192 APID^ — BEES. 



found it contained only his flonr, and no honey. This rob- 

 bery made him resolve to destroy no more Bees when their 

 honey was taken, considering their conduct in robbing him 

 of his property as a just punishment to him for his cruelty. 

 The gentleman who related this story, Mr. Campbell says, 

 was a witness to the Bees robbing the mill.^ 



An old English proverb, relative to the swarming of 

 Bees, is, — 



A swarm of Bees in May, 



Is worth a load of hay; 



A swarm of Bees in June, 



Is worth a silver spoon; 



A swarm of Bees in July, 



Is not worth a fly.^ 



In Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Husbandry, under 

 the month of May, are these lines : 



Take heed to thy Bees, that are ready to swarme, 

 The losse thereof now is a crown's worth of harme. 



On which is the following observation in Tusser Redivi- 

 vus, 1744, p. 62 : " The tinkling after them with a warming- 

 pan, frying-pan, kettle, is of good use to let the neighbors 

 know you have a swarm in the air, which you claim wherever 

 it lights; but I believe of very little purpose to the reclaim- 

 ing of the Bees, who are thought to delight in no noise but 

 their own." 



Ill fortune attends the killing of Bees, — a common say- 

 ing. Tliis, doubtless, arose from the thrift and usefulness 

 of these insects. 



That swarms of Bees, or fields, houses, stalls of cattle, or 

 workshops, may not be affected by enchantment, Leontinus 

 says: "Dig in the hoof of the right side of a sable ass un- 

 der the threshold of the door, and pour on some liquid 

 pitchy resin, salt, Heracleotic origanum, cardamonium, 

 cumin, some fine bread, squills, a chaplet of white or of 

 crimson wool, the chaste tree, vervain, sulphur, pitchy 

 torches; and lay on some amaranthus every month, and lay 

 on the mould ; and, having scattered seeds of different kinds, 

 let them remain."^ - 



1 Campbell's Travels in S. Africa, p. 339. 



2 Percy Soc. Public, iv. 99. 



3 Owen's Geoponika, ii. 109-10. 



I 



