small, round, super-heated stones.

The roast, when Dufour was really hungry,
consisted of twenty pounds of beef or a whole
calf. His hearth was either the flat of his hand
or his tongue. The butter in which the roast
was served was melted brimstone or burning
wax. When the roast was cooked to suit him
he ate coals and roast together.

As a dessert he would swallow the knives
and forks, glasses, and the earthenware dishes.

He kept his audience in good humor by
presenting all this in a spirit of crude comedy
and, to increase the comedy element, he
introduced a number of trained cats. Although
the thieving proclivities of cats are well known,
Dufour's pets showed no desire to share his
repast, and he had them trained to obey his
commands during mealtime. At the close of
the meal he would become violently angry with
one of them, seize the unlucky offender, tear
it limb from limb and eat the carcass. One
of his musicians would then beg him to produce
the cat, dead or alive. In order to do this
he would go to a nearby horse-trough and
drink it dry; would eat a number of pounds
of soap, or other nauseating substance, clowning
it in a manner to provoke amusement instead