sh'd with what Sum soever I
pleas'd, were I dispos'd to mortgage it. 'Tis a strange Thing that
Nobody here will advance so small a Sum upon so valuable a
Commodity. No sooner had he express'd his Resentment, but he was
going to cut up a fine boil'd Pullet, in order to make a Meal on't,
when an _Indian_ laid hold of his Hand, and with deep Concern, cried
out, For God's Sake what are you about? Why, said the _Egyptian_, I
design to make a Wing of this Fowl one Part of my Supper. Pray, good
Sir, consider what you are doing, said the _Indian_. 'Tis very
possible, that the Soul of the deceas'd Lady may have taken its
Residence in that Fowl. And you wouldn't surely run the Risque of
eating up your Aunt? To boil a Fowl is, doubtless, a most shameful
Outrage done to Nature. Pshaw! What a Pother you make about the
boiling of a Fowl, and flying in the Face of Nature, replied the
_Egyptian_ in a Pet; tho' we _Egyptians_ pay divine Adoration to the
Ox; yet we can make a hearty Meal of a Piece of roast Beef for all
that. Is it possible, Sir, that your Country-men should act so
absurdly, as to pay an Ox the Tribute of divine Worship, said the
_Indian_? Absurd as you think it, said the other, the Ox has been
the principal Object of Adoration all over _Egypt_, for these
hundred and thirty five thousand Years, and the most abandon'd
_Egyptian_ has never been as yet so impious as to gain-say it. Ay,
Sir, an hundred thirty five thousand Years, say you, surely you must
be out a little in your Calculation. 'Tis but about fourscore
thousand Years, since _India_ was first inhabited. Sure I am, we are
a more antient People than you are, and our _Brama_ prohibited the
eating of Beef long before your Nation ever erected an Altar in
Honour of the Ox, or ever put one upon a Spit. What a Racket you
make about your _Brama_! Is he able to stand the least in
Competition with our _Apis_, said the _Egyptian_? Let us hear, pray,
what mighty Feats have been done by your boasted _Brama_? Why,
replied the _Bramin_, he first taught his Votaries to write and
read; and 'tis to him alone, all the World is indebted for the
Invention of the noble Game of Chess. You are quite out, Sir, in
your Notion, said a _Chaldean_, who sat within Hearing: All these
invaluable Blessings were deriv'd from the Fish _Oannes_; and 'tis
that alone to which the Tribute of divine Adoration is justly due.
All the World will tell you, that 'twas a divine Being whose Tail
was pure Go