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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1837 edition. Excerpt:...the power of luxurious indulgence, and much as the shepherds did in Virgil's time, or at least in his Eclogues. Of the sweet apple, mellow chestnut, and country cheese, there is no lack, but the pig is the article of luxury; every peasant contrives to have one, from which he extracts as much lard (graisse) as possible, which, if he can afford it, he reserves to season his garbure; the brief luxury of the unkeepable pudding is enjoyed at home, the rest often traded on, at least by the poorer cottager, who contents himself with the flesh-pot savour communicated by the coarse unctuousness of the lard to the simple ground-work of the unvarying soup. When the death is over, comes a bustle that has something the air of a festival; saucisses and saucissons are multiplied, till the wonder is how one pig could have furnished even the tithe of such profusion; pots of lard are ranged in graceful uniformity under their rich festoons; and all this without any detriment to the regular jambons, cotes, or petits saUs, which constitute the winter stock. But the chapter of pigs might be spun out here into a volume: in the Basses Pyrenees a considerable traffic is carried on 220 A COUNTRY WEDDING. in the pig way, and a large portion of the hams, distinguished by the European title of Jambons de Bayonne, are brought to perfection in the cabins of Bearn. A wedding here is sometimes two or three days of merriment to the neighbours of the bride-folks, who keep a sort of open house during that time, eating all day, dancing all night, and flinging away their hard earnings as if they had not worked for them. To the dinner each guest brings an offering,--one a turkey, another a duck, a third a joint of meat, to which the bride-folks add bread, wine, lights, music, and the...