Brewer's: Toralva

The licentiate who was conveyed on a cane through the air, with his eyes shut. In the space of twelve hours he arrived at Rome, and lighted on the tower of Nona, whence, looking down, he witnessed the death of the constable de Bourbon. The next morning he arrived at Madrid, and related the whole affair. During his flight through the air the devil bade him open his eyes, and he found himself so near the moon that he could have touched it with his finger. (Cervantes: Don Quixote, pt. ii. bk. iii. chap. v.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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