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In Christian and Mediæval Times: Devil

In a Wallachian legend the bee appears as a messenger of God, sent by him, when he was in the act of making the world, to the Devil to ask whether it would be better to create only one, or more, suns.

While the Devil was thinking it over, the bee placed itself upon his head and so became possessed of his secret thoughts.

The Devil concluded that if more than one sun were created the earth would be so hot that hell beneath would not be needed, or that night would be turned into day, whence the works of darkness would no longer be possible in this glare of light. He declared therefore for the creation of but one sun. When the bee flew to take the answer back to God the Devil discovered that it had been sitting upon his head and had read his thoughts.

Then in anger raised he his scourge against the forthflying bee, and struck it on the body. Through this blow the bee received its cut-in-two form, and the black rings on the hinder part of the body. Before this, so the legend runs, the bee, as the servant of God, had been as white as The bee is yet called by the Wallachians "albina."

The following is a Servian legend. snow.

A boy once met the Devil and after being teased and cheated by him a number of times the Devil proposed that they should tell lies for a wager.

The Devil being the oldest took the lead and told a number of preposterous stories. This did not trouble the boy, who found himself prepared with quite as remarkable He told how in his youth he had examined his answers. 1 father's bees every morning; as he once passed the hives of bees in review he found the best and most beautiful queen-bee missing. So he started out to find traces of the lost one. He rode over the wide sea on a bridge, and on the other side he saw the queen-bee yoked to a plough, and a man ploughing a piece of land with her.

It is noteworthy in connection with this tale that the metamorphosis of a bee into an ox that draws the plough, and thus brings fruitfulness to the earth, was a favorite idea among the ancients.

It was a common superstition among the northern and western peoples that a child upon whom a bee settled in sleep was a child of good fortune - a lucky child.

In Finnish mythology there is an invocation to the bee, imploring it to fly far away over the moon, over the sun, near to the axis of the constellation of The Wagon, into the dwelling of the creator, God, and bring back upon its wings and in its mouth health and honey to the good, and wounds of fire and iron to the wicked.

There is a Circassian legend to the effect that divine intervention was once used to preserve the race of bees from destruction. Merime, the mother of the gods, could not protect the bees when Indras, the god of thunder, was angry with them, and they all perished but one which the goddess concealed beneath her inmost garment, and from which proceeded anew the race of bees.

When the Circassians celebrated their principal festival and brought offerings - at which no female creature was allowed to look - they repeated a prayer in which bees, honey, and wax are mentioned, from which a few sentences are here given : - "To him who has brought an offering may God give prosperity and health; to the children that come into the world may he give money, bread, bees, cattle in abundance; In Christian and Mediæval Times 337 may he cause the bees greatly to swarm and make wax in abundance. When spring approaches, O God! let out the three kinds of cattle upon the three ways, protect them from deep mud, bears, wolves, and thieves. Like as the hop is firm and full, even so bless us with good fortune and knowledge! Even as the light shines brightly, so let us live! Even as wax in the hive increases, so grant us good fortune!"