Satire; Spanish literature -- Translations into English
When this course was removed from the table, they served another of
tailors, roasted upon the gridiron: after that, others, baked in pates,
smothered in a pot, fried in a pan, and dressed in a hundred different
ways, with this only difference, that those of each nation had a
particular dressing. The French tailors were spitted; the English,
grilled; the Holland, fried; the Germans, smothered in a pot; the
Italians, made into ragout; the Spanish, boiled, because they are
ordinarily hard; the Polonese, in pates; the Hungarians, salad; the
Turks, cooked in rice; the Greeks, in wine; the Arabians, dried in the
sun; the Egyptians, with onion sauce; the Algerines, fried in lard; the
Portuguese, preserved in sugar; the Danish, Swedish, and Muscovite, were
almost all dressed in the same manner; that is to say, baked in brandy;
the Tartar, boiled in horse grease; the Persian, fricaseed with gravy _de
demon_; the Indians, baked in bananas; the Chinese, and all the
islanders, were very much seasoned with spices and sugar; the Ethiopians,
negroes of Fez, Morocco, and Guinea, were baked in black butter; and the
Americans, in milk.
“What an immense quantity of tailors,” said I to the demon who was near
me; “your cooks must understand their business, to be able to compound so
many dishes of viands, which differ no more the one from the other, than
the bullocks of Spain from those of Ireland.”
They served to Lucifer wine of the various publicans of the world.
“Fie!” said I to the demon; “your master is hardly a connoisseur of
wine.”
“You are mistaken,” said he; “it is true, that this wine has been mixed
with water, sugar, and spices; but the publicans are obliged to separate
all these drugs, even the water which they ordinarily put in, from the
rest, which remains pure, fair and clear; if the publicans did not do
this, they would put them in the press, and draw from their veins all the
wine they had themselves drank.”
“How!” said I, “do you live upon nothing but human flesh?”
“How should we live else?” answered he. “Can we eat beef, mutton,
partridges, fish, and beans? These animals come not hither, but in
smoke; and herbs will not grow in a place so hot.”
“How can you say that animals come here in smoke?”
“It is those the idolaters sacrifice to the prince of demons: this smoke
penetrates even to this place, and is the only perfume agreeable to our
sovereign; for as to the scented oils, powders, and pomatums, of which
the men and women of the other life make use, Lucifer is so incommoded,
that those who are thus scented, dare not approach his apartment.”
“Egad!” said I, “Lucifer has then a smell keener than that of a hound.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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