192 THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. 



for a moment from recording the struggles of the Greeks 

 and Trojans, and given us a little solid information respecting 

 the flea of those days. 



Although abundant everywhere, he is found to be most 

 prolific and numerous in the East. Upon this point all 

 travellers are agreed. Some put it down to the fact that he 

 loves heat ; others to his partiality for dirt ; while others 

 again go back to the days of the Flood for the explanation. 

 While other animals went into the Ark in pairs, it is 

 morally certain that the flea went in his thousands ; and as 

 the four men in charge of all the animals can have had but 

 little time to attend to the flea, and as, so far as is known, 

 insecticide powder was not invented in those days, the flea 

 doubtless multiplied prodigiously during the long voyage. 

 Not knowing what was going on outside, the colony would 

 be taken by surprise when the animals suddenly quitted the 

 Ark ; and vast numbers must have been left behind ; these 

 must, after the departure of man and the animals from the 

 mountain on which the Ark rested, have shifted for them- 

 selves as they best could. Some would have early started 

 on their travels, others would have clung to the Ark until it 

 fell to pieces ; but in time, at any rate, they must have 

 scattered over the East, and there, being poor travellers 

 except when carried, they and their descendants have 

 remained ever since. It would be rash to say that this 

 is the only plausible theory. Doubtless others can be 

 advanced ; but, taking it altogether, it certainly appears the 

 most probable explanation of the abundance of the flea 

 in Asia, and it may be said in Russia also, and other 

 contiguous countries. 



The flea is capable of being tamed, and of affording 



