In Gayton's Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot, 1654, p. 99, speaking of Sancho Panza's having converted a cassock into a wallet, our pleasant annotator observes: "It was serviceable, after this greasie use, for nothing but to preach at a carnivale or Shrove Tuesday, and to tosse Pancakes in after the exercise; or else, if it could have been conveighed thither, nothing more proper for a man that preaches the Cook's sermon at Oxford, when that plump society rides upon their governour's horses to fetch in the Enemie, the Fly." That there was such a custom at Oxford, let Peshall, in his history of that city, be a voucher, who, speaking of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, p. 280, says: "To this Hospital cooks from Oxford flocked, bringing in on Whitsunweek the Fly." Aubrey saw this ceremony performed in 1642. He adds: "On Michaelmas-day, they rode thither again to carry the Fly away."
Plutarch, in his disquisition on the Art of Discerning a Flatterer from a Friend, makes the following curious comparison: "The Gad-Flie (as they say) which useth to plague bulles and oxen, setteth about their eares, and so doth the tick deal by dogges: after the same manner, flatterers take hold of ambitious mens eares, and possesse them with praises; and being once set fast there, hardly are they to be removed and chased away."
Plautus twice compares envious and inquisitive persons to Flies.
In a narrative of unheard-of Popish cruelties toward Protestants beyond Seas, printed in 1680, we find the insinuating detectives of the Spanish Inquisition under the name of Flies.
Flies are mentioned somewhere in Lyndwood as the emblem of unclean thoughts.
Flies were driven away when a woman was in labor, for fear she should bring forth a daughter.
Flies are found represented in the pottery of the ancient Egyptians.
Flies (Cuspi) were sacrificed to the Sun by the ancient Peruvians.
"To let a Flee (Fly) stick i' the wa'" is, in Scotland, not to speak on some particular topic, to pass it over without remark.
"Certes, a strange thing it is of these Flies," says Pliny, "which are taken to be as senselesse and witlesse creatures, yea, and of as little capacity and understanding as any other whatsoever: and yet at the solemne games and plaies holden every fifth yeare at Olympia, no sooner is the bull sacrificed there to the Idoll or god of the Flies called Myiodes, but a man shall see (a wonderful thing to tell) infinit thousand of flies depart out of that territorie by flights, as it were thick clouds."
This Myiodes or Myiagrus, the "Fly-catcher," was the name of a hero, invoked at Aliphera, at the festivals of Athena, as the protector against Flies. It was also a surname of Hercules.
The following rendering of the second verse of the first chapter of the Second Book of Kings, by Josephus, contains an allusion to the worship of Baalzebub under the form of a Fly: "Now it happened that Ahaziah, as he was coming down from the top of his house, fell down from it, and in his sickness sent to the Fly (Baalzebub), which was the god of Ekron, for that was this god's name, to enquire about his recovery."
With reference to this worship, we read in Purchas's Pilgrims: "At Accaron was worshipped Baalzebub, that is, the Lord of the Flies, either of contempt of his idolatrie, so called; or rather of the multitude of Flies, which attended the multitude of his sacrifices, when from the sacrifices at the Temple of Jerusalem, as some say, they were wholly free: or for that hee was their Larder-god (as the Roman Hercules) to drive away flies: or for that from a forme of a Flie, in which he was worshipped. . . . But for Beelzebub, he was their Aesculapius or Physicke god, as appeareth by Ahaziah who sent to consult with him in his sickness. And perhaps from this cause the blaspheming Pharisies, rather applyed the name of this then any other Idoll to our blessed Saviour (Math. x. 25) whom they saw indeed to performe miraculous cures, which superstition had conceived of Baalzebub: and if any thing were done by that Idoll, it could by no other cause bee effected but by the Devill, as tending (like the popish miracles) to the confirmation of Idolatrie."
This god of the Flies was so called, thinks Whiston, as was Jove among the Greeks, from his supposed power over Flies, in driving them away from the flesh of their sacrifices, which otherwise would have been very troublesome to them.
It has been conjectured that the Fly, under which Baalzebub was represented, was the Tumble-bug, Scarabaeus pilularius; in which case, says Dr. Smith, Baalzebub and Beelzebub might be used indifferently.
"Urspergensis saith that the Devil did very frequently appear in the form of a Fly; whence it was that some of the heathens called their familiar spirit Musca or Fly: perchance alluding to that of Plautus:
Hic pol musca est, mi pater, Sive profanum, sive publicum, nil clam illum haberi potest Quin adsit ibi illico, et rem omnem tenet.
This man, O my father, is a Fly, nothing can be concealed from him, be it secret or publick, he is presently there, and knowes all the matter."
Loki, the deceiver of the gods, is fabled in the Northern Mythology, to have metamorphosed himself into a Fly: and demons, in the shape of Flies, were kept imprisoned by the Finlanders, to be let loose on men and beasts.
In Scotland, a tutelary Fly, believed immortal, presided over a fountain in the county of Banff: and here also a large blue Fly, resting on the bark of trees, was distinguished as a witch.
