Agria 27.-28. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 1991-1992)

Gunda Béla: Méhészkedés a magyarságnál

day of Christmas. It is advisable to interweave some willow-twigs, clematis, vine-shoots, birk- and hedge-rose-wickers, because they would keep off the witches from the bees. In spring the bees should be let out for the first time on Wednesday or Thursday, then they will be laborious and healthy, while the bees let out on Monday will be lazy and sick all over the summer. On the day of the first spring let-out and on the occasion of swarming a prayer-like text, a magic spell is recited. Similar Old English magic words are quoted by P. Grendon (The Journal of American Folklore, XXII. 1909). On the day of the first spring let-out the tooth or the throat of a wolf, and a piece of red cloth are put into the fly-hole in order to put courage into the bees. A sickle is often placed next to the fly-hole, for the bees are supposed to become courageous from it. The winter plug of the fly-hole is fastened on the bee-hive, and the tine of a harrow is sticked into the ground, thus preventing the swarm from flying off. The swarm will not escape, if the bee-keeper has in his apiary a stake, to which he has bound his horse. At the time of swarming, scythes, hoes, copper-plates etc. are knocked against one another, so that the noise should prevent the bees from flying far away. According to popular belief there are some bee-keepers with magic power able to recall by whistling the swarm settled on a remote tree. It is not lucky to buy or sell the bees for money. However, given as present, a hive full of bees and honey is regarded as the manifestation of friendship (Moldavia). Henceforth, the donor and the recipient mutually help each other in agricultural work and try to arrange a marriage between their children. There still exists the custom of word-taboo. In Moldavia the menstrual woman would not pronounce the word „bee", but says „insect". In many regions the apiary is still „off limits" for women. A horse-skull fixed on a pale in front of the apiary is supposed to protect the bees against the evil spirits. When the bee-keeper dies, his wife shouts in the apiary: Your master is dead! The bee-hives will then be covered with a black crape. On the occasion of wedding the bee-hives are covered with a red crape. Reviewing also some further beliefs, the authors describes the running of honey, the pressing and trading of wax as well as the general behaviour of the Hungarian apiarist. It is remarkable that most of the Hungarian apicultural beliefs occur in Eastern and Western Europe alike, including also some antique traditions (e. g. preventing the swarm from flying away by means of some noise). The apiarists often adopt magic practices from other spheres of beliefs. Thus, when bee-hive is stolen, the bee-keeper begins to fast, because he believes, that his fasting will cause the illness or even the death of the thief. The following beliefs and customs were probably known by the Hungarians already in the Ural region, before their immigration into the Carpathian basin: keeping off the women from the bees, the above mentioned word-taboo, an animal skull set up next to the apiary, walking around the swarming bees to prevent them from flying far away (a form of the magic circle), the „binding" of the bees: the grass growing before the apiary is fastened together - by doing so, the apiarist is supposed to „bind" the bees to their hives. By comparing the beliefs of the XVH-XIX

th centuries to those of later periods, there is a strong reduction and transformation of the magic acts to be observed; in fact, they gradually lose their function. In 1663, for instance, dust was thrown among the bees, accompanied by various magic acts, in order to prevent them from escaping. Nowadays, the dust is simply thrown in the air before the swarm: the bee-keeper does it only because he has seen it being done by the old. It can also be observed, that magic with bees is practised by women, who were earlier forbidden to approach the apiary. 368