to charm your bees

thanks pixabay (CC0 creative commons)

I know bees aren't normally considered pets, but they are important to human well-being.  Every so often I come across a bee reference that is too good not to share.  Today it's an old Anglo-Saxon charm to keep your bees from swarming.

AGAINST A SWARM OF BEES
Take earth, with your right hand throw it under your right foot, and say: --
"I take under foot; I have located it.
Lo, earth is potent against every sort of creature,
And against hatred and against forgetfulness,
And against the mighty spell of man."
Throw gravel over them when they swarm, and say:
"Alight, victory-dames, sink to the ground!
Never fly wild to the woodland!
Be as mindful of my profit
As is every man of food and home."

-- Grendon, Felix.  The Anglo-Saxon Charms (New York: Journal of American Folklore, 1909), p. 169.