nd
then the slashing begins. As soon as blood is drawn the seconds
interfere, and the doctor examines the cut. If it is not bad they go
on fighting directly. If it needs sewing up they go into the next
room, and you wait an endless time for the next party. I got awfully
tired of the long intervals, sitting at the tables, drinking and
smoking. While the fights were going on we all stood round in a ring.
There were only about three duels the whole morning. There was a good
deal of blood on the floor. The women at the refreshment counter were
quite unconcerned. They didn't trouble to look on, but talked to each
other about blouses like girls in a post office. The students drove
out to the inn and back in open carriages. It is a mile from
Heidelberg. The duels are generally as impersonal as games, but
sometimes they are in settlement of quarrels. I think any student may
come and fight on these occasions, but I suppose he has to be the
guest of a corps."

A German professor lecturing on university life constantly used a word
I did not understand at first. The word as he said it was _Commang_,
with a strong accent on the second syllable. The word as it is written
is _Comment_, and means the etiquette set up and obeyed by the
students. The Germans have taken many French words into their language
and corrupted them, much as we have ourselves: sometimes by
Germanising the pronunciation, sometimes by conjugating a French verb
in the German way as they do in _raisonniren_ and _geniren_. The
_Commang_, said the professor, was a highly valuable factor in a young
man's education, because it helped more than anything else to turn a
schoolboy into a man of the world. So when I saw a little book called
_Der Bier Comment_ for sale I bought it instantly, for I wanted to
know how beer turned a schoolboy into a man of the world. It began
with a little preface, a word of warning to anyone attempting to write
about the morals, customs, and characteristics of the German nation.
No one undertaking this was to forget that the Germans had an amazing
_Bierdurst_, and that they liked to assuage this thirst in company, to
be cheerful and easy, and to sing while they were drinking. Then it
goes on to give the elaborate ceremonial observed at the _Kneiptafel_.
One of my dictionaries, although the German-English part has 2412
pages, translates _Kneipe_ as "any instrument for pinching." I never
yet found anything I wanted in those 2412 pages. Another d