SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING BEES. 171 



time will permit, and sometimes in addition tender a little 

 advice, to those willing to listen, upon their profitable 

 management. I was rather surprised to find all the hives 

 tenantless ; upon inquiring the reason why they were all 

 dead, I was informed it was because they had omitted to 

 remind them of her husband's decease. " They did not 

 die," she strenuously maintained, "but all forsook their hives 

 and went away." I had the greatest difficulty to persuade 

 her they had actually died during the previous winter or 

 spring from starvation. She scarcely credited what I said 

 even when I turned up the hives one by one and exhibited 

 the dead bees by thousands ; and, after all, when leaving 

 her garden, she declared I was for once mistaken, for the 

 bees must have gone away to some more hospitable place. 



In Switzerland, upon the death of any of the house- 

 hold, the hives even in the depth of winter are turned 

 upside-down when the funeral procession is leaving the 

 house for the churchyard. A rather amusing instance of 

 this superstition is narrated by Langstroth. The coffin 

 containing the deceased was left exposed for a time outside 

 the house, not far from the bees'-stand, on a hot summer's 

 day, when several bees alighted upon the coffin and com 

 menced a happy, cheerful humming sound (invariably 

 emitted when pleased). The relatives believed they were 

 mourning the death of their master. On the contrary, 

 they were delighted to find such a quantity of good pro- 

 polis oozing from the pine-wood, and perhaps their hive 

 just at the time stood in great need of this article. 



When conveying bees from one part of the country 

 to another they must not be carried over running water, 

 or they will assuredly die, or prove unproductive and 

 unprofitable. It sometimes is difficult to avoid, if carrying 

 them any distance, coming across a brook or other running 

 stream ; yet I have known them carried three or four 

 miles in a circular direction rather than go over any rivulet. 



