In Christian and Mediaeval Times 335 



kneaded into a loaf with milk must then be laid in the fur- 

 row and another blessing pronounced. 



At one end of the furrow the ploughman must find a 

 jar of honey, at the other end a jar of milk. 



In a Wallachian legend the bee appears as a messenger 

 of God, sent by him, when he was in the act of making the 

 world, to the Devil to ask whether it would be better to 

 create only one, or more, suns. 



While the Devil was thinking it over, the bee placed itself 

 upon his head and so became possessed of his secret 

 thoughts. 



The Devil concluded that if more than one sun were 

 created the earth would be so hot that hell beneath would 

 not be needed, or that night would be turned into day, 

 whence the works of darkness would no longer be possible 

 in this glare of light. He declared therefore for the crea- 

 tion of but one sun. 



When the bee flew to take the answer back to God the 

 Devil discovered that it had been sitting upon his head and 

 had read his thoughts. 



Then in anger raised he his scourge against the forth- 

 flying bee, and struck it on the body. Through this blow 

 the bee received its cut-in-two form, and the black rings 

 on the hinder part of the body. Before this, so the legend 

 runs, the bee, as the servant of God, had been as white as 

 snow. The bee is yet called by the Wallachians " albina." 



The following is a Servian legend. 



A boy once met the Devil and after being teased and 

 cheated by him a number of times the Devil proposed that 

 they should tell lies for a wager. 



The Devil being the oldest took the lead and told a 

 number of preposterous stories. This did not trouble the 

 boy, who found himself prepared with quite as remarkable 

 answers. He told how in his youth he had examined his 



