Chapter Florinda to Foedera of F by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Fly-gods, Beelzebub, a god of the Philistines, supposed to ward off flies. Achor was worshipped by the Cyreneans for a similar object. Zeus Apomyios was the fly-god of the Greeks.

On the east side of your shop, aloft,
Write Mathlai, Tarmael, and Baraborat;
Upon the north part, Rael, Velel, Thiel.
They are the names of those mercurial sprites
That do fright flies from boxes.
   —Ben Jonson: The Alchemist, i. (1610).

Flying Dutchman (The), a phantom ship, seen in stormy weather off the Cape of Good Hope, and thought to forebode ill luck. The legend is that it was a vessel laden with precious metal, but a horrible murder having been committed on board, the plague broke out among the crew, and no port would allow the ship to enter, so it was doomed to float about like a ghost, and never to enjoy rest.—Sir W. Scott.

Another legend is that a Dutch captain, homeward bound, met with long-continued head winds off the Cape; but swore he would double the Cape and not put back, if he strove till the day of doom. He was taken at his word, and there he still beats, but never succeeds in rounding the point.

(Captain Marryat has a novel founded on this legend, called The Phantom Ship, 1836.)

Flying Highwayman, William Harrow, who leaped his horse over turnpike gates as if it had been furnished with wings. He was executed in 1763.

Flyter (Mrs.), landlady of the lodgings occupied by Frank Osbaldistone in Glasgow.—Sir W. Scott: Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Fœdera (The), the public acts between the kings of England and other royal personages. It also contains the Magna Charta, numerous benefactions, and other documents. Dr. Adam Clarke was employed to carry the original work back to the Conquest. Rymer was the compiler of fifteen folio volumes (1638–1714). Robert Sanderson added five more. The Hague edition was published in ten volumes folio, and Stephen Whatley translated it into English in 1731.