FLEA.] NATURAL HISTORY. 115 



Flax. 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, v. 5, 159. 



THE Flax is made to knots and little bundles, and so 

 laid in water, and lieth there long time. And then it is 

 taken out of the water, and laid abroad till it be dried, 

 and turned and wended [^Bartholomew desiccantur\ in the 

 sun, and then bound in pretty niches and bundles ; and 

 afterward knocked, beaten and brayed, and carfled [? sliced ?] 

 rodded, and gnodded [? from gnide, i.e., rub ?] ribbed and 

 heckled, and at the last spun. Then the thread is sod and 

 bleached, and bucked and oft laid to drying, wetted and 

 washed, and sprinkled with water until that it be white, 

 after diverse working and travail. 



Bartholomew (Bertbelei), bk. xvii. 97. 



FLAX ought by law to be sown in every country-town 

 in England, more or less ; but I see no success of that 

 good and wholesome law. 



Holinsked) "Description of England," p. in. 



Flea. 



i. KING HENRY IV., ii. i, 16, 23. 



THE Flea is a little worm, and grieveth men most, and 

 it is namely fed with powder [i.e., dust] ; and is a little 

 worm of wonder lightness, and scapeth and voideth peril 

 with leaping, and not with running, and waxeth slow, and 

 faileth in cold time, and in summer time it waxeth quiver 

 and swift. And the Flea is bred white, and changeth as 

 it were suddenly into black colour, and desireth blood, and 

 doth let them that would sleep with sharp biting, and 

 spareth not kings, but a little Flea grieveth them, if he 

 touch their flesh. And to Fleas wormwood is venom, and 

 so be leaves of the wild fig-tree. And coloquintida a weed 

 that is like to a wild nep helpeth against Fleas, if it be 

 stamped and meddled with water, and sprung in the place 

 there as many Fleas be ; and they bite full sore against 

 rain. Bartholomew (Berthelet), bk. xviii. 89. 



A SLUTTISH kept house breedeth Fleas, and lodging next 

 to stables of horses ; also the horse-urine breedeth Fleas, 

 his dung, falling upon his tail, breedeth snakes, his flesh, 



Wasps. Batman* s addition to Bartholomew, bk. xviii. 89. 



