The following anecdote in the history of the Humble-bee
(Bombus) is from the account of Josselyn of his voyages to New England, printed in 1674: “Near upon twenty years since there lived an old planter near Blackpoint, who on a Sunshine day about one of the clock lying upon a green bank not far from his house, charged his Son, a lad of 12 years of age, to awaken him when he had slept two hours; the old man falls asleep, and lying upon his back gaped with his mouth wide open enough for a Hawke to —— into it; after a little while the lad sitting by spied a Humble-bee creeping out of his Father’s mouth, which taking wing flew quite out of sight, the hour as the lad guest being come to awaken his Father, he jagged him and called aloud Father, Father, it is two o’clock, but all would not rouse him, at last he sees the Humble-bee returning, who lighted upon the sleeper’s lip and walked down as the lad conceived into his belly, and presently he awaked.”[735]
The following, on the different species of Humble-bees, is one of the popular rhymes of Scotland:
The todler-tyke has a very gude byke,
And sae has the gairy Bee;
But weel’s me on the little red-doup,
The best o’ a’ the three.[736]
When the Archbishop of St. Andrews was cruelly murdered in 1679, “upon the opening of his tobacco box a living humming bee flew out,” which was explained to be a familiar or devil. A Scottish woman declared that a child was poisoned by its grandmother, who, together with herself, were “in the shape of bume-bees,” that the former carried the poison “in her cleugh, wings, and mouth.” A great Bee constantly resorted to another after receiving the Satanic mark, and rested on it.[737]
An anecdote is related by M. Reaumur respecting the thimble-shaped nest, formed of leaves, of the Carpenter-bee (Apis centuncularis?), which is a striking instance of the ridiculous superstition which prevails among the uneducated, and which even sometimes has no slight influence on those of better understandings. “In the beginning of July, 1736, the learned Abbé Nollet, then at Paris, was surprised
by a visit from an auditor of the chamber of accounts, whose estate lay at a distant village on the borders of the Seine, a few leagues from Rouen. This gentleman came accompanied, among other domestics, by a gardener, whose face had an air of much concern. He had come to Paris in consequence of having found in his master’s ground many rows of leaves, unaccountably disposed in a mystical manner, and which he could not but believe were there placed by witchcraft, for the secret destruction of his lord and family. He had, after recovering from his first consternation, shown them to the curate of the parish, who was inclined to be of a similar opinion, and advised him without delay to take a journey to Paris, and make his lord acquainted with the circumstance. This gentleman, though not quite so much alarmed as the honest gardener, could not feel himself at perfect ease, and therefore thought it advisable to consult his surgeon upon the business, who, though a man eminent in his profession, declared himself utterly unacquainted with the nature of what was shown him, but took the liberty of advising that the Abbé Nollet, as a philosopher, should be consulted, whose well-known researches in natural knowledge might perhaps enable him to elucidate the matter. It was in consequence of this advice that the Abbé received the visit above mentioned, and had the satisfaction of relieving all parties from their embarrassment, by showing them several nests formed on a similar plan by other insects, and assuring them that those in their possession were the work of insects also.”[738]