Among the games and plays of the ancient Greeks was the Chalke Myia, or Brazen Fly: — a variety of blind-man's-buff, in which a boy having his eyes bound with a fillet, went groping round, calling out, "I am seeking the Brazen Fly." His companions replied, "You may seek, but you will not find it" — at the same time striking him with cords made of the inner bark of the papyros; and thus they proceeded till one of them was taken.
This is most probably an allusion to some species of Fly of a bronze color which is most difficult to catch, as, for instance, the little fly found in summer beneath arbors, apparently standing motionless in the air.
Petrus Ramus tells us of an iron Fly, made by Regiomontanus, a famous mathematician of Nuremberg, which, at a feast, to which he had invited his familiar friends, flew forth from his hand, and taking a round, returned to his hand again, to the great astonishment of the beholders. Du Bartas thus expresses this:
Once as this artist, more with mirth than meat, Feasted some friends whom he esteemed great, Forth from his hand an iron Fly flew out; Which having flown a perfect round-about, With weary wings return'd unto her master: And as judicious on his arm he plac'd her. O! wit divine, that in the narrow womb Of a small fly, could find sufficient room For all those springs, wheels, counterpoise and chains, Which stood instead of life, and blood, and veins!
We find also in a work bearing the title "Apologie pour les Grands Hommes Accuses de Magie," that "Jean de Montroyal presented to the Emperor Charles V. an iron fly, which made a solemn circuit round its inventor's head, and then reposed from its fatigue on his arm." — Probably the same automaton, since Regiomontanus and Montroyal are the same.
Such a Fly as the above is rather extraordinary, yet I have something better to tell — still about a Fly.
Gervais, Chancellor to the Emperor Otho III., in his book entitled "Otia Imperatoris," informs us that "the sage Virgilius, Bishop of Naples, made a brass Fly, which he placed on one of the city gates, and that this mechanical Fly, trained like a shepherd's dog, prevented any other fly entering Naples; so much so, that during eight years the meat exposed for sale in the market was never once tainted!"
"Varro affirmeth," says Pliny, "that the heads of Flies applied fresh to the bald place, is a convenient medicine for the said infirmity and defect. Some use in this case the bloud of flies: others mingle their ashes with the ashes of paper used in old time, or els of nuts; with this proportion, that there be a third part only of the ashes of flies to the rest, and herewith for ten days together rubb the bare places where the hair is gone. Some there be againe, who temper and incorporat togither the said ashes of Flies with the juice of colewort and brest-milke: others take nothing thereto but honey."
Mucianus, who was thrice consul, carried about him a living Fly, says Pliny, wrapped in a piece of white linen, and strongly asserted that to the use of this expedient he owed his preservation from ophthalmia.
Ferdinand Mendez Pinto says: "In our travels with the ambassador of the King of Bramaa to the Calaminham, we saw in a grot men of a sect of one of their Saints, named Angemacur: these lived in deep holes, made in the midst of the rock, according to the rule of their wretched order, eating nothing but Flies, Ants, Scorpions, and Spiders, with the juice of a certain herb, much like to sorrel."
Says Moufet, in his Theater of Insects: "Plutarch, in his Artaxerxes, relates that it was a law amongst a certain people, that whosoever should be so bold as to laugh at and deride their lawes and constitutions of state, was bound for twenty daies together in an open chest naked, all besmeared with honey and milk, and so became a prey to the Flies and Bees, afterward when the days were expired he was put into a woman's habit and thrown headlong down a mountain. . . Of which kinde of punishment also Suidas makes mention in his Epicurus. There was likewise for greater offenders, a punishment of Boats, so called. For that he that was convict of high treason, was clapt between two boats, with his head, hands, and feet hanging out: for his drink he had milk and honey powred down his throat, with which also his head and hands were sprinkled, then being set against the sun, he drew to him abundance of stinging Flies, and within being full of their worms, he putrefied by little and little, and so died. Which kinde of examples of severity as the ancients shewed to the guilty and criminous offenders; so on the other side the Spaniards in the Indies, used to drive numbers of the innocents out of their houses, as the custome is among them, naked, all bedawbed with honey, and expose them in open air to the biting of most cruel Flies."
Mr. Henry Mayhew, in that part of his interesting work on London Labor and London Poor devoted to the London Street-folk, has given us the narratives of several "Catch-'em-Alive" sellers — a set of poor boys who sell prepared papers for the purpose of catching Flies. He discovered a colony of these "Catch-'em-alive" boys residing in Pheasant-court, Gray's-inn-lane. They were playing at "pitch-and-toss" in the middle of the paved yard, and all were very willing to give him their statements; indeed, the only difficulty he had was in making his choice among the youths.
"Please, sir," said one with teeth ribbed like celery, to him, "I've been at it longer than him." "Please, sir, he ain't been out this year with the papers," said another, who was hiding a handful of buttons behind his back. "He's been at shoe-blacking, sir; I'm the only reg'lar fly-boy," shouted a third, eating a piece of bread as dirty as London snow.