426 
The Animal-Lore of Shahspedre’s Time. 
Some in the earth a secret cabbine frames, 
Some live on tops of ashes, some on olives; 
Some of a red watrish colour, some of green, 
And some within the night like fire are seen.” 
( Love’s Martyr , p. 116.) 
“It was formerly a very prevalent idea,” writes Mr. Thistelton 
Dyer,“ and one, too, not confined to our own country—that tooth¬ 
ache was caused by a little worm, having the form of an eel, which 
gradually gnawed a hole in the tooth. This notion is still to he met 
with in Germany, and is mentioned by Thorpe in his Northern 
Mythology (vol. iii. p. 167). Shakspeare, in Much Ado about Nothing 
(ii. 2), speaks of this curious belief:— 
“ 4 D. Pedro. What! sigh for the toothache ? 
Leon. Where is but a humour or a worm. 5 ” 
( English Folk-Lore , 1878, p. 155.) 
In this passage Mr. Dyer implies that this super¬ 
stition has died out in England ; but only recently a lady 
who read his work remarked, “ It is quite true that 
toothache does come sometimes from a worm: if you 
make a person who has this pain inhale boiling water 
you may see the little worms drop out. I should have 
thought,” she concluded, “ that a clever man like Mr. 
Dyer would have known better. ” 
We come next to— 
“ The Silkeworme by whose webbe our silkes are made, 
Silkworm ^ or S ^ e labour with her weaving, 
A worme that’s rich and precious in her trade. 
That whilst poore soule she toyleth in her spinning 
Leaves nothing in her belly but empty aire. 
And toyling too much falleth to despaire.” 
(Chester, Love’s Martyr , p. 116.) 
The fabric manufactured from the produce of the 
silkworm was introduced into Europe from China as 
early as the sixth century. Silk, interwoven with threads 
of gold or silver, was known as baudehyn, or cloth of 
Baldeck or Babylon, from whence it was supposed to 
come. The religious persecutions in France, during the 
