He then refers to an instance, and says:
"A scarf of black crape was formally applied to each bee-hive; and an offering of pounded funeral biscuit, soaked in wine, was placed at its entrance."
In a note, he accounts for the ceremony's origin by a quotation from Porph. De Ant. Nymp., p. 261., in which honey is spoken of as being "anciently a symbol of death." For other notices of superstitions in reference to bees, see Hone's Mysteries, pp. 220. 222. 283.
R. W. ELLIOT.
I was lately informed by a native of Monmouthshire, that the belief relative to bees is entertained in that and some of the adjacent counties even by educated persons. My informant gravely assured me that though the bees are aware of the approaching event, from the acuteness of their organs of smell, they require to be duly and timely communicated with on the subject, to induce them to remain with the survivors; but if this be neglected, they will desert their hives, and disappear. The propriety or necessity of offering them any refreshment was not stated.
YUNAF.
The custom mentioned by L. L. L. still prevails in the Weald of Surrey and Sussex; probably through all the southern counties; but certainly in the Isle of Wight, where the writer only the other day, on noticing an empty apiary in the grounds of a villa, was told that the country people attributed its desertion to the bees not having had this formal notice of their master's death.
The same superstition is practised in some parts of France, when a mistress of the house dies; the formula being much like our English one, i.e. to tap thrice on the hive, repeating these words, "Petits abeilles, votre maîtresse est morte."
A. D.