B922 <=> B924 [BTG XLII Beelzebub in America, p. 923]

“The very ‘Tzimus’ of the said practice lies in this, that if you point your fourth finger and, covering one half of your mouth with your right palm, utter the name of any liquid you fancy, then immediately, without more words, that liquid is served at table – only in a bottle purporting to be lemonade or the famous ‘French Vichy.’

“Now try with all your might to exert your will and to actualize in your presence a general mobilization of your ‘perceptive organs’ so that, without missing anything at all, you may absorb and transubstantiate in yourself everything relating to just how these alcoholic liquids I have enumerated are prepared at sea on old barges off the shores of that continent.

“I regret very much that I missed making myself thoroughly familiar with all the details of this contemporary terrestrial ‘science.’

“All I managed to learn was that into all the recipes for these preparations, the following acids enter – ‘sulphuric,’ ‘nitric,’ and ‘muriatic’ acids, and most important of all, the ‘incantation’ of the famous contemporary German ‘Professor Kishmenhof.’

“This last ingredient, namely, Professor Kishmenhof’s incantation for alcoholic liquids, is delightfully intriguing; and it is concocted, so it is said, as follows: