One evening on the bridge, as the ship was listing befowled, Panurge related some incidents he had experienced in the Holy Land to explain the deformity of one of his hands.
“A woman, some months before the birth of her child, longed for strawberries, which she could not obtain. Fearing that this might mark her child, and having heard that it would be marked where she then touched herself, she touched her hip. Before the child was born she predicted that it would have a mark resembling a strawberry, and be found on its hip. An acquaintance, while riding out, saw some strawberries spilled by the side of the road, which she wanted very much; but her sister, who was driving, only laughed at her entreaties to stop, and apprehensions that her child might be marked, and drove on. The child was marked on the back of its neck, with a cluster of red spots, in shape resembling spilled strawberries..
“Eliza Chickering has an extra thumb, both together resembling a lobster’s claw. Its joint and muscles cause it to work inwardly, the two closely resembling a lobster’s claw; and during her youth it was bright red, like a boiled lobster. Her mother says she bought a large, fine lobster while enciente, which was stolen. This disappointed her extremely; and this lobster’s claw on her daughter’s hand was the consequence.
“W. H. Brown, who has a mark on one of his legs resembling a mouse, says that his mother, while carrying him, was in a room in which a mouse was confined, which they were trying to kill, and which, jumping up under her clothes, frightened her terribly.
“A female acquaintance rode by a tree full of ripe, wild plums, which she craved, but could not obtain. Her child, born some months after, had a fleshy appendage resembling a wild plum, hanging from his thumb by a stem of flesh.
“A pregnant Michigan mother longed for butter, which could not be obtained, because it was winter, and there were more emigrants than eatables. Her child was born with a running sore on its neck, which yielded to no remedies, till, remembering her disappointed longing, she anointed it with butter, which soon cured it.
“An amputated thumb, now preserved in spirit at Pouce Coupé, was found among the placenta, separated from its stump before birth, by its mother seeing her husband’s thumb cut off with an axe, which excited her sympathy to the highest pitch…
“Mrs. Lee of Lisbon saw Burly executed from her window; who, in swinging off, broke the rope, and fell with his face all black and blue from being choked. This horrid sight caused her to feel awfully; and her son, born three months afterwards, whenever anything occurs to excite his fears, becomes black and blue in the face.
“In Waterbury there lived a man who always appeared as if intoxicated; obviously caused by his mother’s being terribly frightened by seeing a drunkard while carrying him. His intellect was good.
In Woodstock a pregnant mother visited a menagerie, and became deeply interested in its animals. Some five months afterwards she gave birth to a monster, some parts of which resembled one wild beast, and other parts other animals; which soon died.
“Mrs. K., while pregnant, longed for gin, which could not be got; and her child cried incessantly for six weeks, till gin was given it, which it eagerly clutched and drank with ravenous greediness, stopped crying, and became healthy.”
Pantagruel listened to the stories and was about to comment when Xenomanes called, “The breeze is freshening.”