58 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



wheat, maize, buckwheat, compose the menu in turn, 

 so as to excite by variety and choice of food an appe- 

 tite that satiety daily makes more languishing. 

 Thus fed to repletion, the poor creature, with noth- 

 ing to distract it from the filling of its crop, eats to 

 pass the time, falls asleep from sheer stupor, awakes, 

 and begins to eat again, only to fall asleep once more. 

 Toward the end of this treatment the poulard, 

 gorged beyond measure, refuses to eat any more. 

 To arouse the last feeble promptings of appetite re- 

 course is had to more delicate food, calculated to 

 keep alive a few days longer the desire for nourish- 

 ment. For solid food a dough of fine flour is served, 

 and for liquid refreshment, milk, pure milk, if you 

 please. If the bird, already stuffed to bursting, pos- 

 itively refuses to eat any more, it is made to eat by 

 force." 



"By force V 9 said Emile, "when it is bursting and 

 can eat no more I ' ' 



"Yes, my friend, by force. Willy, nilly, it must 

 still swallow for some days longer, after which comes 

 the end of its miseries. It is killed and appears on 

 the table as a tender and juicy roast abounding in 

 fat. 



"This forced feeding is the essential feature in the 

 method followed to obtain the renowned poulards of 

 Mans. 



"According to the masters of this art, the process 

 is as follows : Without preliminary subjection to the 

 mutilation I spoke of, the fowls are placed in narrow 

 cages in a warm, dark room, the doors and windows 



