“_Paulus Jovius_ affirmeth that in _Muscovia_, there are found in the
woods & wildernesses great lakes of honey, which the Bees have forsaken,
in the hollow truncks of marvelous huge trees. In so much that hony &
waxe are the most certaine commodities of that countrie. Where, by that
occasion, he setteth down the storie reported by _Demetrius_ a
_Muscovite_ ambassador sent to Rome. A neighbor of mine (saith he)
searching in the woods for hony slipt downe into a great hollow tree,
and there sunk into a lake of hony vp to his brest: where when he had
stucke faste two daies calling and crying out in vaine for helpe,
because no bodie in the meane while came nigh that solitarie place; at
length when he was out of all hope of life, hee was strangely delivered
by the means of a great beare: which coming thither about the same
businesse that he did, and smelling the hony stirred with his striving,
clambered vp to the top of the tree, & thence began to let himselfe
downe backward into it. The man bethinking himself, and knowing the
worst was but death, which in that place he was sure of, beclipt the
beare fast with both his hands aboit the loines, and withall made an
outcry as lowd as he could. The beare being thus sodainely affrighted,
what with the handling, & what with the noise, made vp againe withal
speed possible: the man held, & the beare pulled, vntil with main force
he had drawne _Dun out of the mire_: & then being let go, away he trots
_more afeard than hurt_, leaving the smeered swaine in a joyful
feare.”[675]
By the Chinese writers, the composition of the characters for the Bee,
Ant, and Mosquito, respectively, denote the awl insect, the _righteous_
insect, and the _lettered_ insect; referring thereby to the sting of the
first, the orderly marching and subordination of the second, and the
letter-like markings on the wings of the last.[676]
In May, 1653, the remains of Childeric, King of the Franks, who died
A.D. 481, and was buried at Tournay, were discovered; and among the
medals, coins, and books, which were found in his tomb, were also found
above three hundred figures of, as Chiflet says, Bees, all of gold. Some
of these figures were toads, crescents, lilies, spear-heads, and such
like, but Chiflet, after much labor and research, was fully convinced
they were Bees; and, more than that, determines them to be the source
whence the _Fleur de lis_ in the Arms of France were afterward derived.
Montfaucon, however, did not hesitate to say they were nothing more than
ornaments of the horse-furniture.[677]
Napoleon I. and II. are said to have had their imperial robes
embroidered with golden Bees, as claiming official descent from Carolus
Magnus, who is said to have worn them on his coat of arms.[678]
On a Continental forty-five dollar bill, issued on the 14th of January,
1779, is represented an Apiary in which two Beehives are visible, and
Bees are seen swarming about. The motto is “Sic floret Respublica--Thus
flourishes the Republic.” It conveys the simple lesson that by industry
and frugality the Republic would prosper.[679]
Bees in the heroic ages it appears were not confined in hives; for,
whenever Homer describes them, it is either where they are streaming
forth from a rock,[680] or settling in bands and clusters on the spring
flowers. Hesiod, however, soon after makes mention of a hive where he is
uncourteously comparing women to drones:
As when within their well-roof’d hives the Bees
Maintain the mischief-working drones at ease,
Their task pursuing till the golden sun
Down to the western wave his course hath run,
Filling their shining combs, while snug within
Their fragrant cells, the drones, with idle din
As princes revel o’er their unpaid bowls,
On others’ labors cheer their worthless souls.[681]
It may be surprising to many to know that Bees were not originally
natives of this country. But such is the case; the first planters never
saw any. The English first introduced them into Boston, and in 1670,
they were carried over the Alleghany Mountains by a hurricane.[682]
Since that time, it has been remarked they betray an invariable tendency
for migrating southward.[683]
Bees for a long time were known to our Indians by the name of “English
Flies;”[684] and they consider them, says Irving, as the harbinger of
the white man, as the buffalo is of the red man, and say that in
proportion as the Bee advances, the Indian and the buffalo retire.[685]
Longfellow, in his Song of Hiawatha, in describing the advent of the
European to the New World, makes his Indian warrior say of the Bee and
the white clover:
Wheresoe’er they move, before them
Swarms the stinging fly, the Ahmo,
Swarms the Bee, the honey-maker;
Wheresoe’er they tread, beneath them
Springs a flower unknown among us,
Springs the White Man’s Foot in blossom.
