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XXVIII.

The form (as when with breath the bag-pipes rise
And swell) round-wise, and long, yet long-wise more,
Fram'd to the most capacious figure's guise;

For 'tis the Island's garner; here its store

Lies treasur'd up, which, well prepar'd, it sends
By secret path that to th' arch-city bends;
Which, making it more fit, to all the Isle extends.
XXIX.

Far hence at foot of rocky Cephal's hills,
This city's *steward dwells in vaulted stone;
And twice a day Koilia's store-house fills
With certain rent and due provision:

Aloft he fitly dwells in arched cave,

Which to describe I better time shall have,

When that fair mount I sing, and his white curdy wave. XXX.

At that cave's mouth, twice sixteen porters †stand,

Receivers of the customary rent;

On each side four, (the foremost of the band)

Whose office to divide what in is sent;

Straight other four break it in pieces small;

And at each hand twice five, which grinding all,

Fit it for convoy and this city's arsenal.

*Gustus, the taste, is the caterer, or steward to the stomach, which has its place in Cephal; that is the head. The surface of the tongue is filled with small Papille, which are no other than fine ramifications of the gustatory nerve; these are variously moved by the particies of meat and drink; and this motion being by that nerve transmitted to the brain, that perception arises which we style tasting."

In each jaw, are sixteen teeth, four cutters, two dog-teeth or breakers, and ten grinders.

E

XXXI.

From thence a *groom of wondrous volubility
Delivers all unto near officers,

Of nature like himself and like agility;

At each side four, that are the governors,

To see the victuals shipp'd at fittest tide;

Which straight from thence with prosp'rous channel

slide,

And in Koilia's port with nimble oars glide.

XXXII.

The thaven, fram'd with wondrous sense and art,
Opens itself to all that entrance seek;

Yet if ought back would turn, and thence depart,
With thousand wrinkles shuts the ready creek :
But when the rent is slack, it rages rifet,
And mut'nies in itself with civil strife:
Whereto §a little groom eggs it with sharpest knife.
XXXIII.

Below dwells in this city's market-place,
The island's common cook, Concoction;
Common to all, therefore in middle space
Is quarter'd fit in just proportion;

*The tongue with great agility delivers up the meat well chewed, to the instruments of swallowing, (eight serving to this purpose,) which instantly send the meat into the stomach.

+ The upper mouth of the stomach hath little veins, or circular strings, to shut in the meat, and keep it from returning.

Rife, Frequently: so Spenser.

§ A short vessel, which sending in a melancholy humour, sharpens the appetite.

In the bottom of the stomach which is placed in the midst of the belly is concoction performed.

Whence never from his labour he retires;

No rest he asks, or better change requires :

Both night and day he works, ne'er sleeps nor sleep

desires.

XXXIV.

That *heat, which in his furnace ever fumeth,
Is nothing like to our hot parching fire,
Which all consuming, self at length consumeth;
But moist'ning flames a gentle heat inspire,

Which sure some inborn neighbour to him lendeth;
And oft the bord'ring coast fit fuel sendeth,
And oft the rising fume, which down again descendeth,
XXXV.

Like to a pot, where under hovering

Divided flames the iron sides entwining,
Above is stopp'd with close lid covering,
Exhaling fumes to narrow straits confining;
So doubling heat, his duty doubly speedeth :
Such is the fire concoction's vessel needeth,
Who daily all the Isle with fit provision feedeth.
XXXVI.

There many a groom, the busy cook attends
In under offices and several place;
This gathers up the scum, and thence it sends
To be cast out; another, liquors base;

Another garbage, which the kitchen cloys;
And divers filth, whose scent the place annoys,
By divers secret ways in under sinks convoys,

The concoction of meats in the stomach, is perfected as by an innate property and special virtue; as well as by the outward heat of adjoining parts.

XXXVII.

Therefore a second *port, is sidelong fram'd,
To let out what unsavory remains;

There sits a needful groom, the porter nam'd,
Which soon the full-grown kitchen cleanly drains,
By divers pipes with hundred turnings giring,
Lest that the food, too speedily retiring,

Should whet the appetite, still cloy'd and still desiring.
XXXVIII.

So Erisicthon, fir'd (as men do say)

With hungry rage, ne'er fed, though ever feeding; Ten thousand dishes serv'd in ev'ry day,

Yet still ten thousand thousand dishes needing;

In vain his daughter hundred shapes assum'd: A whole camp's meat he in his gorge inhum'd; And all consum'd, his hunger yet was unconsum'd†. XXXIX.

Such would the state of this whole Island be,

If those pipes' windings (passage quick delaying) Should not refrain too much edacity,

With longer stay fierce appetite allaying.

These pipes are seven-fold longer than the Isle,
Yet all are folded in a little pile,

Whereof three noble are, and thin; three thick, and vile.

*The lower orifice, or mouth of the stomach, is not placed at the very bottom, but at the side, and is called the Janitor (or porter) as sending out the food now concocted, through the entrails, which are knotty and full of windir gs, lest the meat too suddenly passing through the body, should make it too subject to appetite and greediness.

+ See Ovid. Metam. 8. Fab. 18.

The entrails when dried and blown, are seven times longer than the body,

XL.

The first is narrow'st, and down-right doth look,
Lest that his charge discharg'd, might back retire ;
And by the way takes in a hitter brook,

That when the channel's stopt with stifling mire,

Through th' idle pipe, with piercing waters soaking, His tender sides with sharpest stream provoking, Thrusts out the muddy parts, and rids the miry choking. XLI:

The second lean and lank, still pil'd, and harried
By mighty bord'rers oft his barns invading :
Away his food and new-inn'd store is carried;

Therefore an angry colour

Purples his cheek: the

never fading

third for length exceeds,

And down his stream in hundred turnings leads: These three most noble are, adorn'd with silken threads.

XLII.

The foremost of the base, half blind appears;

And where his broad way in an isthmus ends, There he examines all his passengers,

And those who ought not 'scape, he backward sends :

The first is straight without any winding, that the chyle might not return; and most narrow, that it might not find too hasty a passage. It takes in a little passage from the gall, which there purges the choler, to provoke the entrails (when they are slow) to cast out the excrements. Duodenum (or twelve-finger) from its length.

This is called

The second, is called the lank or hungry gut, as being more empty than the rest; for the liver being near, it draws out its juice or cream. It is known from the rest by its red colour.

The third called Ilion, or winding, from his many folds and turnings, is the longest of all.

The first of the baser sort, is called blind; at whose end is an appendant, where if any of the thinner chyle do chance to escape, it is stopped, and by the veins of the midriffe drawn out.

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