194 SUPERSTITIONS WITH REGARD TO BEES. 



the laws of Alfred the Great all bee-keepers were 

 bound to ring a bell when their bees were swarming, 

 to give notice to their neighbours of the fact.'* 



But by far the most curious superstition is that 

 which supposes some mysterious sympathy between 

 the bees and their owner when any death occui-s in 

 the family, and which makes it necessary to inform 

 the bees of the event, and to make them share in the 

 mourning. A writer in the Bee Journal says, ' A 

 person told me a few days ago that her grandfather, 

 who lived in Oxfordshire, had seventeen bee-hives, 

 and when he died the bees were not informed of 

 it, and the consequence was every one of the bees 

 died.' 



The usual practice is to ' tell ' the bees of the 

 death at midnight by tapping the hives and saying 

 So-and-so is dead,' and afterwards to pin a piece of 

 crape on each hive. 



And this old superstitious custom still lingers in 

 all parts of the country. Only the other day (1885) I 

 saw hives in Norfolk thus in mourning; but it is of 

 course a custom that will gradually die out as people 

 more and more learn the true principles of bee- 

 keeping, and the true reasons of success or failure. 

 The Rev. George Raynor, the well-known bee- 

 keeper, has given me the following story: — 'An 

 old " lady " in this parish, whose husband died a short 

 time ago, was about " to put her bees into mourning," 

 when I dissuaded her, showing her how foolish was 

 the idea that the bees could understand anything 

 about the death. During the following winter the 

 * Bee Journal, vol. iv. 