Many Apiarians contend that newly-settled countries are most favorable
to the Bee; and an old German adage runs thus:
Bells’ ding dong,
And choral song,
Deter the bee
From industry:
But hoot of owl,
And “wolf’s long howl”
Incite to moil
And steady toil.[686]
Hector St. John, in his Letters, gives the following curious account of
the method which he employed in discovering Bees in our woods in early
times: Provided with a blanket, some provisions, wax, vermilion, honey,
and a small pocket compass, he proceeded to such woods as were at a
considerable distance from the settlements. Then examining if they
abounded with large trees, he kindled a small fire on some flat stones,
close by which putting some wax, and, on another stone near by, dropping
distinct drops of honey, which he encircled with the vermilion. He then
retired to carefully watch if any Bees appeared. The smell of the burnt
wax, if there were any Bees in the neighborhood, would unavoidably
attract them; and, finding the honey, would necessarily become tinged
with the vermilion, in attempting to get at it. Next, fixing his
compass, he found out the direction of the hives by the flight of the
loaded Bees, which is invariably straight when they are returning home.
Then timing with his watch the absence of the Bee till it would come
back for a second load, and recognizing it by the vermilion, he could
generally guess pretty closely to the distance traversed by it in the
given time. Knowing then the direction and the probable distance, he
seldom failed in going directly to the right tree. In this way he
sometimes found as many as eleven swarms in one season.[687]
The shepherds of the Alps, as we learn from Sausure quoted in the Insect
Miscellanies, as soon as the snows are melted on the sides of the
mountains, transfer their flocks from the valleys below to the fresh
pasture revived by the summer sun, in the natural parterres and patches
of meadow-land formed at the foot of crumbling rocks, and sheltered by
them from mountain storms; and so difficult sometimes is this transfer
to be accomplished, that the sheep have to be slung by means of ropes
from one cliff to another before they can be stationed on the little
grass-plot above.[688] A similar artificial migration (if we may use the
term), continues the author of the Miscellanies, is effected in some
countries by the proprietors of Beehives, who remove them from one
district to another, that they may find abundance of flowers, and by
this means prolong the summer. Sometimes this transfer is performed by
persons forming an ambulatory establishment, like that of a gipsy horde,
and encamping wherever flowers are found plentiful. Bee-caravans of this
kind are reported to be not uncommon in some districts of Germany;[689]
and in parts of Greece,[690] Italy, and France,[691] the transportation
of Bees was practiced from very early times. But a more singular
practice in such transportation was to set the Beehives afloat in a
canal or river, and we are informed that, in France, one Bee-barge was
built of capacity enough for from sixty to one hundred hives, and by
floating gently down the river, the Bees had an opportunity of gathering
honey from the flowers along the banks.[692]
An instance of Bees being kept in this singular manner is found in the
following quotation from the London Times, 1830: “As a small vessel was
proceeding up the Channel from the coast of Cornwall, and running near
the land, some of the sailors observed a swarm of Bees on an island;
they steered for it, landed, and took the Bees on board; succeeded in
hiving them immediately, and proceeded on their voyage; as they sailed
along shore, the Bees constantly flew from the vessel to the land, to
collect honey, and returned again to their moving hive; and this was
continued all the way up the Channel.”[693]
In Lower Egypt, observes M. Maillet in his Description of Egypt, where
the blossoming of flowers is about six weeks later than in the upper
districts, the practice of transporting Beehives is much followed. The
hives are collected from different villages along the banks, each being
marked and numbered by individual proprietors, to prevent future
mistakes. They are then arranged in pyramidal piles upon the boats
prepared to receive them, which, floating gradually down the river, and
stopping at certain stages of their passage, remain there a longer or a
