Flail

“ The children born and bred in this Red River Valley have never seen, except in pictures, a sickle or a flail. Their only conception of a harvest time is that a battery of red self-binders, with reels whirling and knives clacking, shall charge upon the wheat as though each acre were a battalion of hostile infantry, and make war until the land is strewn with heaps of fallen sheaves. ”

“ Fohlen, neuter, ‘foal,’ from Middle High German vol, vole, Old High German folo, masculine, ‘colt, foal’; compare Gothic fula, masculine, ‘foal (of an ass) ,’ Old Icelandic fole, ‘foal’ (of a horse, rarely of an ass) , Anglo-Saxon fola, masculine, English foal; a term common to Teutonic for the young of a horse or an ass, derived from pre-Teutonic pelón-, Related by gradation to Greek πῶλος, ‘colt,’ as a general term ‘young animal,’ and Latin pullus, ‘the young,’ especially of fowls. See Füllen. ”

“ Then followed a struggle no flea can describe—sighs of blissful and ravishing sensations escape his open slobbering lips, he pushes, he bends forward, his eyes turn up, his mouth opens, and, unable to prevent the rapid completion of his lustful pleasures, the strong man gasps out his soul, and with it a torrent of seminal fluid, which thrown well forward squirts into the womb of his own child. ”

“ The mouth of a flea, as of any other insect, is merely an orifice which forms the opening into the alimentary canal. Around the orifice are the various mouth-parts which convey blood to the mouth, but these, the reader will doubtless remember, are the modified limbs or appendages of the segments that compose the flea’s head. The mouth, then, gives access to the digestive canal. The first part nearest the mouth is the pharynx which merges gradually into the gullet. ”

“ We all know that the Flea is so flat, or compressed sideways, that it does not mind the most severe squeeze. This condition is almost peculiar to it; a great flattening of the body is common in Insects—as is seen in another annoying Insect, the bed-bug—but the compression, in the flea, is in the reverse direction. In other respects the external anatomy of the flea shows several peculiarities, the morphological import of which has not yet been elucidated. ”

“ A MAN, very much annoyed with a Flea, caught him at last, and said, "Who are you who dare to feed on my limbs, and to cost me so much trouble in catching you?" The Flea replied, "O my dear sir, pray spare my life, and destroy me not, for I cannot possibly do you much harm." ”

“ One may attribute some of the extraordinary strength and vital energy of a flea to the fact that, by the blood-system and the air-system, the tissues of the body are kept richly supplied with oxygen. The blood of a flea is a thin fluid and, of course, without red corpuscles. The blood that is shed when a flea is crushed comes from the stomach and not from the blood-vessels of the insect. ”

“ The fleas are everywhere, and attack you at all points, and travel over you until you feel like tearing your hair in utter desperation. And yet we have been told by some that they have not seen a flea. ”

“ But even a flea might have blushed at the wanton sight which thrust itself upon his vision on the occasion I have herein recorded. So young, so apparently innocent a girl, and yet so lewd, so lascivious in her inclinations and desires. A person of infinite freshness and beauty—a mind of flaming sensuality fanned by the accidental course of events into an active volcano of lust. ”

“ Bearing in mind, then, that the piercing organs are the labrum and the two mandibles, and that the rostrum (composed of labium and labial palpi) is merely a sheath, it is easy to form a clear picture of a flea feeding. Anyone who is bold enough to place a hungry flea on the bare skin of the arm can readily observe through a powerful lens what happens. When the flea has chosen a spot to pierce the skin, the rostrum, with the mandibles and long upper lip or labrum inside it, is moved a little forward. The flea then lifts its abdomen upwards and presses the piercing organs down into the skin. ”

“ How Panurge had a flea in his ear, and forbore to wear any longer his magnificent codpiece Panurge, the day thereafter, caused pierce his right ear after the Jewish fashion, and thereto clasped a little gold ring, of a ferny-like kind of workmanship, in the beazil or collet whereof was set and enchased a flea; and, to the end you may be rid of all doubts, you are to know that the flea was black. O, what a brave thing it is, in every case and circumstance of a matter, to be thoroughly well informed! ”

