José Viera y Clavijo, Los ayres fijos: poema didáctico en seis cantos, 6.13 (1784):
Moradores de Nesle ¿Que es aquello
Que veis venir rasgando el Horizonte?
No es la ascencion de Ganimedes bello,
Ni el precipicio del audaz Faetonte,
Del Iris matizado no es destello,
Ni el Pegaso que dexa el doble monte;
Es la Nave Aërostática velera
De Argonautas que surcan la atmosféra.
I like the bit just below in 6.21 about lunar exploration. The French, the Russians and everybody sent animals up first, but the use of a donkey on one of the early Spanish expeditions reminds one of the custom of throwing donkeys off church towers in such benighted places as this. More modern animal sacrifice here.
All grist to this mill, slowly taking shape twixt other diversions.
(h/t BQ)
Similar posts
- More tongues
Crocodiles have no tongue; frogs have half, because it’s backwards, attached at the front and free at the back; men have - Holy Thursday Jew-killing games in Lleida
BS has kindly pointed out that Lérida has a selective digitalised press archive going back to 1896. With ref to this, - The best of all possible donkeys
Although Catalonia has donkeys rather as the Soviet Union used to have coalminers, the nation’s poets have tended to avoid the - RTVE uses a song about a bloke who burnt down his girlfriend’s house to accompany an anti-gender-based violence ad
Your organisation says: Let’s forget for a few years about Peruvian serving girls punched by their up-town mistresses, husbands terrorised by - How to flavour your cake with shashlyk for free
This Nasreddin Hodja story (via Ray Girvan) reminds me of the custom in at least one particularly poor part of England
Comments