144 MAY. 



country people say, charms them down. They 

 alight, or rather the queen-bee alights, upon 

 the end of a bough, and the rest of the bees 

 clustering, or as it is termed knitting, about 

 her, form a living, brown, dependent cone. 

 Beneath this some adroit operator spreads a 

 cloth (upon a table if one can be had) and 

 holding an empty hive inverted under the 

 swarm, suddenly shakes them into it, and 

 places it, with all the captive colony in it, upon 

 the cloth. In this state they are conveyed to 

 the place they are intended to occupy, and the 

 following morning they are found to have 

 taken kindly to their new dwelling. They 

 will frequently fix themselves in the roofs of 

 houses. 



It is a superstition common both in France 

 and in this country, to announce to the bees 

 the death of the master of the family ; in some 

 places, of any individual of the family, or it is 

 believed, the bees would die, or fly away. . It 

 is also reckoned unlucky to sell bees, in some 

 places, and for this reason when a person parts 

 with a hive, he will not receive its value in 

 money, but stipulates for a certain part of its 

 produce. 



