Topsel, in his History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents, has the following prognostications of the weather from the appearances of Hornets: "They serve instead of good almanacs to country people, to foretell tempests and change of weather, as hail, rain, and snow: for if they fly about in greater numbers, and be oftener seen about any place, than usually they are wont, it is a sign of heat and fair weather the next day. But if about twilight they are observed to enter often their nests, as though they would hide themselves, you must the next day expect rain, wind, or some stormy, troublesome or boisterous season: whereupon Avienus hath these verses:
So if the buzzing troops of Hornets hoarse to fly In spacious air 'bout Autumn's end you see, When Virgil star the evening lamp espy, Then from the sea some stormy tempest sure shall be."
"In the year 190, before the birth of Christ," say Moufet and Topsel, "as Julius witnesseth, an infinite multitude of Wasps flew into the market at Capua, and sat in the temple of Mars, they were with great diligence taken and burnt solemnly, yet they did foreshow the coming of the enemy and the burning of the city."
The first Wasp seen in the season should always be killed. By so doing, you secure to yourself good luck and freedom from enemies throughout the year. This is an English superstition, and it prevails in parts of America. We have one, also, directly opposed to it, namely, that the first Wasp seen in the season should not be killed if you wish to secure to yourself good luck. Many of our people, too, will kill a Wasp at no time, for, if killed, they say, it will bring upon them bad luck.
If a Wasp stings you, our superstitious think that your foes will get the advantage of you.
If the first Wasp seen in the season be seen in your house, it is a sign that you will form an unpleasant acquaintance. If the first Bee seen in the season be seen in your house, it is a sign you will form a pleasant and useful acquaintance. This arose doubtless from the apparent uselessness of the former, and worth of the latter insect.
Wasps building in a house foretell the coming to want of the family occupying it. This likewise arose from the unthriftiness of this insect.
If Hornets build high, the winter will be dry and mild; if low, cold and stormy. This is firmly believed in Virginia; and the idea seems to be, that if the nest is built high it will be more exposed to the wind than if built low.
That a person may not be stung by Wasps, Paxamus says: "Let the person be rubbed with the juice of wild-mallow, and he will not be stung."
The Creoles of Mauritius eat the larvae of Wasps, which they roast in the combs. In taking the nests, they drive off the Wasps by means of a burning rag fastened to the end of a stick. The combs are sold at the bazaar of Port Louis.
The following story, of the cunning of the fox in killing the Wasps to obtain their combs, is told by Aelian: "The fox (a subtle creature) is said to prey upon the Wasp in this manner: he puts his tail into the Wasps' nest so long till it be all covered with Wasps, which he espying, pulls it out and beats them against the next stone or tree he meets withal till they be all dead, this being done again and again till all the Wasps be destroyed, he sets upon their combs and devours them."
The Chinese Herbal contains a singular notion, prevalent also in India, concerning the generation of the Sphex, or solitary Wasp. When the female lays her eggs in the clayey nidus she makes in houses, she incloses the dead body of a caterpillar in it for the subsistence of the worms when they are hatched. Those who observed her entombing the caterpillar did not look for the eggs, and immediately concluded that the Sphex took the worm for its progeny, and say, that as she plastered up the hole of the nest, she hummed a constant song over it, saying, "Class with me, class with me!" — and the transformation gradually took place, and was perfected in its silent grave by the next spring, when a winged Wasp emerged, to continue its posterity the coming autumn in the same mysterious way.
Apidae — Bees
Concerning the piety of Bees, we find the following legends:
"A certain simple woman having some stalls of Bees which yielded not unto her her desired profit, but did consume and die of the murrain; made her moan to another woman more simple than herself: who gave her counsel to get a consecrated host or round Godamighty and put it among them. According to whose advice she went to the priest to receive the host; which when she had done, she kept it in her mouth, and being come home again she took it out and put it into one of her hives. Whereupon the murrain ceased, and the honey abounded. The woman therefore lifting up the hive at the due time to take out the honey, saw there (most strange to be seen) a chapel built by the Bees with an altar in it, the walls adorned by marvelous skill of architecture with windows conveniently set in their places: also a door and a steeple with bells. And the host being laid upon the altar, the Bees making a sweet noise flew round about it."
Mr. Hawker's legend is to this effect: A Cornish woman, one summer, finding her Bees refused to leave their "cloistered home" and had "ceased to play around the cottage flowers," concealed a portion of the Holy Eucharist which she obtained at church:
She bore it to her distant home, She laid it by the hive To lure the wanderers forth to roam, That so her store might thrive; 'Twas a wild wish, a thought unblest, Some evil legend of the west.
