Kabanata Kabanata 77 · How Panurge put to a nonplus

Chapter 2.XIX.

How Panurge put to a nonplus the Englishman that argued by signs.

Everybody then taking heed, and hearkening with great silence, the

Englishman lift up on high into the air his two hands severally, clunching

in all the tops of his fingers together, after the manner which, a la

Chinonnese, they call the hen’s arse, and struck the one hand on the other

by the nails four several times. Then he, opening them, struck the one

with the flat of the other till it yielded a clashing noise, and that only

once. Again, in joining them as before, he struck twice, and afterwards

four times in opening them. Then did he lay them joined, and extended the

one towards the other, as if he had been devoutly to send up his prayers

unto God. Panurge suddenly lifted up in the air his right hand, and put

the thumb thereof into the nostril of the same side, holding his four

fingers straight out, and closed orderly in a parallel line to the point of

his nose, shutting the left eye wholly, and making the other wink with a

profound depression of the eyebrows and eyelids. Then lifted he up his

left hand, with hard wringing and stretching forth his four fingers and

elevating his thumb, which he held in a line directly correspondent to the

situation of his right hand, with the distance of a cubit and a half

between them. This done, in the same form he abased towards the ground

about the one and the other hand. Lastly, he held them in the midst, as

aiming right at the Englishman’s nose. And if Mercury,--said the

Englishman. There Panurge interrupted him, and said, You have spoken,

Mask.

Then made the Englishman this sign. His left hand all open he lifted up

into the air, then instantly shut into his fist the four fingers thereof,

and his thumb extended at length he placed upon the gristle of his nose.

Presently after, he lifted up his right hand all open, and all open abased

and bent it downwards, putting the thumb thereof in the very place where

the little finger of the left hand did close in the fist, and the four

right-hand fingers he softly moved in the air. Then contrarily he did with

the right hand what he had done with the left, and with the left what he

had done with the right.

Panurge, being not a whit amazed at this, drew out into the air his

trismegist codpiece with the left hand, and with his right drew forth a

truncheon of a white ox-rib, and two pieces of wood of a like form, one of

black ebony and the other of incarnation brasil, and put them betwixt the

fingers of that hand in good symmetry; then, knocking them together, made

such a noise as the lepers of Brittany use to do with their clappering

clickets, yet better resounding and far more harmonious, and with his

tongue contracted in his mouth did very merrily warble it, always looking

fixedly upon the Englishman. The divines, physicians, and chirurgeons that

were there thought that by this sign he would have inferred that the

Englishman was a leper. The counsellors, lawyers, and decretalists

conceived that by doing this he would have concluded some kind of mortal

felicity to consist in leprosy, as the Lord maintained heretofore.

The Englishman for all this was nothing daunted, but holding up his two

hands in the air, kept them in such form that he closed the three

master-fingers in his fist, and passing his thumbs through his indical or

foremost and middle fingers, his auriculary or little fingers remained

extended and stretched out, and so presented he them to Panurge. Then

joined he them so that the right thumb touched the left, and the left little

finger touched the right. Hereat Panurge, without speaking one word, lift

up his hands and made this sign.

He put the nail of the forefinger of his left hand to the nail of the thumb

of the same, making in the middle of the distance as it were a buckle, and

of his right hand shut up all the fingers into his fist, except the

forefinger, which he often thrust in and out through the said two others of

the left hand. Then stretched he out the forefinger and middle finger or

medical of his right hand, holding them asunder as much as he could, and

thrusting them towards Thaumast. Then did he put the thumb of his left

hand upon the corner of his left eye, stretching out all his hand like the

wing of a bird or the fin of a fish, and moving it very daintily this way

and that way, he did as much with his right hand upon the corner of his

right eye. Thaumast began then to wax somewhat pale, and to tremble, and

made him this sign.

With the middle finger of his right hand he struck against the muscle of

the palm or pulp which is under the thumb. Then put he the forefinger of

the right hand in the like buckle of the left, but he put it under, and not

over, as Panurge did. Then Panurge knocked one hand against another, and

blowed in his palm, and put again the forefinger of his right hand into the

overture or mouth of the left, pulling it often in and out. Then held he

out his chin, most intentively looking upon Thaumast. The people there,

which understood nothing in the other signs, knew very well that therein he

demanded, without speaking a word to Thaumast, What do you mean by that?

In effect, Thaumast then began to sweat great drops, and seemed to all the

spectators a man strangely ravished in high contemplation. Then he

bethought himself, and put all the nails of his left hand against those of

his right, opening his fingers as if they had been semicircles, and with

this sign lift up his hands as high as he could. Whereupon Panurge

presently put the thumb of his right hand under his jaws, and the little

finger thereof in the mouth of the left hand, and in this posture made his

teeth to sound very melodiously, the upper against the lower. With this

Thaumast, with great toil and vexation of spirit, rose up, but in rising

let a great baker’s fart, for the bran came after, and pissing withal very

strong vinegar, stunk like all the devils in hell. The company began to

stop their noses; for he had conskited himself with mere anguish and

perplexity. Then lifted he up his right hand, clunching it in such sort

that he brought the ends of all his fingers to meet together, and his left

hand he laid flat upon his breast. Whereat Panurge drew out his long

codpiece with his tuff, and stretched it forth a cubit and a half, holding

it in the air with his right hand, and with his left took out his orange,

and, casting it up into the air seven times, at the eighth he hid it in the

fist of his right hand, holding it steadily up on high, and then began to

shake his fair codpiece, showing it to Thaumast.

After that, Thaumast began to puff up his two cheeks like a player on a

bagpipe, and blew as if he had been to puff up a pig’s bladder. Whereupon

Panurge put one finger of his left hand in his nockandrow, by some called

St. Patrick’s hole, and with his mouth sucked in the air, in such a manner

as when one eats oysters in the shell, or when we sup up our broth. This

done, he opened his mouth somewhat, and struck his right hand flat upon it,

making therewith a great and a deep sound, as if it came from the

superficies of the midriff through the trachiartery or pipe of the lungs,

and this he did for sixteen times; but Thaumast did always keep blowing

like a goose. Then Panurge put the forefinger of his right hand into his

mouth, pressing it very hard to the muscles thereof; then he drew it out,

and withal made a great noise, as when little boys shoot pellets out of the

pot-cannons made of the hollow sticks of the branch of an alder-tree, and

he did it nine times.

Then Thaumast cried out, Ha, my masters, a great secret! With this he put

in his hand up to the elbow, then drew out a dagger that he had, holding it

by the point downwards. Whereat Panurge took his long codpiece, and shook

it as hard as he could against his thighs; then put his two hands entwined

in manner of a comb upon his head, laying out his tongue as far as he was

able, and turning his eyes in his head like a goat that is ready to die.

Ha, I understand, said Thaumast, but what? making such a sign that he put

the haft of his dagger against his breast, and upon the point thereof the

flat of his hand, turning in a little the ends of his fingers. Whereat

Panurge held down his head on the left side, and put his middle finger into

his right ear, holding up his thumb bolt upright. Then he crossed his two

arms upon his breast and coughed five times, and at the fifth time he

struck his right foot against the ground. Then he lift up his left arm,

and closing all his fingers into his fist, held his thumb against his

forehead, striking with his right hand six times against his breast. But

Thaumast, as not content therewith, put the thumb of his left hand upon the

top of his nose, shutting the rest of his said hand, whereupon Panurge set

his two master-fingers upon each side of his mouth, drawing it as much as

he was able, and widening it so that he showed all his teeth, and with his

two thumbs plucked down his two eyelids very low, making therewith a very

ill-favoured countenance, as it seemed to the company.