Seven clodhoppers went to confession.
'Father, I stole something,' said the first.
'What was it you stole?' asked the priest.
'Some mistuanza, [340] because I was starving,' replied the country
bumpkin.
That the poor fellow, who really looked as if he might have been
starving, should have stolen some herbs did not seem such a very
grave offence; so with due advice to keep his hands from picking and
stealing, and a psalm to say for his penance, the priest sent him
to communion.
Then came the second, and there was the same dialogue. Then the third
and the fourth, till all the seven had been up.
At last the priest began to think it was a very odd circumstance that
such a number of full-grown men should all of a sudden have taken
into their heads to go stealing salad herbs; and when the seventh
had had his say he rejoined,--
'But what do you mean by mistuanza?'
'Oh, any mixture of things,' replied the countryman.
'Nay; that's not the way we use the word,' responded the priest;
'so tell me what "things" you mean.'
'Oh, some cow, some pig, and some fowl.' [341]
'You men of the mistuanza!' shouted the priest in righteous
indignation, starting out of the confessional; 'Come back! come
back! you can't go to communion like that.'
The seven clodhoppers, finding themselves discovered, began to fear
the rigour of justice, and decamped as fast as they could.
[Next to gossiping jokes on subjects kindred to religion are jokes
about domestic disputes, the greater blame being generally ascribed
to the wife.]