But lo! at morning-tide a sign For wondering eyes to trace. They found above that Bread, a shrine Rear'd by the harmless race! They brought their walls from bud and flower, They built bright roof and beamy tower!
Was it a dream? or did they hear Float from those golden cells A sound, as of a psaltery near, Or soft and silvery bells? A low sweet psalm, that grieved within In mournful memory of the sin!
The following passage, from Howell's Parley of Beasts, furnishes a similar legend of the piety of Bees. Bee speaks: "Know, sir, that we have also a religion as well as you, and so exact a government among us here; our hummings you speak of are as so many hymns to the Great God of Nature; and there is a miraculous example in Caesarius Cisterciensis, of some of the Holy Eucharist being let fall in a meadow by a priest, as he was returning from visiting a sick body; a swarm of Bees hard-by took It up, and in a solemn kind of procession carried It to their hive, and there erected an altar of the purest wax for it, where it was found in that form, and untouched."
Butler, quoting Thomas Bozius, tells us the following: "Certain thieves having stolen the silver box wherein the wafer-Gods use to lie, and finding one of them there being loath, belike, that he should lie abroad all night, did not cast him away, but laid him under a hive: whom the Bees acknowledging advanced to a high room in the hive, and there instead of his silver box made him another of the whitest wax: and when they had so done, in worship of him, and set hours they sang most sweetly beyond all measure about it: yea the owner of them took them at it at midnight with a light and all. Wherewith the bishop being made acquainted, came thither with many others: and lifting up the hive he saw there near the top a most fine box, wherein the host was laid, and the choirs of Bees singing about it, and keeping watch in the night, as monks do in their cloisters. The bishop therefore taking the host, carried it with the greater honor into the church: whether many resorting were cured of innumerable diseases."
Another legend, from the School of the Eucharist, is as follows: "A peasant swayed by a covetous mind, being communicated on Easter-Day, received the Host in his mouth, and afterwards laid it among his bees, believing that all the Bees of the neighborhood would come thither to work their wax and honey. This covetous, impious wretch was not wholly disappointed of his hopes; for all his neighbors' Bees came indeed to his hives, but not to make honey, but to render there the honors due to the Creator. The issue of their arrival was that they melodiously sang to Him songs of praise as they were able; after that they built a little church with their wax from the foundations to the roof, divided into three rooms, sustained by pillars, with their bases and chapiters. They had there also an Altar, upon which they had laid the precious Body of our Lord, and flew round about it, continuing their music. The peasant .... coming nigh that hive where he had put the H. Sacrament, the Bees issued out furiously by troops, and surrounding him on all sides, revenged the irreverence done to their Creator, and stung him so severely that they left him in a sad case. This punishment made this miserable wretch come to himself, who, acknowledging his error, went to find out the parish priest to confess his fault to him . . . . " etc.
We quote also another from the School of the Eucharist: "A certain peasant of Auvergne, a province in France, perceiving that his Bees were likely to die, to prevent this misfortune, was advised, after he had received the communion, to reserve the Host, and to blow it into one of the hives. As he tried to do it, the Host fell on the ground. Behold now a wonder! On a sudden all the Bees came forth out of their hives, and ranging themselves in good order, lifted the Host from the ground, and carrying it in upon their wings, placed it among the combs. After this the man went out about his business, and at his return found that this advice had succeeded ill, for all his Bees were dead . . . ."
We will close this series of legends with one from the Lives of the Saints: "When a thief by night had stolen St. Medard's Bees, they, in their master's quarrel, leaving their hive, set upon the malefactor, and eagerly pursuing him which way soever he ran, would not cease stinging of him until they had made him (whether he would or no) to go back again to their master's house; and there, falling prostrate at his feet, submissly to cry him mercy for the crime committed. Which being done, so soon as the Saint extended unto him the hand of benediction, the Bees, like obedient servants, did forthwith stay from persecuting him, and evidently yielded themselves to the ancient possession and custody of their master."
By the Greeks, Bees were accounted an omen of future eloquence; the soothsayers of the Romans, however, deemed them always of evil augury. They afforded also to the Romans presages of public interest, "clustering, as they do, like a bunch of grapes, upon houses or temples; presages, in fact, that are often accounted for by great events." The instances of happy omens afforded by swarms of Bees are the following:
"It is said of Pindar," we read in Pausanias' History of Greece, "that when he was a young man, as he was going to Thespia, being wearied with the heat, as it was noon, and in the height of summer, he fell asleep at a small distance from the public road; and that Bees, as he was asleep, flew to him and wrought their honey on his lips. This circumstance first induced Pindar to compose verses."