Jón á Bægisá - 01.11.2008, Page 126

Jonathan Swift — Jóhanna Gunnlaugsdóttir
to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriments and rags having
been at least four times that value.
8. I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope
will not be liable to the least objection.
9. I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance
in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old,
a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed,
roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally
serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.
10. I do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration, that of the
hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty
thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to
be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine,
and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage,
a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore, one male
will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred
thousand may, at a year old, be offered in sale to the persons of qual-
ity and fortune, through the kingdom, always advising the mother
to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them
plump, and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an
entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore
or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little
pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially
in winter.
11. I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will weigh
12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, encreaseth to 28
pounds.
12. I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for
landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents,
seem to have the best title to the children.
13. Infant’s flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plenti-
ful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave
author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolifick dyet,
there are more children born in Roman Catholick countries about
nine months after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual,
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á Jffiayáá - Tímarit um þýðingar nr. 12 / 2008