296 MUSCID.E — FLIES. 



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. Rediscovered, as 

 he relates, 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-^oy»" shouted a third, eating a piece of bread as dirty as 

 London snow. 



1 Theatr. Ins., p. 79. Topsel's Hist, of Beasts, p. 951. 