shorter time, according to the produce afforded by the surrounding
country within two or three leagues. In this manner the Bee-boats sail
for three months; the Bees, having culled the honey of the
orange-flowers in the Said, and of the Arabian jasmine and other flowers
in the more northern parts, are brought back to the places whence they
had been carried. This procures for the Egyptians delicious honey and
abundance of wax. The proprietors in return pay the boatmen a recompense
proportioned to the number of hives which have been thus carried about
from one extremity of Egypt to the other.[694] The celebrated traveler
Niebuhr saw upon the Nile, between Cairo and Damietta, a convoy of 4000
hives in their transit from Upper Egypt to the coast of the Delta.[695]
In the Bienenzeitung for 1854, p. 83, appears the following statements:
“Mr. Kaden, of Mayence, thinks that the range of the Bee’s flight does
not usually extend more than three miles in all directions. Several
years ago, a vessel, laden with sugar, anchored off Mayence, and was
soon visited by the Bees of the neighborhood, which continued to pass to
and from the vessel from dawn to dark. One morning, when the Bees were
in full flight, the vessel sailed up the river. For a short time, the
Bees continued to fly as numerously as before; but gradually the number
diminished, and, in course of half an hour, all had ceased to follow the
vessel, which had, meanwhile, sailed more than four miles.”[696]
Aristomachus of Soli, says Pliny, made Bees his exclusive study for a
period of fifty-eight years; and Philiocus, the Thracian, surnamed
Agrius--“Wildman”--passed his life in desert spots tending swarms of
Bees.[697]
Schomburgk says he saw, in his journey to the sources of the Takutu, an
Indian, who was the conjuror or piaiman of his tribe, merely approach a
nest of the wild Wampang-bees (_Wampisiana camniba_), and knocking with
his fingers against it, drive out all the Bees without a single one
injuring him. The piaiman, Schomburgk remarks, drew his fingers under
the pits of his arms before he knocked against the hive.[698]
Brue, in his first voyage to Siratic, in Africa, met with what he called
a “phenomenon” in a person entitling himself the “King of the Bees.” His
majesty accordingly came to the boat of the traveler entirely covered
with these insects, and followed by thousands, over which he appeared to
exercise the most absolute authority. These Bees were never known to
injure either himself or those whom he took under his protection.[699]
Mr. Wildman, the most celebrated Bee-tamer, frequently asserted that
armed with his friendly Bees he was defensible against the fiercest
mastiffs; and, it is said, he actually did, at Salisbury, encounter
three yard-dogs one after the other. The conditions of the engagement
were, that he should have notice of the dog being set at him.
Accordingly the first mastiff was set loose; and as he approached the
man, two Bees were detached, which immediately stung him, the one on the
nose, the other on the flank; upon receiving the wounds, the dog retired
very much daunted. After this, the second dog entered the lists, and was
foiled with the same expedition as the first. The third dog was at last
brought against the champion, but the animal observing the ill success
of his brethren, would not attempt to sustain a combat; so, in a
cowardly manner, he retired with his tail between his legs.
Many other remarkable anecdotes are told of this gentleman, illustrating
his wonderful control over Bees. He could also, indeed, tame wasps and
hornets, with almost the same ease as he could Bees, and an instance is
mentioned of his hiving a nest of hornets which hung at the top of the
inside of a high barn. He, however, was stung twice in this undertaking.
Mr. Wildman frequently exhibited himself with his head and face almost
covered with Bees, and with such a swarm of them hanging down from his
chin as to resemble a venerable beard. In this extraordinary dress he
was once brought through the City of London sitting in a chair. Before
Earl Spencer, Mr. Wildman also made many wonderful performances.[700]
Says Dr. Evans:
Such was the spell, which round a Wildman’s arm
Twined in dark wreaths the fascinated swarm,
Bright o’er his breast the glittering legions led,
Or with a living garland bound his head.
