t easily convey to us in his jacket or knapsack
this morbus, which, by the way, is as catching as sheep-ticks; therefore
it is ordered that nobody is to quit his own village, either by cart or
on foot, and no stranger is to be admitted from without. Should anyone
require, however, to pass through the district, he must first of all be
locked securely in a cowshed beyond the limits of the village, and there
his clothes must be well smoked ('fumigated' they call it), and he
himself well doused in a ducking-tub, and if he has any coin about him
it must be rubbed with ashes, which life-imperilling occupation will be
duly attended to by the local gipsies."

After a pause, Mr. Korde resumed his learned instructions as follows:

"If, nevertheless, anyone, despite these wise regulations, _should_
catch the morbus, there is only one antidote, the name whereof is
Vismuthum. Vismuthum, vismuthi, neuter gender, second declension. In
Hungarian viszmuta, in Slovak vismuthium, in English bismuth."

At this point the worthy preceptor was overcome by a violent fit of
coughing, for he was now bound by his directions to explain the
properties of this mysterious substance whose name he himself had just
that moment learnt for the first time from his letter patent.

"Well, now! listen all of you, for I shall examine you presently upon
all that I have been telling you. Vismuthum is a powder, or rather a
fluid, or perhaps 'twere better to say a powder of a--a quite
indefinable colour. It is prepared in all sorts of ways, and has no
particular odour, and in substance much resembles piskotum.[2] Everyone
who partakes of it instantly becomes quite well again. First of all it
is to be taken in a coffee spoon (his reverence will supply the spoon
gratis), and then, if that has no effect, in a tablespoon. If that also
has no effect, then two tablespoons must be taken, and so on in
increasing doses, until the morbus leaves the patient altogether. It is
to be had in the apothecary's shop at Kassa, so whoever does not go and
get some has only himself to blame if he dies. Poor men will receive it
gratis from Dr. Sarkantyus, and those who won't take it willingly will
have it crammed down their throats by force, and it will be also
sprinkled in all the wells of drinking water that the people may get
some of it that way. It will therefore be much better to make the
acquaintance of vismuthum in a friendly manner, than go to the devil one
way or other for n