Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions Part 30

_Disc._ Most dext'rously.

He dipp'd the insect's feet in melted wax, Which hard'ning into slippers as it cool'd, By these computed he the question'd s.p.a.ce.

_Streps._ O Jupiter, what subtilty of thought![1044]

The witty Butler has also commemorated the same circ.u.mstance in his justly celebrated poem of Hudibras:

How many scores a Flea will jump Of his own length, from head to rump; Which Socrates and Chaerophon In vain a.s.say'd so long agon.

As ill.u.s.trative of the strength of the Flea, the following facts may also be given: We read in a note to Purchas's Pilgrims that "one Marke Scaliot, in London, made a lock and key and chain of forty-three links, all which a Flea did draw, and weighed but a grain and a half."[1045]

Mouffet, who also records this fact, says he had heard of another Flea that was harnessed to a golden chariot, which it drew with the greatest ease.[1046] Bingley tells us that Mr. Boverick, an ingenious watchmaker in the Strand, exhibited some years ago a little ivory chaise with four wheels, and all its proper apparatus, and the figure of a man sitting on the box, all of which were drawn by a single Flea. The same mechanic afterward constructed a minute landau, which opened and shut by springs, with the figures of six horses harnessed to it, and of a coachman on the box, a dog between his legs, four persons inside, two footmen behind it, and a postillion riding on one of the fore horses, which were all easily dragged along by a single Flea. He likewise had a chain of bra.s.s, about two inches long, containing two hundred links, with a hook at one end and a padlock and key at the other, which a Flea drew nimbly along.[1047] At a fair of Charlton, in Kent, 1830, a man exhibited three Fleas harnessed to a carriage in form of an omnibus, at least fifty times their own bulk, which they pulled along with great ease; another pair drew a chariot, and a single Flea a bra.s.s cannon. The exhibitor showed the whole first through a magnifying gla.s.s, and then to the naked eye; so that all were satisfied there was no deception.[1048] Latrielle also mentions a Flea of a moderate size, which dragged a silver cannon, mounted on wheels, that was twenty-four times its own weight, and which being charged with gunpowder was fired off without the Flea appearing in the least alarmed.[1049]

It is recorded in Purchas's Pilgrims that an Egyptian artisan received a garment of cloth of gold for binding a Flea in a chain.[1050]

The Flea is twice mentioned in the Bible, and in both cases David, in speaking to Saul, applies it to himself as a term of humility.[1051]

A Prussian poet, quoted by Jaeger,[1052] gives us the song of a young Flea who had emigrated to this country from Prussia, and thus expresses his dissatisfaction to his sweetheart:

Kennst de nunmehr das Land, we Dorngestripp und Disteln bluh'n, Im frost'gen Wald nur eckelhafte Tannenzapfen gluh'n, Der Schierling tief, und hoch der Sumach steht, Ein rauher Wind vom schwarzen Himmel weht; Kennst du es wohl? O la.s.s uns eilig zieh'n, Und schnell zuruck in unsre Hiemath flieh'n!

An English prose translation of which is: "Know'st thou now this country, where only briars and thistles bloom; where ugly fur-nuts only glow in the icy forest; where down in the vale the fetid hemlock grows, and on the hills the poisonous sumach; where heavy winds blow from black clouds over desolate lands? Dost thou not know of this country? Oh, then, let us fly in haste and return to our own fatherland!"

"To send one away with a Flea in his ear," is a very old English phrase, meaning to dismiss one with a rebuke.[1053] "Flea-luggit" is the Scottish--to be unsettled or confused.[1054]

There is a collection of poems called "La Puce des grands jours de Poitiers"--the Flea of the carnival of Poitiers. The poems were begun by the learned Pasquier, who edited the collection, upon a Flea which was found one morning in the bosom of the famous Catherine des Roches.[1055]

During the winter of 1762, at Norwich, England, after a chilling storm of snow and wind that had destroyed many lives, myriads of Fleas were found skipping about on the snow.[1056]

To the Pulicidae belongs also a native of the West Indies and South America, the _Pulex penetrans_, variously named in the countries where it is found, Chigoe, Jigger, Nigua, Tungua, and Pique. According to Stedman, this "is a kind of small sand-flea, which gets in between the skin and the flesh without being felt, and generally under the nails of the toes, where, while it feeds, it keeps growing till it becomes of the size of a pea, causing no further pain than a disagreeable itching. In process of time, its operation appears in the form of a small bladder, in which are deposited thousands of eggs, or nits, and which, if it breaks, produce so many young Chigoes, which, in course of time, create running ulcers, often of very dangerous consequence to the patient; so much so, indeed, that I knew a soldier the soles of whose feet were obliged to be cut away before he could recover; and some men have lost their limbs by amputation--nay, even their lives--by having neglected in time to root out these abominable vermin. The moment, therefore, that a redness and itching more than usual are perceived, it is time to extract the Chigoe that occasions them. This is done with a sharp-pointed needle, taking care not to occasion unnecessary pain, and to prevent the Chigoe from breaking in the wound. Tobacco ashes are put into the orifice, by which in a little time the sore is perfectly healed."[1057]

