id: "When
I entered the room I raised one finger to signify there is one God. He
replied by raising two fingers to signify that this Being rules
over two worlds, the material and the spiritual. Then I raised three
fingers, to say there are three persons in the Godhead. He then
closed his fingers, evidently to say these three are one." After this
explanation on the part of the nobleman the professors sent for the
butcher and asked him what took place in the recitation room. He
appeared very angry and said: "When the crazy man entered the room
where I was he raised one finger, as much as to say I had but one eye,
and I raised two fingers to signify that I could see out of my one eye
as well as he could out of both of his. When he raised three fingers,
as much as to say there were but three eyes between us, I doubled up
my fist, and if he had not gone out of that room in a hurry I would
have knocked him down."

The readiness with which a significance may be found in signs when
none whatever exists is also shown in the great contest narrated
by Rabelais between Panurge and the English philosopher, Thaumast,
commencing as follows:

"Everybody then taking heed in great silence, the Englishman lifted
his two hands separately, clinching the ends of his fingers in the
form that at Chion they call the fowl's tail. Then he struck them,
together by the nails four times. Then he opened them and struck one
flat upon the other with a clash once; after which, joining them as
above, he struck twice, and four times afterwards, on opening them.
Then he placed them, joined and extended the one above the other,
seeming to pray God devoutly.

"Panurge suddenly moved his right hand in the air, placed the
right-hand thumb at the right-hand nostril, holding the four fingers
stretched out and arrayed in parallel lines with the point of the
nose; shutting the left eye entirely, and winking with the right,
making a profound depression with eyebrow and eyelid. Next he raised
aloft the left with a strong clinching and extension of the four
fingers and elevation of the thumb, and held it in line directly
corresponding with the position of the right, the distance between the
two being a cubit and a half. This done, in the like manner he lowered
towards the ground both hands, and finally held them in the midst as
if aiming straight at the Englishman's nose."

And so on at great length. The whole performance of Panurge was to
save the credit of Pa