Curious Customs and Beliefs 351 



" Among those who were present at the discovery was 

 Jean Jacques Chifflet, at that time physician to the Arch- 

 duke Leopold, Governor of the Netherlands. Chifflet was 

 charged by the Archduke to write an account of the dis- 

 covery, and in his opinion these golden insects had been em- 

 ployed as the decorations of the royal mantle (Childeric's), 

 which very possibly was the case. But Chifflet went further 

 and declared that in these insects was to be found the 

 origin of the fleur-de-lis. This statement occasioned a 

 great literary controversy, and the assertion was very hotly 

 contested by Tristan de St. Armand (Traitd du Lis, 1656), 

 and later by that celebrated antiquarian Montfaucon, in" his 

 great work. 



" The Emperor Napoleon, whose ambition it was to pose 

 in some sort as the successor of princes anterior to the line 

 of Capet, assumed these bees as the badge of his new 

 empire, and, as has been stated, caused them to be largely 

 employed among its heraldic insignia." 



These bees appear upon Napoleon's coronation mantle 

 and upon that of the Empress Josephine, as well as in 

 tapestries and other decorations of the imperial palace. 



They appeared upon the imperial arms and the arms of 

 those high in ofiSce, and replaced the lilies of France in the 

 arras of Paris and other French cities. 



Later these bees were looked upon by some of 

 Napoleon's followers as omens of evil. 



Bees appear on the coats of arms of many European 

 families and " Beehives with bees flying around them occur 

 in some very modem coats, and, though improperly, as 

 crests." 



A beehive stands over the entrance to Brigham Young's 

 house, and the same symbol is to be seen everywhere 

 throughout Salt Lake City, expressive of Mormon thrift and 

 industry. 



