B1014 <=> B1016 (BTG XLII Beelzebub in America, p. 1015)

“’”These names of theirs are not just names, but real music. Can one really compare the sounds of the music invented there by various Beethovenings and Chopinings, and other fashionable triflers, with the sounds of the names of these blessed fishes?

“’”Every time we hear the names of these glorious creations, a state of bliss flows within us and courses through our veins and nerves.

“’”Eh, Blessed Fishes, first created by our Creator! Have mercy on us and sustain us also in these ‘meat days.’ Amen.”

“’After this prayer, this worthy Orthodox Russian Christian drained a monster glass of genuine refined Russian vodka and stared fondly at a little statue of “Venus and Psyche” which stood nearby.

“’And indeed, my friend, almost every Russian Orthodox Christian has a similar idea of fasting and a similar attitude towards it.

“’During these “Christian fasts” which passed to them from the Orthodox Greeks, they all eat the flesh of fish.

“’It is not considered a “sin” among them to eat the flesh of fish, and they eat it heartily as a fast dish.

“’I personally find only one thing incomprehensible – from where did these Russian “sorry Orthodox” get the idea that during the Christian fasts, especially during Lent, the flesh of fish may be eaten?

“’I find it incomprehensible because the Orthodox Christians from whom they took this religion, namely, the Greeks, neither in the past nor in the present have ever eaten or do eat the flesh of fish during fasts.

“’Even the Greeks of today eat fish during Lent only on one day, and even then in accordance with the code of the Orthodox Church in memory of a day associated with the Divine Jesus Christ.

“’The result of a fast permitting the consumption of the flesh of fish not only gives no shock at all to the fasters, but is even directly contrary to what the Divine Jesus Christ himself intended and taught, and for which this custom was established by the great creators of this Christian religion.