“ With eager hand he firmly seizes her swelling hip, and pulling her towards him, opens her white legs and plants himself between.
Reader, I have already remarked I am only a flea. Yet fleas have feelings, and what mine were I will not attempt to describe when I beheld that excited member brought close to the pouting lips of Julia's moist slit. I closed my eyes; the sexual instincts of the male flea rose within me, and I longed—yes! how ardently I longed to be in Mr. Delmont's place. ”

“ Mark you, gentlemen, this is not the flea of the dog or the cat, but the human flea, for each differ in their formation, as clearly proved by this powerful instrument. For they all differ in their form and shape, and will only feed upon the animal on which they are bred. Having shown you the head and shoulders, with its dart, I shall now proceed to show you the posterior view of this object, in which you may clearly discover every artery, vein, muscle and nerve, exact like a lobster in shape, and quite as large as one at 2s. ”

“ It is that which perforates the cuticle or human skin, after which the blood ascends by suction from our body into that of the flea. Thousands of persons in London have seen a flea, have felt a flea, but have never yet been able by the human eye to discover that instrument which made them sensible of the flea about their person, although they could not catch the old gentleman. ”

“ Somewhat a like contrivance to this of Flies shall we find in most other Animals, such as all kinds of Flies and case-wing’d creatures; nay, in a Flea, an Animal abundantly smaller then this Fly. Other creatures, as Mites, the Land-Crab, &c. have onely one small very sharp Tallon at the end of each of their legs, which all drawing towards the center or middle of their body, inable these exceeding light bodies to suspend and fasten themselves to almost any surface. ”

“ You will thus perceive that I am not common flea; indeed, when it is born in mind the company in which I have been accustomed to mingle, the familiarity with which I have been suffered to treat persons the most exalted, and the opportunities I have possessed to make the most of my acquaintances, the reader will no doubt agree with me that I am in very truth a most wonderful and exalted insect. ”

“ As a rule the males are more bristly than the females.
These appendages of the flea’s integument are called by various writers either spines, bristles, or hairs. There is, however, no real distinction in the structure or nature of the appendages, and it is a question of degree which name is most appropriate.
In distinguishing species, very little reliance can be placed on the colour of the flea. An insect newly emerged from the pupa is always lighter in colour; and the difference between the appearance of an empty stomach and a stomach gorged with red blood is surprising. ”

“ Red flares shooting up high into the night, or skimming low over the ground, like the swallows that are not: and rockets bursting into stars. See how they illumine that patch of ground a mile in front. See it, it is deadly pale in their searching light: ghastly, I think, and featureless except for two big lines of eyebrows ashy white, parallel along it, raised a little from its surface. Eyebrows. Where are the eyes? Hush, there are no eyes. What those shooting flares illumine is a mole. A long thin mole. Burrowing by day, and shoving a timorous enquiring snout above the ground by night. ”

“ That the pain also caused by the stinging of a Flea, a Gnat, a Flie, a Wasp, and the like, proceeds much from the very same cause, I elsewhere in their proper places endeavour to manifest. The stinging also of shred Hors-hair, which in meriment is often strew'd between the sheets of a Bed, seems to proceed from the same cause. ”

“ Watts. The Flea.
The flea, so called because it always “flees” the foe, is an industrious insect, and has been immortalized by Dr. What’s-his-name in those beautiful lines commencing:
How doth the busy little flea
Improve each starry night,
And gather food from you and me
With all his little might.
How skilfully it hops away,
When it we try to squeeze;
And waits until the close of day
Its hunger to appease.
The flea may be said to come under the denomination of “game,” being eagerly hunted by various animals, and especially by woman. ”

“ The small bristles at the extreme tip of the rostrum seem to be sensory organs. They are like those at the apex of the maxillary palpus. When a hungry flea is put on one’s arm, it appears to test the skin with these bristles before it ventures to make a puncture.
The mandibles. These are a pair of sharp lancets with serrated edges. They make the puncture and are interlocked with the labrum to form a sucking tube. ”

