An Amusing Joke with Meat
Would you like to have the whole roast for yourself? A book printed
in Lyons in 1586 tells us how we can drive all the other guests away from
the table. (As far as we know, this is the first time this passage has
appeared in English.)
Strings from musical instruments, cut very fine, and placed on top of
freshly cooked meat, either boiled or roasted, will very amusingly cause
it, in the eyes of those who are at table, to appear to be covered with
worms, and to be putrid and unhealthy. Now, whoever knows this may be left
alone to eat as much as he likes.
—Jean-Jacques Vuecker de Basle, Les
secrets et merueilles de nature.