Perrow—The Last Will and Testament in Literature. 701 
Sometimes the parts of one's body were allegorically willed 
away to one’s friends. An example of this is seen in the Tes¬ 
tament of Christ Jhesu (1330). * 1 There the heart and other 
parts of his body Jesus is made to bequeath to his followers. 
The habit of disposing of the parts of one’s body to one’s 
friends may have arisen from the testaments put in the mouths 
of certain animals. It early occurred to the European mind 
that some amusement might be got out of making certain lower 
animals draw up their testaments. But when the testator came 
to the disposition of the body, there was necessarily a marked 
difference between the testament of the animal and the form 
from which it was parodied. The animal was not buried, but 
its body was made use of for various purposes. The disposition 
of the body became, then, a distribution of its several parts. 
As early as the fourth century we have a humorous Latin 
piece, Testamentum Porcelli, in which a pig is represented as 
making his testament. 2 The pig, about to be killed by the cook, 
sets forth his last will as follows: “Patri meo Verrino Lardino 
do lego dari glandis modios XXX, et matri meae Veturinae 
scrofae do lego dari Laconicae siliginis modios XL, et sorori 
meae Quirinae in cuius votum interesse non potui, do lego dari 
hordei modios XXX, et de meis visceribus dabo donabo sutori- 
bus setas, rixatoribus capitinas, surdis auriculas, causidicis et 
verbosis linguam, botulariis intestina, esiciariis femora, mulier- 
ibus lumbulos, pueris visicam, puellis caudam cinaedis muscu- 
los, cursoribus et venatoribus talos, latronibus ungulas, et nec 
his wife and children the importance of following the “straight and 
narrow path.” The Norfolk (Va.) Landmark of January 19, 1908, 
gives an account of the will of Henry Sullivan of New York City in 
which the testator wills away parts of his body. Closely allied to this 
feature of the will are the frequent parodies of the In manus. Cf. the 
pretty little poem (MS. Arundel 292, Fol. 3ro and Vo) of the earlier 
XIII century beginning: 
Loverd Godd, in hondes tine 
I biquethe soule mine. 
1 See pages 443 and 465. 
2 This testament is referred to by St. Jerome in his preface to his 
commentary on Isaiah. It is also mentioned by Rufmus. It was 
brought to light by Fani in 1505. It is mentioned by Burton in the 
Anatomy as well-known (ed. Shilleto, London, 1893, III, 6). It was 
translated into Tuscan in 1548 (Peignot, II, 249). For text see Mau- 
riccii Haupti, Opuscula, Leipsic, 1876, II, 175. 
