158 The Bee People. 
and-so is dead,” and sometimes adds a little 
prayer to the bees not to leave. Some- 
times a piece of black ribbon or crape is 
tied on the hives. 
Whittier has written a beautiful poem 
called, “Telling the Bees,’ which I hope 
you will read. 
The ancients used to believe that the 
bee was given its marvellous habits by 
Jupiter, the king of the gods, because 
the bees fed him with honey when he 
was a baby and lay concealed in a cave, 
while his angry father searched for him. 
It seems that the gods had their troubles 
as well as human beings in those days, 
and Jupiter’s father, Saturn, who was king, 
was very much afraid of his own children. 
An oracle had told him that they would 
displace him; so he settled the matter, as 
he thought, by swallowing them as soon 
as they were born. 
This unfortunate habit greatly distressed 
Saturn’s wife, Rhea, and when Jupiter was 
