cay," or
consumption. This faith was common fifty years ago in Llanidloes,
Montgomeryshire. I do not know whether it is so now. People then
believed that ass's milk was more nutritious than other kind of food for
persons whose constitutions were weak.

_The Bee_.

The little busy bee has been from times of old an object of admiration
and superstition. It is thought that they are sufficiently sensitive to
feel a slight, and sufficiently vindictive to resent one, and as they are
too valuable to be carelessly provoked to anger, they are variously
propitiated by the cottager when their wrath is supposed to have been
roused. It is even thought that they take an interest in human affairs;
and it is, therefore, considered expedient to give them formal notice of
certain occurrences.

_Buying a Hive of Bees_.

In the central parts of Denbighshire people suppose that a hive of bees,
if bought, will not thrive, but that a present of a hive leads to its
well-doing.

A cottager in Efenechtyd informed the writer that a friend gave her the
hive she had, and that consequently she had had luck with it; but, she
added, "had I bought it, I could not have expected anything from it, for
bought hives do badly." This was in the centre of Denbighshire.

_Time of Bee Swarming_.

The month in which bees swarm is considered of the greatest importance,
and undoubtedly it is so, for the sooner they swarm, the longer their
summer, and therefore the greater the quantity of honey which they will
accumulate. A late swarm cannot gather honey from every opening flower,
because the flower season will have partly passed away before they leave
their old home.

This faith has found expression in the following lines:--

A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly.

These words are often uttered by cottagers when a swarm takes place in
the respective months named in the lines. It is really very seldom that
a swarm takes place in our days in May, and many a swarm takes place in
July which is of more value than a fly, But however, be this as it may,
the rhyme expresses the belief of many people.

_The Day of Swarming_.

Sunday is the favourite day for bee swarming. Country people say, when
looking at their bees clustering outside the hive, and dangling like a
rope from it, "Oh, they won't swarm