The noble wines of Hochheim, of Bacharach, and of Klingenberg they tipped into their bellies in glasses as big as buckets, which presently shewed their effects higher up, in the head. And thereupon I saw with wonder how all changed; for here were reputable folk, which just before were in possession of their five senses and sitting in peace by one another, now beginning of a sudden to act the fool and to play the silliest tricks in the world. And the great follies which they did commit and the huge draughts which they drank to each other became bigger as time went on, so that it seemed as if fooleries and draughts strove with each other which of them should be accounted the greater: but at last this contest ended in a filthy piggishness. 'Twas not wonderful that I understood not whence their giddiness came: inasmuch as the effect of wine, and drunkenness itself, were until now quite unknown to me: and this left in my roguish remembrance thereafter all manner of merry pranks and fantastic imaginings: their strange looks I could see; but the cause of their condition I knew not. Indeed up till then each one had emptied the pot with a good appetite: but when now their bellies were full 'twas as hard with them as with a waggoner, that can fare well enough with his team over level ground, yet up the hill can scarcely toil. But though their heads were bemused, their want of strength was made good: in one man's case by his courage, well soaked in wine: in another the loyal desire to drink yet one health to his friend: in a third that German chivalry which must do his neighbour right. But even such efforts must fail in the long run. Then would one challenge another to pour the wine in in buckets to the health of the princes or of dear friends or of a mistress. And at this many a one's eyes turned in his head, and the cold sweat broke out: yet still the drinking must go on; yea, at the last they must make a noise with drums, fifes, and stringed instruments, and shot off the ordnance, doubtless for this cause, because the wine must take their bellies by assault. Then did I wonder where they could be rid of it all, for I knew not that they would turn out the same before 'twas well warm within them (and that with great pains) out of the very place into which they had just before poured it to the great danger of their health. At this feast was also my pastor: and because he was a man like other men, he must retire for a while. So I followed him and "Pastor," said I, "why do these folk behave so strangely? How comes it that they do reel this way and that? Sure it seems to me they be no longer in their senses; for they have all eaten and drunken themselves full, and swear devil take them if they can drink more, and yet they cease not to swill. Be they compelled thereto, or is it in God's despite that they of their free will waste all things so wantonly?"