| A Word Edgewise
by Mary Joe Clendenin |
 |
FLEA PICKING TIME
Corrie Ten Boon had difficulty giving thanks for the fleas, in spite of the fact that her sister had persuaded her that they should do as Bible says and give thanks for everything. The two women were in a Nazi German prison camp, housed in a barracks that was infested with fleas. They gave thanks for the fleas, and then found that they, in deed, had reason to be thankful. For months the women had managed to keep a Bible by hiding it from the Germans. It turned out that their hiding place was not found because the German guard did not want to search and be flea bitten. .
That little bit of life that causes itching discomfort to man and beast has been found throughout the ages in all countries. A man with such enrgy compared to size, could jump over St. Paul's Cathedral in London--and keep doing it 600 times an hour for three days in a row.
Before the days of flea collars for pets, and pesticides for control, fleas were much more common. Growing up in a country household, surrounded by pets and other animals, I can remember picking fleas off the cats lthat came from under the house, or from the barn, for a little petting. (Dad didn't encourage housecats.) That little flap of skin in a cats ear--as far as I know it has no other purpose than to hold fleas--would be shelter to dozens of fleas. Popping them between thumb nails was fun, I guess. Why else would I do it? The other livestock would, about once a year, get a creosote dip, but cats, with an aversion to water, objected to the smelly antidote.
I remember flea circuses, with fleas pulling little chariots. Ray says he remembers thay had several rings with flea acrobats and other performers.
Scientists have identified over 2,000 species of fleas. It seems that most animals have their own special kind, including an Antarctic fleas that can live for nine months under several feet of snow, waiting for its host, a petrel, to come back to the nest. Human beings do not have a special kind with a taste only for us, and that is why the flea was so instrumental in carrying disease. The black rat of India seems to be the carrier of the plague, Black Death, or bubonic plague. The rats traveled by trading ship to Europe and about 1346--the fleas off the rats spread the plague to Most towns in Europe. It is estimated that about 50% of the people died. That means half the members of a family died. Horse drawn wagons drove through the streets picking up the dead to burn. The flea was not infected--he was just the taxi from rat to human.
Being so common, fleas have invaded our language: a dirty hotel is a flea-bag, flea markets, flea-bitten ideas. With imaginations and wit, people have written poems about "fleas on soft white legs," and songs have been sung to the llittle rascals. In the eighteenth century, women wore flea traps in their undergarments. An ivory trap was very fashionable. It was carved with a hollow place in the center which probably held some sticky substance to catch the fleas.
Catching fleas, or rather killing them with flea collars for pets, is now a billion dollar industry. Hardly a pet would be caught without a potent collar these days.
Hot summer days are flea days, so be careful. Don't move too slowly, or you may be a victim. Maybe, we can all sing, "There Ain't No Fleas on Me."
I found information about fleas in the July Smithsonian, and in a book, PLAGUES AND PEOPLE, by William H. McNeill. You can spend hours in the library without getting a single flea.