fly-puzzler

Updated: May 11, 2025

The fibrous strings, white by nature, soon turn black, and look like India-rubber, the effect of butter first rubbed in, and then of constant friction on the grimy person. The dangling, waving motion of this strange appendage, as the wearer moves along, reminded me of the common fly-puzzler sometimes attached to horses' head-stalls.

John Hanning Speke - What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile