Curious Customs and Beliefs 359 



Deborah, too, as we remember, in Hebrew means bee, 

 or "she that speaketh" — not as a nymph this time, but 

 as a prophetess. We still retain the name of Deborah, 

 but it is no longer significant of prophecy. 



Although the prophets of our day are popularly repre- 

 sented as having " a bee in the bonnet " this by no means 

 implies that we consider them possessed of the divine 

 frenzy of the ancient seers ! 



As in the Eastern world so in the Western, we find 

 many cities showing by their names the importance of 

 their bees, as Immendorf, Iramenstadt, Immenhausen, 

 Immenstaed, Immenstedt, Immendingen, Immnitz, etc., 

 from Imme a bee, and in Texas there is a town called 

 Beeville. 



The College of Bees at Oxford University, according 

 to Butler's " Feminin Monarchi," was " so called by the 

 founder in the statutes," and he adds, " whereupon Eras- 

 mus to the first president inscribeth his epistle thus : — 



"Erasm. Rot. Joanni Claymundo. CoUegii Apum Prae- 

 sidi." 



Butler also tells the following interesting story in connec- 

 tion with this college. 



"When, in a. d. 1520, Lodovicus Vives was sent by 

 Cardinal Wolsey to Oxford, there to be the public professor 

 of Rhetoric, being placed in the College of Bees, he was 

 welcomed thither by a swarm of bees : which sweetest 

 creatures, to signify the incomparable sweetness of his 

 eloquence, settled themselves over his head, under the 

 leads of his study ; where they have continued above one 

 hundred years. 



" The truth of this story appears as well by the general 

 voice of the house, which have received it by tradition ; 

 as by the special testimony of a worthy Antiquari of our 

 time : who affirms that he hath often heard his master, D. 



