Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/169

 and Sentiments. 149 it ; and he faid to the lervants, ' Say to the emperor that the hog had no heart.' The emperor faid, 'It may not be 3 and therefore fay to him, upon pain of death, that he fend me the heart of the fwine, for there is no beail: in all the world without a heart.' The fervants went to the cook with the emperor's orders 5 and he replied, ' Say to my lord, but if I prove mightily by clear reafons that the fwine had no heart, I put me fully to his will, to do with me as he likes.' The emperor, when he heard this, aifigned him a day to anfvver. When the day was come, the cook, with a high voice, faid before all men, 'My lord, this is the day of my anfwer. Firll I fliall ihow you that the fwine had no heart ; this is the reafon. Every thought cometh from the heart, therefore every man or beafl feeleth good or evil 3 it followeth of neceflity that by this the heart thinketh.' The emperor faid, 'That is truth.' 'Then,' faid the cook, ' now lliall I ihow by reafons that the fwine had no heart. Firfi: he entered the foreft, and the fleward cut otf his tail 3 if he had had a heart, he Ihould have thought on his tail that was loft, but he thought not thereupon, for afterwards he entered the foreft, and the forelier cut oft' his left ear. If he had had a heart, he ftiould have thought on his left ear, but he thought not, for the third time he entered the foreft. That faw the forefter, and cut off" his right ear 3 where, if he had had a heart, he Ihould have thought that he had loft his tail and both his ears, and never Ihould have gone again where he had fo many evils. But yet the fourth time he entered the foreft, and the fteward (aw that, and llew him, and delivered him to me to array to your meat. Here may ye fee, my lord, that I have ftiown, by worthy reafons, that the fwine had no heart.' And thus efcaped the cook." The ftory which follows this in the Gefta, tells of an emperor named " Alexaundre," "who of great need ordained for a law, that no man Ihould turn the plaice in his dilh, but that he ftiould only eat the white fide, and in no wife the black fide ; and if any man did the contrary, he ftiould die!" It is hardly neceflTary to remark, that fifti was a great article of confumption in the middle ages, and efpecially among the ecclefiaftics and monks. The accompanying cut on the following page (No. 104), from a manulcript of tlie fourteenth century in the British ISIul'eum