B1115 <=> B1117 [BTG XLIII Beelzebub’s opinion of war, p. 1116]

“I noticed in the cities Petrograd and Tiflis situated in the large community Russia, of which community more beings perished than of any other during that World War of theirs, that that kind of quadruped being which as a rule never appeared there, namely, the quadruped beings which hate people and which are called ‘wolves,’ were already prowling in the streets.

“In the information communicated to me by etherogram it was said, among other things, that in the same large community Russia the birth rate of beings of the kinds of rodents called ‘mice’ and ‘rats’ had increased to such an unprecedented extent that at the present time they are beginning to devour most of the stored provisions of the beings of the said community.

“It was further conveyed in the same etherogram that the power-possessing beings of the community Russia had applied to the beings of another European community to undertake the destruction of the existence of those small beings – mice and rats – which had multiplied among them, in return for which they promised to pay them as much money as it would cost.

“Though a temporary reduction of the numbers of these poor rats and mice may be obtained by the various means at the disposal of those specialists in the destruction of the existences of others, yet the beings of the other communities will possibly not quite consent to do this ‘gratis.’ To pay in money, however, this the beings of that Russia who promised it will, of course, not be able to do, since it might cost them in money much more than their last war.

“And to get money from the same sources from which they drained it during that great process, as our dear Mullah Nassr Eddin says, ‘As to this, nothing doing! Even a donkey can understand that peasant flesh costs nothing in peacetime.’”