Animals


One fine day, a desired to be taught by Cochonfucius about animals.

The Master explained:

         Animals are disyllabic, like the or monosyllabic, like the or hybrid, like the

         Their behaviour is quite intelligent, sometimes, and it exhibits a fantastic diversity. They can carry their head when beheaded, they can write their own epitaph, they can also follow a fleeing rebel, defend an instrument of power, go to prison for a they love, send a poor soldier to his certain death, enjoy the morning sun, torment a judge, complain to the drifter, fight against each other in a bleak universe, haunt the darkness, pray in a chapel or in a monastery, speak sententiously, tipple like mad, celebrate a hybrid wedding, surge from nothingness or from something else, promote and fight a heresy, give a lesson and fly away, write a treatise in eighty-one chapters, drink the blood of another form a demiurgic Trinity, get destroyed, sit in a well, sleep in a garden, play rotten tricks, find sour grapes, savour some marjoram, visit Spain, be associated with human beings, be apostolic, fight the whole world, share a whale, listen to a funeral tune, celebrate mystical plonk, and even learn to extract square roots.

I underestimated animal intelligence, said the visitor. The Master said it was chiefly a matter of patient training, one of the best trainers being Leconte de Lisle.

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