186 APTD^ — BEES. 



knock, and repeat these words: "The master is dead, the 

 master is dead," else the Bees will fly away.^ This super- 

 stition prevails also in England, Lithuania, and in France.^ 



[Some years since, observes a correspondent of the Athe- 

 naeum, quoted by Brande, a gentleman at a dinner table 

 happened to mention that he was surprised, on the death of 

 a relative, by his servant inquiring " whether his master 

 would inform the Bees of the event, or whether he should 

 do so." On asking the meaning of so strange a question, 

 the servant assured him that Bees ought always to be in- 

 formed of a death in a family, or they would resent the 

 neglect by deserting the hive. This gentleman resides in 

 the Isle of Ely, and the anecdote was told in Suffolk ; and 

 one of the party present, a few days afterward, took the 

 opportunity of testing the prevalence of this strange notion 

 by inquiring of a cottager who had lately lost a relative, 

 and happened to complain of the loss of her Bees, " whether 

 she had told them all she ought to do V She immediately 

 replied, " Oh, yes ; when my aunt died I told every skep 

 {i.e. hive) myself, and put them 



"Into mourning." I have since ascertained the existence 

 of the same superstition in Cornwall, Devonshire (where I 

 have seen black crape put round the hive, or on a small 

 black stick by its side), and Yorkshire. It probably ex- 

 ists in every part of the kingdom The mode of 



communicating is by whispering the fact to each hive sepa- 

 rately In Oxford I was told that if a man and wife 



quarreled, the Bees would leave them.] ^ 



"In some parte of Suffolk," says Bucke, "the peasants 

 believe, when any member of their family dies, that, unless 

 the Bees are put in mourning by placing a piece of black 

 cloth, cotton or silk, on the top of the hives, the Bees will 

 either die or fly away. 



"In Lithuania, when the master or mistress dies, one of 

 the first duties performed is that of giving notice to the 

 Bees, by rattling the keys of the house at the doors of their 

 hives. Unless this be done, the Lithuanians imagine the 



1 Thorpe's North. MijthoL, iii. 161, 



2 Vide N. and Q. in Devon, v. 148; Essex, v. 437; Lincolnshire 

 iv. 270; Surrey, iv. 291; a Cornish supersdtion, too, xii. 38; 



Buckinghamshire, Sussex, Lithuania, and France, iv. 308. 

 3 Brande's Fop. Antiq., ii. 300. 



IQ 



