XIX 



CURIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS IN MODERN 

 TIMES 



The bees must still be told of a death in the family in 

 many parts of Europe and in certain out-of-the-way places 

 in our own country, where in earlier days the custom was 

 general. It afforded material for one of Whittier's most 

 beautiful poems, " Telling the Bees." 



" Before them, under the garden wall, 

 Forward and back, 

 Went, drearily singing, the chore-girl small, 

 Draping each hive with a shred of black. 



" Trembling, I listened; the summer sun 

 Had the chill of snow ; 

 For I knew she was telling the bees of one 

 Gone on the journey we all must go I " 



The song the chore-girl small was singing is this : — 



" Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence ! 

 Mistress Mary is dead and gone I " 



This recalls a similar prayer heard in Germany, and 

 which may thus be translated : — 



" Little bee, our lord is dead j 

 Leave me not in my distress." 



In England the custom of telling the bees is still general 

 in the rural districts. 



Not long since, a woman in Suffolk, when asked if she 

 had told the bees of the death of a relative, immediately 