The female slaves are generally employed to extract these pests, which they do with uncommon dexterity. Old Ligon tells us he had ten Chigoes taken out of his feet in a morning "by the most unfortunate Yarico,"[1058] whose tragical story is now so celebrated in prose and verse. Mr. Southey says that many of the first settlers of Brazil, before they knew the remedy to extract the Chigoes, lost their feet in the most dreadful manner.[1059]

Walton, in his Present State of the Spanish Colonies, tells us of a Capuchin friar, who carried away with him a colony of Chigoes in his foot as a present to the Scientific Colleges in Europe; but, unfortunately for himself and for science, the length of the voyage produced mortification in his leg, that it became necessary to cut it off to save the zealous missionary's life, and the leg, with all its inhabitants, were tumbled together into the sea.[1060]

Humboldt observes "that the whites born in the torrid zone walk barefoot with impunity in the same apartment where a European, recently landed, is exposed to the attack of this animal. The _Nigua_, therefore, distinguishes what the most delicate chemical a.n.a.lysis could not distinguish, the cellular membrane and blood of an European from those of a Creole white."[1061]

ORDER XI.

ANOPLEURA.

Pediculidae--Lice.

At Hurdenburg, in Sweden, Mr. Hurst tells us the mode of choosing a burgomaster is this: The persons eligible sit around, with their beards upon a table; a Louse is then put in the middle of the table, and the one, in whose beard this insect first takes cover, is the magistrate for the ensuing year.[1062]

Respecting the revenue of Montecusuma, which consisted of the natural products of the country, and what was produced by the industry of his subjects, we find the following story in Torquemada: "During the abode of Montecusuma among the Spaniards, in the palace of his father, Alonzo de Ojeda one day espied in a certain apartment of the building a number of small bags tied up. He imagined at first that they were filled with gold dust, but on opening one of them, what was his astonishment to find it quite full of Lice? Ojeda, greatly surprised at the discovery he had made, immediately communicated what he had seen to Cortes, who then asked Marina and Anguilar for some explanation. They informed him that the Mexicans had such a sense of their duty to pay tribute to their monarch, that the poorest and meanest of the inhabitants, if they possessed nothing better to present to their king, daily cleaned their persons, and saved all the Lice they caught, and that when they had a good store of these, they laid them in bags at the feet of their monarch." Torquemada further remarks, that his reader might think these bags were filled with small worms (gasanillos), and not with Lice; but appeals to Alonzo de Ojeda, and another of Cortes' soldiers, named Alonzo de Mata, who were eye-witnesses of the fact.[1063]

Oviedo pretends to have observed that Lice, at the elevation of the tropics, abandon the Spanish sailors that are going to the Indies, and attack them again at the same point on their return. The same is reported in Purchas's Pilgrims.[1064] One of the supplementary writers to Cuvier's History of Insects says: "This is an observation that has need of being corroborated by more certain testimonies than we are yet in possession of. But, if true, there would be nothing in the fact very surprising. A degree of considerable heat, and a more abundant perspiration, might prove unfavorable to the propagation of the _Pediculi corporis_. As their skin is more tender, the influence of the air might prove detrimental to them in those burning climates."[1065]

We read in Purchas's Pilgrims, that "if Lice doe much annoy the natives of Cambaia and Malabar, they call to them certain Religious and holy men, after their account: and these Observants y will take upon them all those Lice which the other can find, and put them on their head, there to nourish them. But yet for all this lousie scruple, they stick not to coozenage by falese weights, measures, and coyne, nor at usury and lies."[1066]

In a side-note to this curious pa.s.sage, we find: "The like lousie trick is reported in the Legend of S. _Francis_, and in the life of Ignatius, of one of the Jesuitical pillars, by Moffaeus."

Steedman says of the Caffres, that "except an occasional plunge in a river, they never wash themselves, and consequently their bodies are covered with vermin. On a fine day their karosses are spread out in the sun, and as their tormentors creep forth they are doomed to destruction.

