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.”

Then Virgil conjured him into the form of a fly of gold, and it was placed in the church, and at that instant all the flies left Rome. At which the Emperor was well pleased.

Then the Emperor asked Virgil where the land lay which was to be taken in the ox-hide.

“Come to-morrow and you shall see,” answered the sage.

So the Emperor came with all his Court, and found Virgil mounted on horseback, bearing a great bundle of leather cord, like shoe-strings, and this had been made from the skin of the ox. And beginning at one gate and letting fall the cord, he rode around the city until all Rome was surrounded.

“Your Highness will observe,” said Virgil, “that I have taken exactly as much land as could be enclosed in an ox’s hide, and as Rome stands on the ground, therefore all Rome is mine.”

“And what wilt thou take for this bit of earth—houses, people and all?” inquired the Emperor.

“I ask what to me is its full value, oh my Emperor, for I have long loved your beautiful niece! Give her to me with one hundred thousand crowns in gold, and I will restore to you your city.”

The Emperor was well pleased to grant this, and so it came to pass that all Rome was bought and sold in one day for a purse and a princess, or for a woman and one hundred thousand crowns.

It will be observed by many readers that in the first tale here narrated there are combined two of the older Virgilian legends, one being that of the Gem which has within it a mysterious power, and which is thus told in “The Wonderful History of Virgil the Sorcerer.” [47]

“Soon after, the Emperor having his crown-jewels laid out before him, sent for Virgilius, and said: ‘Master, you know many things, and few are hid from your ken. Tell me now, if you be indeed a judge of gems, which think you is the best of these?’ The Emperor having pointed out one gem of peculiar brilliancy, Virgilius laid it, first in the palm of his hand, then to his ear, and said: ‘Sire, in this stone there is a worm.’ Forthwith the Emperor caused the stone to be sawn asunder, and lo, in the centre was found a worm concealed! Amazed at the sagacity of Virgilius, the Emperor, at the charge of the country, raised his allowance to a whole loaf per diem.”

The story of the fly is told in almost all the collections. The reader will bear in mind the following frank and full admission, of which all critics are invited to make the worst, that in many cases I had already narrated these Virgilian tales to my collector, as I did here—a course which it is simply impossible to avoid where one is collecting in a speciality. If you want fairy-tales, take whatever the gods may send, but if you require nothing but legends of Red Cap, you must specify, and show samples of the wares demanded. But it may here be observed, that after I had communicated these tales, they all returned to me with important changes. In the older legends the fly made by Virgil is manifestly—like the leech which he also fabricated—simply an amulet or talisman formed under the influence of the planets, or by astrology. In the version which I give there is an altogether different, far more ancient and mysterious motive power described. This is the direct aid of Moscone, the King of the Flies, suggestive of Baal tse Bul, or Beelzebub himself. The reader may find a chapter on this mystical being, who is also the god of news, in the “Legends of Florence,” Part II. According to my story, the Golden Fly is not a talisman made by planetary influences, but a tribute of respect to a demon, which he demands shall be set up in Saint Peter’s. Here the witch, ever inimical to orthodox faith, appears in black and white—so true is it, as I have before remarked, that even where my assistant has been asked to re-tell a tale, it always returned with darker and stranger colouring, which gave it an interest far greater than existed in the simple narrative. The tale of the fly, as a mere amulet, is of almost no importance whatever, beyond its being an insignificant variant; but as a legend of the chief of the flies, or Beelzebub, claiming honour and a place in the great Christian Church, it is of extraordinary novelty.

Amber, in which insects are often found, especially small flies or midges, was anciently regarded as a gem, and is classed as one in the Tesoro delle Goie. Trattato curioso, Venice, 1676.

It may be observed that something like this story of the gem with an insect in it occurs not only in the early legends of Virgil, but also in the oldest novelle, as may be seen in Roscoe’s “Italian Novelists.” In fact, there is probably not one of the old Neapolitan Virgilian stories which is not, like this, of Oriental origin.