_Pamphagonia; or, Glutton's Paradise._
Pamphagonia is of a triangular figure, like that of ancient Egypt, or
the Greek letter delta, [Greek: delta]. It is mountainous, inclosed
with very high hills; its soil is of the richest, so that birds which
come thither to feed, if they tarry but three months, grow so very fat
and weighty, that they cannot fly back again over the mountains, but
suffer themselves to be taken up in the hand, and are as delicious as
the ortolan or the beccaficos of the Italians. And it is no wonder to
them who know that geese in Scotland are generated from leaves fallen
into the water, and believe the testimony of one of our ambassadors,
that in the north-east parts of the world lambs grow upon stalks like
cabbages and eat up the grass all around about them, to find the same
sort of provisions in this country. Besides, the fish upon that coast
are in such plenty, and so voracious (whether they conform themselves
to the genius of the place and people, or presage to themselves the
honour of so magnificent a sepulchre as was given to Nero's turbot),
that, as soon as the hook is cast in, they press to it as the ghosts
in Lucian did to Charon's boat, and cling to the iron as miners do to
a rope that is let down when the light of their candle forbodes some
malignant exhalation.
The sea-ports, with which this country abounds more than any other, are
of no other use than to receive and take in such things as are edible,
which they have for their superfluous wool and hides: nor may the
inhabitants export anything that has the least relation to the palate.
You see nothing there but fruit-trees. They hate plains, limes, and
willows, as being idle and barren, and yielding nothing useful but their
shade. There are hops, pears, plums, and apples, in the hedge-rows, as
there is in all Ivronia; from whence the Lombards, and some counties in
the west of England, have learned their improvements. In ancient times,
Frugonia, or the Land of Frugality, took in this country as one of its
provinces; and histories tell us, that, in Saturn's time, the Frugonian
princes gave laws to all this part of the world, and had their palace
there; and that their country was called Fagonia, from the simplicity of
their diet, which consisted only in beech-mast. But that yoke has been
long ago shaken off; their manners are wholly changed, and, from the
universality of their food, they have obtained, in their own country
language, the title of Pamphagones.