It often happens that one Caffir performs for another the kind office of collecting these insects, in which case he preserves the entomological specimens, carefully delivering them to the person to whom they originally appertained, supposing, according to their theory, that as they derived their support from the blood of the man from whom they were taken, should they be killed by another, the blood of his neighbor would be in his possession, thus placing in his hands the power of some superhuman influence."[1067]

Kolben says the Hottentots eat the largest of the Lice with which they swarm; and that if asked how they can devour such detestable vermin, they plead the law of retaliation, and urge that it is no shame to eat those who would eat them--"They suck our blood, and we devour 'em in revenge."[1068]

We are a.s.sured in Purchas's Pilgrims, that Lice and "long wormes" were sold for food in Mexico.[1069] From this ancient collection of Travels, we learn that when the Indians of the Province of Cuena are infected with Lice, "they dresse and cleanse one another; and they that exercise this, are for the most part women, who eate all that they take, and have herein (eating?) such dexterity by reason of their exercise, that our own men cannot lightly attaine thereunto."[1070]

The Budini, a people of Scythia, commonly feed upon Lice and other vermin bred upon their bodies.[1071]

Mr. Wafer, in his description of the Isthmus of America, says: "The natives have Lice in their Heads, which they feel out with their Fingers, and eat as they catch them."[1072] Dobrizhoffer also mentions that Lice are eaten by the Indian women of South America.[1073]

The disgusting practice of eating these vermin is not confined to the Hottentots, the Negroes of Western Africa, the Simiae, and the American Indians, for it has been observed to prevail among the beggars of Spain and Portugal.[1074]

Schroder, in his History of Animals that are useful in Physic, says: "Lice are swallowed by country people against the jaundice."[1075] As a specific against this disease, Beaumont and Fletcher thus allude to them:

Die of the jaundice, yet have the cure about you: lice, large lice, begot of your own dust and the heat of the brick kilns.[1076]

Lice were also made use of in cases of Atrophy, and Dioscorides says they were employed in suppressions of urine, being introduced into the ca.n.a.l of the urethra.[1077]

In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1746, there is a curious letter on "a certain _creature_, of rare and extraordinary qualities"--a Louse, containing many humorous observations on this "_lover_ of the human race," and concluding with some queries as to its origin and pedigree. "Was it," the writer asks, "created within the six days a.s.signed by _Moses_ for the formation of all things? If so, where was its habitation? We can hardly suppose that it was quartered on _Adam_ or his lady, the neatest, nicest pair (if we believe _John Milton_) that ever joyned hands. And yet, as it disdained to graze the fields, or lick the dust for sustenance, where else could it have had its subsistence?"[1078]

In a modern account of Scotland, written by an English gentleman, and printed in the year 1670, we find the following: "In that interval between Adam and Moses, when the Scottish Chronicle commences, the country was then baptized (and most think with the sign of the cross) by the venerable name of Scotland, from Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. Hence came the rise and name of these present inhabitants, as their Chronicle informs us, and is not to be doubted of, from divers considerable circ.u.mstances; the plagues of Egypt being entailed upon them, that of Lice (being a judgment unrepealed) is an ample testimony, these loving animals accompanied them from Egypt, and remain with them to this day, never forsaking them (but as rats leave a house) till they tumble into their graves."[1079]

Linnaeus, seemingly very anxious to become an apologist for the Lice, gravely observes that they probably preserve children who are troubled with them, from a variety of complaints to which they would be liable![1080]

As an attempt toward discovering the intention of Providence in permitting the frequency of these tormenting animals, the following lines of Serenus may be given:

See nature, kindly provident ordain Her gentle stimulants to harmless pain; Lest Man, the slave of rest, should waste away In torpid slumber life's important day!

Of the horrible disease, Phthiriasis, occasioned by myriads of Lice, _Pediculi_, and sometimes by Mites, _Acari_, and _Larvae_ in general, I shall but mention that the inhuman Pheretrina, Antiochus Epiphanes, the Dictator Sylla, the two Herods, the Emperor Maximin, and Philip the Second were among the number carried off by it.

Quintus Serenus speaks thus of the death of Sylla:

Great Sylla too the fatal scourge hath known; Slain by a host far mightier than his own.

According to Pliny, Nits are destroyed by using dog's fat, eating serpents cooked like eels, or else taking their sloughs in drink.[1081]

In Leyden's Notes to Complaynt of Scotland are recorded the following few rhymes of the Gyre-carlin--the bug-bear of King James V.

The Mouse, the Louse, and Little Rede, Were a' to mak' a gruel in a lead.

The two first a.s.sociates desire Little Rede to go to the door, to "see what he could see." He declares that he saw the gyre-carlin coming,

With spade, and shool, and trowel, To lick up a' the gruel.