of disgust; and, further to mask the
disagreeable features--and also, no doubt, to
conceal the trick--would take the cloth from
the table and cover his face; whereupon he
would bring forth the swallowed cat, or one
that looked like it, which would howl piteously
and seem to struggle wildly while being
disgorged. When freed, the poor cat would rush
away among the spectators.

Dufour gave his best performances in the
evening, as he could then show his hocus-pocus
to best advantage. At these times he appeared
with a halo of fire about his head.

His last appearance in Paris was most
remarkable. The dinner began with a soup of
asps in simmering oil. On each side was a
dish of vegetables, one containing thistles and
burdocks, and the other fuming acid. Other
side dishes, of turtles, rats, bats and moles,
were garnished with live coals. For the fish
course he ate a dish of snakes in boiling tar
and pitch. His roast was a screech owl in a
sauce of glowing brimstone. The salad proved
to be spider webs full of small explosive squibs,
a plate of butterfly wings and manna worms,
a dish of toads surrounded with flies, crickets,
grasshoppers, church beetles, spiders, and
caterpillars. He washed all this down with