His dexterous hand, with firm but hurtless hold,
Could seize the chief, known by her scales of gold,
Prune, ’mid the wondering throng, her filmy wing,
Or o’er her folds the silken fetter fling.[701]
“Long experience has taught me,” says Mr. Wildman himself, “that as soon
as I turn up a hive, and give some taps on the sides and bottom, the
queen immediately appears. Being accustomed to see her, I readily
perceive her at the first glance; and long practice has enabled me to
seize her instantly, with a tenderness that does not in the least
endanger her person. Being possessed of her, I can, without exciting any
resentment, slip her into my other hand, and returning the hive to its
place, hold her, till the Bees, missing her, are all on the wing and in
the utmost confusion.” It was then, by placing the queen in view, he
could make them light wherever he pleased, from their great attachment
to her, and sometimes using a word of command to mystify the spectators,
he would cause them to settle on his head, and to hang to his chin like
a beard, from which he would order them to his hand, or to an adjacent
window. But, however easy such feats may appear in theory, Mr. Wildman
cautions (probably with a view to deter rivals) those who are
inexperienced not to put themselves in danger of attempting to imitate
him. A liberated Roman slave, C. F. Cnesinus, being accused before the
tribunals of witchcraft, because his crops were more abundant than
those of his neighbors, produced as his witnesses some superior
implements of husbandry, and well fed oxen, and pointing to them said:
“These, Romans! are my instruments of witchcraft; but I cannot show you
my toil, my perseverance, and my anxious cares.” “So,” says Wildman,
“may I say, These, Britons! are my instruments of witchcraft; but I
cannot show you my hours of attention to this subject, my anxiety and
care for these useful insects; nor can I communicate to you my
experience acquired during a course of years.”[702]
Butler mentions two instances where the stings of Bees have been fatal
to “cattaile”:
“A horse,” he informs us, “in the heate of the day looking over a hedge,
on the other side whereof was a staule of Bees, while hee stood nodding
with his head, as his manner is, because of the flies, the Bees fell
vpon him and killed him. Likewise I heard of a teeme that stretching
against a hedge overthrew a staule on the other side, and so two of the
horses were stung to death.”[703]
Mungo Park and his party were twice seriously attacked by large swarms
of Bees. The first attack is mentioned in the account of his first
journey; the second in the account of his second. The latter singular
accident befell them in 1805, and is thus narrated in his journal: The
coffle had halted at a creek, and the asses had just been unloaded, when
some of his guide Isaaca’s people, being in search of honey,
unfortunately disturbed a large swarm of Bees near their resting-place.
The Bees came out in immense numbers, and attacked men and beasts at the
same time. Luckily, most of the asses were loose, and galloped up the
valley; but the horses and people were very much stung, and obliged to
scamper off in all directions. The fire which had been kindled for
cooking, being deserted, spread, and set fire to the bamboos, and the
baggage had like to have been burned. In fact, for half an hour the Bees
seemed to have completely put an end to the journey. In the evening when
they became less troublesome, and the cattle could be collected, it was
found that many of them were very much stung, and swollen about the
head. Three asses were missing; one died in the course of the evening,
and one next morning, and they were forced to leave one behind the next
day. Altogether six were lost, besides which, the guide lost his horse,
and many of the people were much stung about the face and hands.[704]
But in the Treasvrie of Avncient and Moderne Times, we find the
following: “Anthenor, writing of the Isle of Crete (with whom also
ioyneth Ælianus) saith, that a great multitude of Bees chased al the
dwellers out of a City, and vsed their Houses instead of Hives.”[705]
Montaigne mentions the following singular assistance rendered by Bees to
the inhabitants of Tamly: The Portuguese having besieged the City of
Tamly, in the territory of Xiatine, the inhabitants of the place brought
a great many hives, of which there are great plenty in that place, upon
the wall; and with fire drove the Bees so furiously upon the enemy that
they gave over the enterprise, not being able to stand their attacks and
endure their stings: and so the citizens, by this new sort of relief,
gained liberty and the victory with so wonderful a fortune, that at the
return of their defenders from the battle they found they had not lost
so much as one.[706]
Lesser tells us that in 1525, during the confusion occasioned by a time
of war, a mob assembling in Hohnstein (in Thuringia) attempted to
plunder the house of the minister of Elende; who having spoken to them
with no effect, as a last resort ordered his domestics to bring his
Beehives, and throw them in the midst of the furious mob. The desired
effect was instantaneous, for the mob dispersed immediately.[707]
Bees have also been employed as an article of food. Knox tells us that
the natives of Ceylon, when they meet with a swarm of Bees hanging on a
tree, hold burning torches under them to make them drop; and so catch
and carry them home, where they boil and eat them, in their estimation,
as excellent food.[708]
Peter Martyr, speaking of the Caribbean Islands, says: “The
Inhabitantes willingly eate the young Bees, rawe, roasted, and sometimes
