306 PULICIDiE — FLEAS. 



Ark," says the legend, "sprung a leak by striking against 

 a rock in the vicinity of Mount Sindshar, and Noah de- 

 spaired altogether of' safety, the serpent promised to help 

 him out of his mishap if he' would engage to feed him upon 

 human tiesh after the deluge had subsided. Noah pledged 

 himself to do so ; and the serpent coiling himself up, drove 

 his l)ody into the fracture and stopped the leak. When the 

 pluvious element was appeased, and all were making their 

 way out of the ark, the serpent insisted upon the fulfillment 

 of the pledge he had received ; but Noah, by Gabriel's ad- 

 vice, commuted the pledge to the flames, and scattering its 

 ashes in the air, there arose out of them Fleas, Flies, Lice, 

 Bugs, and all such sort of vermin as prey upon human 

 blood' and after this fashion was Noah's pledge redeemed. "^ 



The Sandwich Islanders have the following tradition in 

 regard to the introduction of Fleas into their country : Many 

 years ago a woman from Waimea went out to a ship to see her 

 lover, and as she was about to return, he gave her a bottle, 

 saying that there was very little valuable property (icaiwai) 

 contained in it, but that she must not open it, on any ac- 

 count, until she reached the shore. As soon as she gained 

 the beach, slie eagerly uncorked the bottle to examine her 

 treasure, but nothing was to be discovered, — the Fleas 

 hopped out, and " they have gone on hopping and biting 

 ever since. "- 



Our pigmy tormentor, Pulex irritans, in the opinion of 

 some, seems to have been regarded as an agreeable rather 

 than a repulsive object. "Dear Miss," said a lively old 

 lady to a friend of Kirby and Spence (who had the mis- 

 fortune to be confined to her bed by a broken limb, and was 

 complaining that the Fleas tormented her), "don't you like 

 Fleaa'^ Well, I think they are the prettiest little merry 

 things in the world. — I never saw a dull Flea in all my life."^ 

 Dr. Townson, as mentioned by the above writers, from the 

 encomium which he bestows upon these vigilant little vaulters, 

 as supplying the place of an alarum and driving us from the 

 bed of sloth, should seem to have regarded them with the 

 same happy feelings.* 



When Ray and Willughby were traveling, they found "at 



^ Hist, of Ins (Murray, 1838), ii. 312. 



a Jenkin's Vo>/. of the U. S. Explor. Exped., p. 385. 



^ Litrod., i. 100. . * -l^id. 



