“On one occasion, an ancient great-aunt of mine, hieratically assuming a head-dress of feather and globules of jet, required me to accompany her to the beehives. ‘But you surely don't need a hat, Aunt Jane! They're only at the end of the garden.’ ‘It is the custom,’ she said, grandly. ‘Put a scarf over your head.’ Arrived, she stood in silence for a moment. Then — ‘I have to tell you,’ she said, formally, ‘that King George V is dead. You may be sorry, but I am not. He was not an interesting man. Besides,’ she added — as though the bees needed the telling! — ‘everyone has to die’.” DeathTraditionEnglandMeaning Of LifeBeesCeremonyCustomBeekeepingP L TraversTelling The Bees Book:What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol and Story Source: What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol and Story