Here Introduction ends and Travel begins with the part partly translated
by Dr. King: Crapulia, named from Crapula, is the Land of Inebriate
Excess, and its two provinces, Pamphagonia and Yvronia, mean by their
names the provinces of Omnivorous Gluttony and Drunkenness. Dr. King has
translated six chapters, and begun the seventh, which is upon the wars
of the Pamphagonians, to which they march forth armed with spits and
two-pronged forks and heavy ribs of beef. In their free city, Ucalegon,
built near the borders of Moronia, the citizens live happy as monks.
They are so well shut in by high rocks that they can laugh at enemies,
and through a hollow in the rocks with softest pace creeps the river
Oysivius (the Idle). There is only one way up, their rocks for the
inhabitants, and that is not by zigzag steps, but by a rope and basket.
Birds wholly peculiar to the place supply food by being themselves
eatable, and by the great multitude of their eggs, and by the loads of
fish they bring into their nests to feed their young. The citizens make
to themselves also beds of the soft feathers of these birds. This valley
yields to the people of Ucalegon everything except what they don't care
for. They are free, therefore, to sup, sleep, rise, dine, and lie down.
Husbandry, as among the old Egyptians, consists chiefly in feeding pigs,
for the husbandmen wait on the rich. One, with a gentle touch, opens the
richer man's eyes when he wakes; another fans him with a flapper while
he eats; another puts bits into his mouth when it opens. There are two
cities under Ucalegon, Livona and Roncara (Snort and Snore), which have
like privileges, except that here the inhabitants are almost always
asleep, and fatten wonderfully.
These are among the laws of Crapulia:--It is a crime to drink alone.
Whoever has defrauded Nature by fasting four hours after sleep shall be
compelled to sup. When the mouth is full it is enough to answer
questions by holding out a finger. What cook soever shall treat food so
that it cannot be eaten, shall be tied to a stake beside which is hung
meat half raw or half burnt, and shall remain so tied until somebody
comes who will eat that meat.
No coin of metal is current in Crapulia, but they make payment in kind.
Thus two sparrows are one starling, two starlings are one fieldfare, two
fieldfares one hen, two hens one goose, two geese one lamb, two lambs
one kid, two kids one goat, two goats one cow, and so forth.
The next chapter is on the Religion of the Crapulians. They hate Jove
because his thunder turns the wine sour and he spoils ripe fruit by
raining on it. Their God is Time, who eats everything.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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