Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book IV by François Rabelais - HTML preview

Chapter 4.XXX.—How Shrovetide is anatomized and described by Xenomanes.

As for the inward parts of Shrovetide, said Xenomanes; his brain is (at least, it was in my time) in bigness, colours, substance, and strength, much like the left cod of a he hand-worm.

The ventricles of his said brain,     The stomach, like a belt.
  like an auger.                      The pylorus, like a pitchfork.
The worm-like excrescence, like       The windpipe, like an oyster-
  a Christmas-box.                      knife.
The membranes, like a monk's          The throat, like a pincushion
  cowl.                                 stuffed with oakum.
The funnel, like a mason's chisel.    The lungs, like a prebend's
The fornix, like a casket.              fur-gown.
The glandula pinealis, like a bag-    The heart, like a cope.
  pipe.                               The mediastine, like an earthen
The rete mirabile, like a gutter.       cup.
The dug-like processus, like a        The pleura, like a crow's bill.
  patch.                              The arteries, like a watch-coat.
The tympanums, like a whirli-         The midriff, like a montero-cap.
  gig.                                The liver, like a double-tongued
The rocky bones, like a goose-          mattock.
  wing.                               The veins, like a sash-window.
The nape of the neck, like a paper    The spleen, like a catcall.
  lantern.                            The guts, like a trammel.
The nerves, like a pipkin.            The gall, like a cooper's adze.
The uvula, like a sackbut.            The entrails, like a gauntlet.
The palate, like a mitten.            The mesentery, like an abbot's
The spittle, like a shuttle.            mitre.
The almonds, like a telescope.        The hungry gut, like a button.
The bridge of his nose, like a        The blind gut, like a breastplate.
  wheelbarrow.                        The colon, like a bridle.
The head of the larynx, like a        The arse-gut, like a monk's
  vintage-basket.                       leathern bottle.
The kidneys, like a trowel.           The ligaments, like a tinker's
The loins, like a padlock.              budget.
The ureters, like a pothook.          The bones, like three-cornered
The emulgent veins, like two            cheesecakes.
  gilliflowers.                       The marrow, like a wallet.
The spermatic vessels, like a         The cartilages, like a field-
  cully-mully-puff.                           tortoise, alias a mole.
The parastata, like an inkpot.        The glandules in the mouth, like
The bladder, like a stone-bow.          a pruning-knife.
The neck, like a mill-clapper.        The animal spirits, like swingeing
The mirach, or lower parts of the       fisticuffs.
  belly, like a high-crowned hat.     The blood-fermenting, like a
The siphach, or its inner rind,         multiplication of flirts on the
  like a wooden cuff.                   nose.
The muscles, like a pair of bellows.  The urine, like a figpecker.
The tendons, like a hawking-          The sperm, like a hundred
  glove.                                ten-penny nails.

And his nurse told me, that being married to Mid-lent, he only begot a good number of local adverbs and certain double fasts.

His memory he had like a scarf.       His undertakings, like the ballast
His common sense, like a buzzing        of a galleon.
  of bees.                            His understanding, like a torn
His imagination, like the chime         breviary.
  of a set of bells.                  His notions, like snails crawling
His thoughts, like a flight of star-    out of strawberries.
  lings.                              His will, like three filberts in a
His conscience, like the unnest-        porringer.
  ling of a parcel of young           His desire, like six trusses of hay.
  herons.                             His judgment, like a shoeing-
His deliberations, like a set of        horn.
  organs.                             His discretion, like the truckle of
His repentance, like the carriage       a pulley.
  of a double cannon.                 His reason, like a cricket.