Taboo: A Legend Retold from the Dirghic of Sævius Nicanor, with; Prolegomena, Notes, and a Preliminary MemoirCabell, James Branch
General
Taboo: A Legend Retold from the Dirghic of Sævius Nicanor, with; Prolegomena, Notes, and a Preliminary Memoir
Cabell, James Branch
Satire
"No more do I," said Horvendile; "but I would have imagined you were
more interested in lunar phenomena, and even so--"
"Moreover," now declared another mummy (this was a Moor, called
P.E.M., or the Peach,[5] who through some oversight had not been
embalmed, but only pickled in vinegar, to the detriment of his
disposition),--"moreover, I am not at all in sympathy with any protest
whatever against the scavenger, for it might be taken as an excuse for
what they are pleased to call art."
[Footnote 5: Codman annotates this: "Synonyms, since P.E.M. is
obviously _Persicum Esculentum Malum_--that is, the peach; 'which,'
says Macrobius, 'although it rather belongs to the tribe of apples,
Saevius reckons as a species of nut.'"]
All groaned at this abominable word. And then another lackey cried,
"You are a prosperous and affected pseudo-litterateur!" and all the
mummies spoke sepulchrally the word of derision, which is "Tee-Hee":
and many said also, "The scavenger has never meddled with us, and we
never heard of you," and there was much other incoherent foolishness.
But Horvendile had fled, bewildered by the ways of Philistia's adepts
in starch and fetters, and bewildered in particular to note that a
mummy, so generally esteemed a kindly and well-meaning fossil,
appeared quite honestly to believe that all literature came out of
the beer-cellar of Paff, or Pfaff, or had some similarly Teutonic
sponsor; and that handball was the best training for literary
criticism; and that the cookery-books of fifty years ago had something
to do with Horvendile's account of his journeying, from he did not
know where toward a goal which he could not divine, now being in the
garbage pile. It troubled Horvendile because so many persons seemed to
regard the old fellow half seriously.
5--How It Appeared to the Man in the Street
Still, Horvendile was not quite routed by these heaped follies. "For,
after all," says Horvendile, in his own folly, "it is for the normal
human being that books are made, and not for mummies and men of law
and scavengers."
So Horvendile went through a many streets that were thronged with
persons travelling by compulsion from they did not know where toward a
goal which they could not divine, and were not especially bothering
about. And it was evening, and to this side and to that side the men
and women of Philistia were dining. Everywhere maids were passing hot
dishes, and forks were being thrust into these dishes, and each was
eating according to his ability and condition. No matter how
poverty-stricken the household, the housewife was serving her poor
best to the goodman. For with luncheon so long past, all the really
virile men of Philistia were famished, and stood ready to eat the
moment, they had a dish uncovered.
So it befell that Horvendile encountered a representative citizen, who
was coming out of a representative restaurant with a representative
wife.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account