In such fashion Andrea Tafi improved the occasion with a proper
severity. Then, having said his say, he went to the kitchen to take his
supper, which consisted of a bit of salt fish; after that he betook
himself to his chamber, lay down in his bed, and was soon snoring.
Meantime Buffalmacco made his usual round through every quarter of the
city where wine was to be had cheap and girls cheaper still. This done,
he got home again half an hour or so before the time Tafi generally
woke. He drew out the bag from under his bed, took the cockroaches one
by one, and by means of a short, sharp needle fastened a little wax
taper on the back of each. Lighting the tapers, he let the insects
loose, one after the other, in the room. The creatures are too stupid to
feel pain, or if they do, to manifest any great panic. They set off
crawling over the floor, at a pace which surprise and perhaps some vague
terror made a trifle quicker than usual. Before long they started
describing circles, not because it is, as Plato says, a perfect figure,
but as a result of the instinct that always makes insects turn round and
round, in their efforts to escape any unknown danger. Buffalmacco looked
on from the vantage-ground of his bed, on which he had thrown himself,
and congratulated himself on the success of his device. And indeed
nothing could be more marvellous than these lights showing a miniature
presentment of the harmony of the spheres, such as it is set out by
Aristotle and his commentators. The cockroaches themselves were
invisible; only the little flames they carried could be seen, which
seemed to be all alive. Just as these same lights were weaving in the
darkness of the room more cycles and epicycles than ever Ptolemy and the
Arabs observed as they watched the motions of the planets, Tafi's voice
made itself heard, shriller than ever, what with a cold in the head and
what with annoyance.

"Buffalmacco! Buffalmacco, I say!" screamed the old fellow, coughing and