It is more difficult to suggest the possible origin of these curious fancies than to explain those previously mentioned. We may, perhaps, be on the right track in supposing that it has often happened, when the master or mistress of the bees has been ill or has died, the insects have missed, especially in autumn or early spring, the attention required for their welfare, and have, in consequence, perished. Then other persons of the household, unacquainted with the actual connection—in many instances a vital connection—between the bees and their owner, have attributed to them a bond not actually existing; and so, being led to the silly notion of the insects grieving, or needing to be informed, and to have their hive put in mourning, they have easily diffused a superstition in which each favouring coincidence would tell widely for its extended belief.
In the Norfolk case, narrated in The Bee Journal, several possible explanations suggest themselves. In the first place, if the deceased farmer was an inhabitant of the same village as the buyer of his bees, and the hives were removed to a new home near their old one, most of the bees which had previously flown would return to their accustomed spot, and perish, not knowing their way to their changed abode. Then, in the course of a fortnight or three weeks, a good number of freshly-hatched insects would have strengthened the community, and these, naturally, would return with their supplies to the fresh domicile, and soon put matters into a flourishing condition.
Again, if dull gloomy weather followed the purchase of the bees, and was succeeded by brighter days, coincidently with the fastening of the stick and crape to the hives, the improved appearances would, of course, be due to warmer temperature and sunnier hours, without any change in the feelings of the insects from their abode being duly adorned with the emblems of mourning.
Lastly, the explanation may be simply that, when the stock was bought it was in poor condition, but that in two or three weeks, by the hatching of brood in the natural course of events, a greatly improved condition of affairs had come about. The first of these explanations, however, is probably the correct one.
One more superstitious custom is said to prevail in Devonshire, viz., at the funeral of a deceased bee keeper, the turning round of every hive that belonged to the departed, and this just at the moment the corpse is being carried out of the house. We do not pretend to explain this curious fancy. It may have originated in an experiment to avert the supposed disastrous connection between the bees and the death of their owner. Anything would seem to do for a charm to minds imbued with superstition.
Borlase, in his Antiquities of Cornwall, mentions one other superstition of apiarians of that county. He says: "The Cornish to this day invoke the spirit Browny when their bees swarm; and think that their crying 'Browny, Browny,' will prevent their returning to their former hive, and make them pitch and form a new colony."
It is not wonderful that the many extraordinary facts connected with bees, coming at various times under human observation, should have led to notions of marvels, founded, not on observation, but on fancy. There is a strong tendency in the human mind to desire explanations of phenomena, and where there has been no scientific training in observation, false deductions are easily arrived at, or guesses as to causes are made, which have no foundation in fact. Bee-keeping has, for the most part, till in quite recent times, been chiefly in the hands of people of the more ignorant classes, among whom wonderful stories easily arise, are rapidly propagated, and tenaciously believed. Any circumstances seeming to support a previously established fancy would serve to increase the strength of superstition; while any number of instances not corroborating prevailing ideas would be disregarded. But, when once the spirit of sound investigation is applied to these vulgar errors, they become so manifestly absurd, that the marvel is how they can possibly have arisen.
Without doubt, there are many extraordinary facts connected with bees still awaiting the observation and the explanation of explorers in this department of natural history. Problems connected with the working of mind in the lower animals; the relations between reason and instinct; the functions of particular organs in these and other insects; the transmission of faculties not possessed by either parent in particular races; the direction and variation in the working of inherent faculties, through the agency of man, are subjects opening up most interesting fields of inquiry, which we would point out to those who have the inclination, leisure, and opportunities for pursuing investigations. We are satisfied that efforts and time thus devoted will be well repaid by the pleasure which springs from knowledge, and will lead in all devout minds to enlarged admiration of the wisdom and beneficence of Him, from whose creative power the varied structures of animal life have come, and from whose infinite resources have been bestowed all those faculties which call forth our astonishment and delight as we study the facts of insect life. The deepest impression on mind and heart will be that embodied in the exclamation of the ancient Hebrew poet, "O Lord, how manifold are Thy works: in wisdom hast Thou made them all."
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE PROFITS OF BEE-KEEPING.
Methods of Honey-taking—Straw Caps—Bell-Glasses—Sections—Frames—Extractors—Run Honey—Average Returns of Hives.