“ Even the smallest details give him delight through something beautiful, or perfect, or characteristic in them—the blue fields of waving flax, the yellow gorse which covers the hills, even tangled thickets, or single trees, or springs, which seem to him like wonders of nature. ”

“ Flies in wide circles high above the tree-tops, and utters a weird, uncanny cry, which has given it the name of being a bird of ill omen, and to many people the cry of the raven is deemed a sign of approaching evil. ”

“ Round his finely-cut nostrils, his mouth, his half-opened eyes, squatting, buzzing, sucking, shunting one another for best place—flies, flies, flies, and no one to beat them off. Flies in thousands, squabbling for his blood, and no one to beat them off. ”

“ THE FLEA. WHILE great pains are devoted to the breeding of horses, cattle, and sheep among animals, to that of several kinds of birds, and to the propagation of fish, the flea has been left to shift for itself, and has managed to thrive. Whether the flea was, in the first place, an inhabitant of all terrestrial portions of the globe, or whether, starting from a common centre, it speedily spread itself over the earth, is a point which has not been decided; but the habits of the flea admirably fit him as a traveller ”

“ We decided that Flamingo Marsh would be the best spot for the operation of steeping or `retting' the flax, and next morning we set out thither; the cart drawn by the ass, and laden with the bundles, between which sat Franz and Knips, while the rest of us followed with spades and hatchets.
I described to my boys as we went along the process of retting, and explained to them how steeping the flax leaves destroys the useless membrane, while the strong fibres remain. ”

“ Evolution took that conceit out of us; and now, though we may kill a flea without the smallest remorse, we at all events know that we are killing our cousin. No doubt it shocks the flea when the creature that an almighty Celestial Flea created expressly for the food of fleas, destroys the jumping lord of creation with his sharp and enormous thumbnail ”

“ A flea like every other animal must feed and breathe, which leads to a consideration of the internal organs of digestion and respiration. The digestive canal is a slender tube which connects the mouth and the anus, and which is less convoluted and much straighter than in the higher vertebrates. ”

“ This spirit visited his imagination in such a figure as he never anticipated in an insect. As I was anxious to make the most correct investigation in my power of the truth of these visions, on hearing of this spiritual apparition of a Flea, I asked him if he could draw for me the resemblance of what he saw. ”

“ Do you see any fleas here? Do you notice any trace of fleas? Do you smell an odour of fleas? Is there any appearance of fleas in my cell? Look!"
"I can't find any," said the little novice, who was Mademoiselle de
Fiennes, "and smell no odour other than our own."
"Do as I am about to tell you, and be no more bitten. Directly you feel yourself pricked, you must strip yourself, lift your chemise, and be careful not to sin while looking all over your body; think only of the cursed flea, looking for it, in good faith, without paying attention to other things ”

“ At the same time a membrane or skin will spread around the entrance inside of the womb, from which a number of small cords branch out, uniting together as they run along, until they form one cord, extending to the navel of the foal, through which the blood of the mare circulates in the foal, in order to give it nourishment. ”

“ During the time occupied in compleating the drawing, the Flea told him that all fleas were inhabited by the souls of such men as were by nature blood-thirsty to excess, and were therefore providentially confined to the size and form of insects ”

“ Why should a brave man tremble before a nice clean shining flea? You are not afraid of twelve-inch shells or railroad trains or torpedoes—what, then, is a flea? Of course by “a flea” I mean fleas generically. I’ve done my best for you—but the long and the short of it is that if you go anywhere outside of the Grand Hotel you must stand fleas—piles, multitudes, mountains and mountain-ranges of fleas! There! Fleas are a necessary part of human existence.
The iceman offers you a room breezy, cool,—you eat with me; but by all the gods! you’ve got to make the acquaintance of some fleas! ”

“ We only cause them, as fleas cause flea-bites.... What are all the works of man, but a sort of cutaneous disorder in this unhealthy earth-hide, and we a race of larger fleas, running about among its fur, which we call trees? Why should not the earth be an animal? ”