Chapter 4 XXX — How Shrovetide Is Anatomized and Described by Xenomanes
As for the inward parts of Shrovetide, said Xenomanes; his brain is (at least, it was in my time) in bigness, colours, substance, and strength, much like the left cod of a he hand-worm.
| The ventricles of his said brain, | The stomach, like a belt. |
| like an auger. | The pylorus, like a pitchfork. |
| The worm-like excrescence, like | The windpipe, like an oyster- |
| a Christmas-box. | knife. |
| The membranes, like a monk’s | The throat, like a pincushion |
| cowl. | stuffed with oakum. |
| The funnel, like a mason’s chisel. | The lungs, like a prebend’s |
| The fornix, like a casket. | fur-gown. |
| The glandula pinealis, like a bag- | The heart, like a cope. |
| pipe. | The mediastine, like an earthen |
| The rete mirabile, like a gutter. | cup. |
| The dug-like processus, like a | The pleura, like a crow’s bill. |
| patch. | The arteries, like a watch-coat. |
| The tympanums, like a whirli- | The midriff, like a montero-cap. |
| gig. | The liver, like a double-tongued |
| The rocky bones, like a goose- | mattock. |
| wing. | The veins, like a sash-window. |
| The nape of the neck, like a paper | The spleen, like a catcall. |
| lantern. | The guts, like a trammel. |
| The nerves, like a pipkin. | The gall, like a cooper’s adze. |
| The uvula, like a sackbut. | The entrails, like a gauntlet. |
| The palate, like a mitten. | The mesentery, like an abbot’s |
| The spittle, like a shuttle. | mitre. |
| The almonds, like a telescope. | The hungry gut, like a button. |
| The bridge of his nose, like a | The blind gut, like a breastplate. |
| wheelbarrow. | The colon, like a bridle. |
| The head of the larynx, like a | The arse-gut, like a monk’s |
| vintage-basket. | leathern bottle. |
| The kidneys, like a trowel. | The ligaments, like a tinker’s |
| The loins, like a padlock. | budget. |
| The ureters, like a pothook. | The bones, like three-cornered |
| The emulgent veins, like two | cheesecakes. |
| gilliflowers. | The marrow, like a wallet. |
| The spermatic vessels, like a | The cartilages, like a field- |
| cully-mully-puff. | tortoise, alias a mole. |
| The parastata, like an inkpot. | The glandules in the mouth, like |
| The bladder, like a stone-bow. | a pruning-knife. |
| The neck, like a mill-clapper. | The animal spirits, like swingeing |
| The mirach, or lower parts of the | fisticuffs. |
| belly, like a high-crowned hat. | The blood-fermenting, like a |
| The siphach, or its inner rind, | multiplication of flirts on the |
| like a wooden cuff. | nose. |
| The muscles, like a pair of bellows. | The urine, like a figpecker. |
| The tendons, like a hawking- | The sperm, like a hundred |
| glove. | ten-penny nails. |
And his nurse told me, that being married to Mid-lent, he only begot a good number of local adverbs and certain double fasts.
| His memory he had like a scarf. | His undertakings, like the ballast |
| His common sense, like a buzzing | of a galleon. |
| of bees. | His understanding, like a torn |
| His imagination, like the chime | breviary. |
| of a set of bells. | His notions, like snails crawling |
| His thoughts, like a flight of star- | out of strawberries. |
| lings. | His will, like three filberts in a |
| His conscience, like the unnest- | porringer. |
| ling of a parcel of young | His desire, like six trusses of hay. |
| herons. | His judgment, like a shoeing- |
| His deliberations, like a set of | horn. |
| organs. | His discretion, like the truckle of |
| His repentance, like the carriage | a pulley. |
| of a double cannon. | His reason, like a cricket. |