B651 <=> B653 [BTG XXXIV Russia, p. 652]

“’May crooked luck save him,’ otherwise such ‘gossip’ would fly around about this bold fellow as would inevitably ‘ruin’ the whole of his future career.

“To go to the hammam is now considered among beings belonging to the ruling class as very ‘indecent’ and ‘unintelligent.’ But indecent and unintelligent only because the contemporary ‘most intelligent’ beings of their planet, who according to their understanding are the French, do not go to the hammam.

“These unfortunates do not know of course that these same French, thanks always to the same reasons, namely, thanks to the abnormally established conditions of ordinary being-existence still but a few decades ago, not only did not go to the hammam, but these French, particularly, as they are called, the ‘intelligentsia,’ did not even wash themselves in the morning in order not to spoil their, at that time, fashionable artificial appearance which was difficult to rearrange.

“Now as regards the second of the good customs taken as an example by us, the fulfilling of which two centuries ago was still organically needed by every being of this community Russia, namely, the custom of chewing keva after the use of the first being-food, this custom already no longer exists there at all now among contemporary Russians.

“It must be remarked that at the present time the custom of chewing keva without meanwhile understanding its purport, began to implant itself while I was still there among the beings dwelling on the continent called ‘America,’ where the use of such keva, or as they have already called it, by another name, ‘chewing gum,’ is very widely spread and even takes on the dimensions of a great manufacturing branch of commerce there. Meanwhile it is interesting to notice that the fundamental part of this American chewing gum is exported just from Russia, namely, from the locality called ‘Caucasia.’ The beings dwelling in this locality do not even know why these ‘mad’ Americans import this unnecessary root good for nothing and for nobody.