Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions.: A Complete Collection of the Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, and Ominous Signs Connected with Insects; Together with Their Uses in Medicine, Art, and as Food; and a Summary of Their Remarkable Injuries and Appearances.Cowan, Frank
History
Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions.: A Complete Collection of the Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, and Ominous Signs Connected with Insects; Together with Their Uses in Medicine, Art, and as Food; and a Summary of Their Remarkable Injuries and Appearances.
Cowan, Frank
Insects
“Long experience has taught me,” says Mr. Wildman himself, “that as soon
as I turn up a hive, and give some taps on the sides and bottom, the
queen immediately appears. Being accustomed to see her, I readily
perceive her at the first glance; and long practice has enabled me to
seize her instantly, with a tenderness that does not in the least
endanger her person. Being possessed of her, I can, without exciting any
resentment, slip her into my other hand, and returning the hive to its
place, hold her, till the Bees, missing her, are all on the wing and in
the utmost confusion.” It was then, by placing the queen in view, he
could make them light wherever he pleased, from their great attachment
to her, and sometimes using a word of command to mystify the spectators,
he would cause them to settle on his head, and to hang to his chin like
a beard, from which he would order them to his hand, or to an adjacent
window. But, however easy such feats may appear in theory, Mr. Wildman
cautions (probably with a view to deter rivals) those who are
inexperienced not to put themselves in danger of attempting to imitate
him. A liberated Roman slave, C. F. Cnesinus, being accused before the
tribunals of witchcraft, because his crops were more abundant than
those of his neighbors, produced as his witnesses some superior
implements of husbandry, and well fed oxen, and pointing to them said:
“These, Romans! are my instruments of witchcraft; but I cannot show you
my toil, my perseverance, and my anxious cares.” “So,” says Wildman,
“may I say, These, Britons! are my instruments of witchcraft; but I
cannot show you my hours of attention to this subject, my anxiety and
care for these useful insects; nor can I communicate to you my
experience acquired during a course of years.”[702]
Butler mentions two instances where the stings of Bees have been fatal
to “cattaile”:
“A horse,” he informs us, “in the heate of the day looking over a hedge,
on the other side whereof was a staule of Bees, while hee stood nodding
with his head, as his manner is, because of the flies, the Bees fell
vpon him and killed him. Likewise I heard of a teeme that stretching
against a hedge overthrew a staule on the other side, and so two of the
horses were stung to death.”[703]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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