sodden.”[709]
Bancroft tells us that when the negroes of Guiana are stung by Bees,
they in revenge eat as many as they can catch.[710]
The following account of the Bee-eater of Selborne, England, is by the
Reverend, and very accurate naturalist, Gilbert White: “We had in this
village,” says he, “more than twenty years ago (about 1765), an idiot
boy, whom I well remember, who, from a child, showed a strong propensity
to Bees: they were his food, his amusement, his sole object; and as
people of this cast have seldom more than one point in view, so this lad
exerted all his few faculties on this one pursuit. In the winter he
dozed away his time, within his father’s house, by the fireside, in a
kind of torpid state, seldom departing from the chimney corner; but in
the summer he was all alert, and in quest of his game in the fields and
on sunny banks. Honey-bees, Humble-bees, and Wasps were his prey,
wherever he found them: he had no apprehensions from their stings, but
would seize _nudis manibus_, and at once disarm them of their weapons,
and search their bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he
would fill his bosom between his shirt and his skin with a number of
these captives; and sometimes would confine them in bottles. He was a
very _Merops apiaster_, or Bee-bird, and very injurious to men that kept
Bees; for he would slide into their Bee-gardens, and, sitting down
before the stools, would rap with his finger on the hives, and so take
the Bees as they came out. He has been known to overturn hives for the
sake of honey, of which he was passionately fond. Where metheglin was
making, he would linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of
what he called _Bee-wine_. As he ran about he used to make a humming
noise with his lips, resembling the buzzing of Bees. This lad was lean
and sallow, and of a cadaverous complexion; and, except in his favorite
pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no manner of
understanding.”[711]
There is a peculiar substance formed by a species of Bee in the Orinoco
country, which, says Captain Stedman, the roosting tribes burn
incessantly in their habitations, and which effectually protects them
from all winged insects. They call it _Comejou_; Gumilla says it is
neither earth nor wax.[712]
Concerning the medicinal virtues of Bees, Dr. James says: “Their salts
are very volatile, and highly exalted; for this reason, when dry’d,
powder’d, and taken internally, they are diuretic and diaphoretic. If
this powder is mixed in unguents, with which the head is anointed, it is
said to cure the Alopecia, and to contribute to the growth of hair upon
bald places.”[713]
Another, an old writer, says: “If Bees, when dead, are dried to powder,
and given to either man or beast, this medicine will often give
immediate ease in the most excruciating pain, and remove a stoppage in
the body when all other means have failed.” A tea made by pouring
boiling water upon Bees has recently been prescribed, by high medical
authority, for violent strangury; while the poison of the Bee, under the
name of _apis_, is a great homœopathic remedy.[714]
Concerning wax, Dr. James says: “All wax is heating, mollifying, and
moderately incarning. It is mixed in sorbile liquors as a remedy for
dysentery; and ten bits, of the size of a grain of millet, swallowed,
prevent the curdling of milk in the breast of nurses.”[715]
[If we might credit the history of former times, says Jamieson, in his
Scottish Dictionary, sub. _Walx_, iv. 642-3, there must have been a
considerable demand for this article (wax) for the purpose of
witchcraft. It was generally found necessary, it would seem, as the
medium of inflicting pain on the bodies of men.
“To some others at these times he teacheth, how to make _pictures of
waxe_ or clay, that by the wasting thereof, the persons that they beare
the name of, may be continually melted or dried away by continuall
sickenesse.” K. James’s Dæmonologie, B. II. c. 5.
In order to cause acute pain in the patient, pins, we are told, were
stuck in that part of the body of the image, in which they wished the
person to suffer.
The same plan was adopted for inspiring another with the ardor of love.
Then mould her form of fairest _wax_,
With adder’s eyes and feet of horn;
Place this small scroll within its breast,
Which I, your friend, have hither borne.
Then make a blaze of alder wood,
Before your fire make this to stand;
And the last night of every moon
The bonny May’s at your command.
_Hogg’s Mountain Bard_, p. 35.
Then it follows:
With fire and steel to urge her weel,
See that you neither stint nor spare;
For if the cock be heard to crow,
The charm will vanish into air.
The wounds given to the image were supposed to be productive of similar
_stounds_ of love in the tender heart of the maiden whom it represented.
A female form, of melting _wax_,
Mess John surveyed with steady eye,
Which ever an anon he _pierced_,
And forced the lady loud to cry.--P. 84.
The same horrid rites were observed on the continent. For Grilland (de
Sortilegiis) says: Quidam solent apponere _imaginem cerae_ juxta ignem
ardentem, completis sacrificiis, de quibus supra, & adhibere quasdam
preces nefarias, & turpia verba, ut quemadmodum imago illa igne
consumitur & liquescit, eodem modo cor mulieris amoris calore talis viri
feruenter ardeat, etc. Malleus Malefic. T. H., p. 232.
It cannot be doubted that these rites have been transmitted from
heathenism. Theocritus mentions them as practiced by the Greeks in his
time. For he introduces Samoetha as using similar enchantments, partly
for punishing, and partly for regaining her faithless lover.