APID^ — BEES. 181 



Pindar, Apius Coraatus, Xenophon, and last of all Ambrose, 

 when their nurses were absent, had honey dropt into their 

 mouths by Bees, and so were preserved."^ 



In East Norfolk, England, if Bees swarm on rotten wood, 

 it is considered portentous of a death in the family.^ This 

 superstition is as old at least as the time of Gay, for, among 

 the signs that foreshadowed the death of Blonzelind, it is 

 mentioned : 



Swarmed on a rotten stick the Bees I spy'd 

 Which erst 1 saw when Goody Dobson dy'd.3 



In Ireland, the mere swarming of Bees is looked upon as 

 prognosticating a death in the family of the owner. 



In parts of England it is believed, that if a swarm of 

 Bees come to a house, and are not claimed by their owner, 

 there will be a death in the family that hives them.* 



It is a very ancient superstition that Bees, by their acute 

 sense of smell, quickly detect an unchaste woman, and strive 

 to make her infamy known by stinging her immediately. In 

 a pastoral of Theocritus, the shepherd in a pleasant mood 

 tells Venus to go away to Anchises to be v/ell stung by Bees 

 for her lewd behavior. 



Now go thy way to Ida mount — 



Go to Anchises now, 

 Where mighty oaks, where banks along 



Of square Cy pirns grow, 

 Where hives and hollow trunks of trees, 



With honey sweet abound, 

 Where all the place with humming noise 



Of busie Bees resound. 



Incontinence in men, as well as unchastity in women, was 

 thought to be punished by these little insects. Thus in the 

 lines of Pindarus : 



Thou painful Bee, thou pretty creature, 



Who honey-combs six angled, as the be, 



W^ith feet doest frame, false Phoecus and impure, 



With sting has prickt for his lewd villany.^ 



1 Theatr. Ins., p. 21-2. Topsel's Ilist. of Beasts and Serpents, p. 

 645, 905. 



2 N. and Q., vi. 480. 



3 Gay's Pastorals, v. 107-8. 



4 Chambers' Book of Days, i. 752. 



5 Plutarch, Nat. Quest., 30. HolL Trans., p. 831. 



