities,' 1849, vol. ii. p. 300. “bought a hive of bees at an auction of the goods of a farmer, who had recently died. The bees seemed very sickly, and not likely to thrive, when my neighbour's servant bethought him that they had never been put in mourning for their late master; on this he got a piece of crape and tied it to a stick, which he fastened to the hive. After this the bees recovered, and when I saw them they were in a very flourishing state; a result which was unhesitatingly attributed to their having been put into mourning." In the neighbourhood of North Bovey, Devonshire,* a similar belief still exists. "All of 'em dead, sir, all the thirteen! What a pity it is!" "What's a pity, Mrs.? "The bees, to be sure, sir. buried her husband, forgot to Who's dead?" Mrs. Blank, when she give the bees a bit of mourning, and now, sir, all the bees be dead, though the hives be pretty nigh full of honey. 'tis folks will be so forgetful!" What a pity Mrs. continued to explain, that whenever the owner or part owner of a hive died, it was requisite to place little bits of black stuff on the hive, otherwise the bees would follow the example of their owner. Mrs.'s husband, who listened while this scrap of folk-lore was being communicated by his wife, now added, "My wife, sir, be always talking a lot of nonsense, sir; but this about the bees is true, for I've seed it myself.” * Report of the Devonshire Association,' 1876, vol. viii. p. 51. |