MUSCID^ — FLIES. 289 



Berytius says : " Flies will never rest on dumb animals if 

 tliey are rubbed with the fat of a lion."^ 



Pliny says : "At Rome yee shall not have a Flie or dog 

 that will enter into the chappell of Hercules standing in the 

 beast market."^ 



Plutarch, in the Eighth Book of his Syraposiaques, learn- 

 edly discourses upon the tamableness of the Fly. His opin- 

 ion is that it cannot be tamed. ^ 



Moufet, in his Theater of Insects, says : " Many ways 

 doth nature also by Flies play with the fancies of men in 

 dreams, if we may credit Apomasaris in his Apotelesms. 

 For the Indians, Persians, and ^Egyptians do teach, that 

 if Flies appear to us in our sleep, it doth signifie an herauld 

 at arms, or an approaching disease. If a general of an 

 army, or a chief commander, dream that at such or such a 

 place he should see a great company of Flies, in that very 

 place, wherever it shall be, there he shall be in anguish and 

 grief for his soldiers that are slain, his army routed, and the 

 victory lost. If a mean or ordinary man dream the like, 

 he shall fall into a violent fever, which likely may cost him 

 his life. If a man dream in his sleep that Flies went into 

 his mouth or nostrils, he is to expect with great sorrow and 

 grief imminent destruction from his enemies."* 



In an English North country chap-book, entitled the 

 Royal Dreara-book, we find: "To dream of Flies or other 

 vermin, denotes enemies of all sorts. "^ 



" When we see," says Hollingshed, " a great number of 

 Flies in a yeare, we naturallie iudge it like to be a great 

 plague."^ 



Among the deep-sea fishermen of Greenock (Scotland), 

 there is a most comical idea that if a Fly falls into a glass 

 from which any one has been drinking, or is about to drink, 

 it is considered a sure omen of good luck to the drinker, 

 and is always noticed as such by the company.'^ Has this 



1 Owen's Geopo)iika, ii. 152, 



2 JVat. Hist., X, 29. Holland, p. 285. D, 



3 Holl. Trans., p. 631. 



Vide Pierius' Hieroglyph., p. 268-9. Iniportunitas ac impudentia 

 Pertinacia ;, Res gesta cominus ; Indocilitas ; Cynici. 

 * The.atr. Im., p. 70. Topsel's Hist, of Beasts, p. 945. 



5 Brand's Pop. Aniiq., iii. 184, 



6 Chron. of Eng., iii. 1002. 



7 N. and Q., xii. 488, 



