336 The Honey-Makers 



father's bees every morning ; as he once passed the hives 

 of bees in review he found the best and most beautiful 

 queen-bee missing. So he started out to find traces of 

 the lost one. He rode over the wide sea on a bridge, and 

 on the other side he saw the queen-bee yoked to a plough, 

 and a man ploughing a piece of land with her. 



It is noteworthy in connection with this tale that the 

 metamorphosis of a bee into an ox that draws the plough, 

 and thus brings fruitfulness to the earth, was a favorite idea 

 among the ancients. 



It was a common superstition among the northern and 

 western peoples that a child upon whom a bee setded in 

 sleep was a child of good fortune — a lucky child. 



In Finnish mythology there is an invocation to the bee, 

 imploring it to fly far away over the moon, over the sun, 

 near to the axis of the constellation of The Wagon, into the 

 dwelling of the creator, God, and bring back upon its wings 

 and in its mouth health and honey to the good, and wounds 

 of fire and iron to the wicked. 



There is a Circassian legend to the effect that divine 

 intervention was once used to preserve the race of bees 

 from destruction. Merime, the mother of the gods, could 

 not protect the bees when Indras, the god of thunder, was 

 angry with them, and they all perished but one which the 

 goddess concealed beneath her inmost garment, and from 

 which proceeded anew the race of bees. 



When the Circassians celebrated their principal festival 

 and brought off'erings — at which no female creature was 

 allowed to look — they repeated a prayer in which bees, 

 honey, and wax are mentioned, from which a few sentences 

 are here given : — 



" To him who has brought an off"ering may God give 

 prosperity and health ; to the children that come into the 

 world may he give money, bread, bees, cattle in abundance ; 



