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We were not given long to admire these eleganttours de force; suddenly there came a noise from the
ceiling, and the whole dining-room trembled. I rose from my place in a panic: I was
afraid some acrobat would come down through the roof. All the other guests too
looked up astonished, wondering what the new portent from heaven was announced. The
whole ceiling parted asunder, and an enormous hoop, apparently knocked out of a
giant cask, was let down. All round it were hung golden crowns and alabaster boxes
of perfumes. We were asked to take these presents for ourselves, when I looked back
at the table. . . . A dish with some cakes on it had now been put there, a Priapus
made by the confectioner standing in the middle, holding up every kind of fruit and
grapes in his wide apron in the conventional style. We reached greedily after his
treasures, and a sudden fresh turn of humour renewed our merriment. All the cakes
and all the fruits, however lightly they were touched, began to spurt out saffron,
and the nasty juice flew[p. 113] even into our mouths. We thought it must be
a sacred dish that was anointed with such holy appointments, and we all stood
straight up and cried, “The gods bless Augustus, the father of his
country.” But as some people even after this solemnity snatched at the fruit,
we filled our napkins too, myself especially, for I thought that I could never fill
Giton's lap with a large enough present. Meanwhile three boys came in with their
white tunics well tucked up, and two of them put images of the Lares with lockets
round their necks on the table, while one carried round a bowl of wine and cried,
“God be gracious unto us.”
Trimalchio said that one of the images was called Gain, another Luck, and the third
Profit. And as everybody else kissed Trimalchio's true portrait we were ashamed to
pass it by.
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