The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1880-11-04
THE MUMMY'S FOOT.
French of Theophile Gautier.

THE MUMMY'S FOOT.
French of Theophe Gautier.
One day, wandering aimlessly
through the streets of Paris, | noticed
a little shop which seemed crowded
with bric-a-brac, and entered it simp
ly with the idea of filling an idle hour
1t seemed to be at one and the same
time an old iron shop, a Warehouse
for tapestry and upholstery generally
the laboratory of an alchemist and al
artists studio. In these mysterious
dens, where the partly closed shutters
admit only very prudent hall light
the most genuinely antique thing is the
dust; the cobwabs are much more rea
than the guipure, and the pear-tree
wood far younger than the mahogany
from America, which arrived yester-
day.
This establishment was especially
curious; every age and every country
seemed to meet there. An Eutruscan
lamp OF red clay was placed on !,
Boule armoire, with ebony panels Sc
verely decorated with fine lines of
copper inlaid; duchess chair of the
reign of Louis XIV. stretched its claw
feet under heavy Louis VIII. tahle
with clumsy-twisted oaken legs, carved
in foliage and fantastic figures. A suit
of armor from Milan, beautifully in
laid, was reflected in an antique mir
Tor in the corner; exquisite little loves
and nymphs in biscuit, grOtesque
Chinese figures and beautiful cups of
Saxony and old Sevres were crowded
upon the etegeres and the corner
brackets. On the denticulated shelves
lining the walls were immense plaques
of Japan ware, with blue and red de-
signs relieved by gliding, side by side
with Bernard de Palissv's exquisite
enameled china representing adders,
lizards and frogs in relief. From half
open armoires escaped cascades of sill
yer brocade, and waves of brocatelle
powdered with gold glittering in an
oblique ray of sunlight; portraits of
every age smiled at one another
through their yellow varnish from out
frames all more or less shabby.
The shopkeeper followed me very
closely in my labyrinthine passage be-
tween the piles of furniture, keeping
his eyes and sometimes his hand on my
coat tails, and watching my elbows
with the anxiety Of an antiquary and
usurer. He had such an odd face,
this shop-keeper; an enormous head
bald and shining, surrounded with an
aureole of thin white hair, which throw
ing into bold relief the peculiar salmon
color of his skin, gave him an air of
patriarchal simplicity, counterbalanced,
however, by the twinkling of two little
yellow eyes which trembled in their Or
bits like two louis d'ors on quicksilver.
The curve of his nose had an aquile
outline, recalling the Oriental or Jew
ish type His hands thin, veined, trans
parent, full of nerves protruding like
the strings on the handle of q violin,
with claws rather than nails like those
terminating the membranous wings of
a bat had an incessant senile oscillation
most unpleasant to witness; but these
same hands so useless with nervous
twichings became frmer than steel
forceps or Holsters claws as soon rs
they raised for inspection some prec-
ious object-an onxy cup, a Venetian
glass VI DldUc vi DOllclllldu CIvStdl
This queer old fellow looked so thor
oughly rabbincial and cabalistic that
three centuries ago he would assuredly
have been burned at the stake-his APP
pearance would have been considered
sufficient proof of guilt.
"Can not sell you anything to-day,
Monsieur Look at this Malavan sword !;
the blade quivers and unuulates like a
flame; see these grooves for draining
off the blood, these reverse indenatlOns
for tearing out intestines when the
sword is withdrawn; it is ferocious
weapon, very rare, and would look well
in a collection of arms; here is a sword
to be used in both hands, it is one of
La Hera's, and this"
"NO; I have an abundance Of arms
and weapons of every description; l
should like little figure, some little
trihe which could use as q paper-weight
for I cannot endure these trumpery
little bronzes sold by every stationer,
which one invariably sees on every
desk"
The old gnome, rummaging among
his trash, finally diplayed some an
tique bronzes-at least he called them
so-some pieces of malachite, some
FIindoo and Chinese idiots-a sort of
poussa of OK stone-incarnations of
Bramah or Vishou, singularly appro-
pirate for the not very divine purpose
of keeping journals and papers in
place.
Istood ,hesitating between a porcelain
dragon and little Mexican fetish,
most abomlnably ugly, being repre-
scntation of the god Witziliputzili,
when 1 caught sight Of an exqui-
site little foot which I at first thought
must be a fragment of an antique
Venus. 1t had the beautiful yellow
tint which gives the Florentine bronze
its peculiarly warm, lifelike appear
! ance, so preferable to the greenish
gray tone of the ordinary bronzes
which invariably suggests a state of
putrefaction; a soft satiny gloss culver
cd on the surface Of its lovely curves
rounded and polished by the tender
kisses of tweny centuries; for most
probably it was Corinthion bronze, a
veritable antique, perhaps even cast
of Lysippus. ''That little foot suits
me exactly said to tbs old man, who
looked at me slyly and half IRONICALLY,
as he handled it to me to examine more
minutely.
1 was surprised to find how light it
was; it was not of metal at all but was
actually a human foot-an embalmed
foot-a mummy's foot. In examining
it closely the delicate grain of the skin
was distinguishable, and even the faint
impression of the texture of the band
ages. The toes were exquisitely slen-
der, delicate, with perfect nails, pure
and transparent as agate. The great toe
was tlihe separated from the others,
giving it the slenderness of birds foot;
the sole, scarcely lined, showed that it
never had touched the ground, and
had evidently never been brought into
the contact with anything less soft than
the finest mating of Nile reeds or vel
vety panther skins. cha! you want
Princess Hermouthes' foot" said the
old gnome with strange cracked
i