PROPOLIS. 109 



exclusion of air, they wore obliged to be more lavish in the 

 use of their embnlmiiio- material, and to case over the 

 " sHme-girt giant," so as to guard themselves from his noi- 

 some smell. What moans more effectual coidd human wis- 

 dom have devised, under similar circumstances? 



243. In bygone days, it was a prevalent behef, that 

 when any member of a family died, the bees knew what 

 had happened ; and some were superstitious enough to put 

 the hives in mourning, to pacify their sorrowing occupants ; 

 imagining that, unless this was done, the bees would never 

 afterwards prosper ! * It was frequently asserted that they 

 sometimes took their loss so much to heart, as to alight 

 upon the coffin whenever it was exposed. A clergyman 

 told the writer that he attended a funeral, where, as soon as 

 the coffin was brought from the house, the bees gathered 

 upon it so as to excite much alarm. Some years after this 

 occurrence, being engaged in varnishing a table, the bees 

 alighted upon it in such numbers, as to convince him, that 

 love of varnish, rather than sorrow or respect for the dead, 

 was the occasion of their conduct at the funeral. How many 

 superstitions, believed even by intelligent persons, might be 

 as easily explained, if it were possible to ascertain as fully 

 all the facts connected with them ! 



344. CoMMBRCiAL UsES OF Peopolis. — " Dlssolved in alcohol 

 and filtered, it is used as a varnish, and gives a polish to wood, 

 and a golden color to tin. A preparation made withflnely-ground 

 propolis, gum arable, incense, storax, benzoin, sugar, nitre, and 

 charcoal, in quantities varied at will, is moulded into fumigating 

 cones, for perfuming rooms or halls." — (Duhini, Milan, 1881.) 



245. The following letter from a noted Russian Apiarist, 

 to Mr. E. Bertrand, editor of the Revue Internationale 

 d^ Apiculture, of Nyon, Switzerland, one of the most pro- 

 gressive bee-publications, will be found of interest: 



• Whittiur has -written a little poem entitled ' 'Telling the Bees," apropos of 

 their knowing of Bome one's death. 



