8 INSECTS. 



have been robbed, the bee-keeper immediately gives them 

 up, there being an old Breton proverb, " No luck after 

 the robber."* 



In Ireland, bees are considered " the luckiest things 

 at all," and an unfortunate house and unsuccessful dairy 

 have been known to go right from the moment of the 

 arrival of swarming bees. 



These "smallest among fowls" have found a place even 

 in heraldry. They were in the family arms of Urban VIII., 

 in whose pontificate Allatius wrote his Apes Urlana, 

 and in England "three bees volant, azure, on a ground, 

 or," are borne by the family of Bye, formerly the Saxon, 

 and still the Dutch name for the bee. 



The Ant, an insect of the same order as that to which 

 the bee belongs, is the subject of a curious superstition 

 in Ceylon, which is quoted by Messrs. Kirby and Spence 

 from Knox's " Ceylon." There is a species of black ant 

 there which " bites desperately, as bad as if a man were 

 burnt by a coal of fire ; but they are of a noble nature, 

 and will not begin unless you disturb them. Formerly 

 these ants went to ask a wife of the Noya, a venomous 

 and noble kind of snake ; and because they had such a 

 high spirit to dare to offer to be related to such a gene- 

 rous creature, they had this virtue bestowed upon them 

 that they should sting after this manner. And if they 

 had obtained a wife of the Noya, they should have had 

 the privilege to sting full as bad as he." 



Like the bee, the ant is present in representations of 

 the god Mithras, and Plutarch tells that it was used in 

 divination. 



We will turn now from these tribes of ruling, ruled, 



* Nesquet a chunche, varlearch ar laer. 



