THE FLIES IN ROME.
It happened one summer in Rome that people were sadly afflicted with flies. Nothing like it had ever been seen; they swarmed by millions everywhere, they blackened the walls, the meat on the butchers’ stands was hidden under masses of them. And the poor suffered in their children, many of whom died, while all kinds of food was poisoned and corrupted everywhere. Then the Emperor said to Virgil:
“Truly, if thou hast indeed the art of conjuring, now is the time to show it, by conjuring away this curse, for I verily believe that all the flies of Egypt are come here to Rome.”
Virgil replied:
“If thou wilt give me so much land as I can enclose in an ox’s hide, I will drive all the flies away from Rome.”
The Emperor was well pleased to get so much for so small a price, as it seemed to him, and promised that he should truly have as much land as could be enclosed or covered [46] in the skin of an ox.
Virgil summoned Il Moscone, the King of the Flies, and said to him:
“I wish that all flies in Rome leave the city this very day!”
Il Moscone, the King of the Flies, replied:
“Cause me to become by magic a great fly of gold, and then put me in the Church of Saint Peter, and after that there will be no more insects in the city.”