Jolter, if it should be
a real ram-cat? Lord have mercy upon me! here is one of the claws."
With these words he presented the tip of a toe, of which Pipes had
snipped off five or six from a duck that was roasted, and purposely
scattered them in the fricassee: and the governor could not behold
this testimonial without symptoms of uneasiness and remorse; so
that he and the painter sat silenced and abashed, and made faces
at each other, while the physician, who hated them both, exulted
over their affliction, bidding them be of good cheer, and proceed
with their meal; for he was ready to demonstrate, that the flesh of
a cat was as nourishing and delicious as veal or mutton, provided
they could prove that the said cat was not of the boar kind, and
had fed chiefly on vegetable diet, or even confined its carnivorous
appetite to rats and mice, which he affirmed to be dainties of
exquisite taste and flavour. He said, it was a vulgar mistake to
think that all flesh-devouring creatures were unfit to be eaten:
witness the consumption of swine and ducks, animals that delight
in carriage as well as fish, and prey upon each other, and feed on
bait and carrion; together with the demand for bear, of which the
best hams in the world are made.
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