BBCW, I should have said: The post of mine up above wasn't from folklore, it was from a nature documentary on the TV.

Old Mr.Chaucer knew a thing or two, didn't he. Thanks to him I know how to get a flea out of a person's ear. In a pub, anyway.
More than 50 years since I read CT, and then it was a library archive copy with the old-style s's. Heavy going.