B924 <=> B926 (BTG XLII Beelzebub in America, p. 925)

“Then both doors of the kitchen must be opened wide, or, if there is only one door, a window must be opened wide, and, while the incantation is very loudly pronounced a chicken must be chased through the kitchen at full speed.

“Upon this, a most delicious ‘chicken soup’ is ready hot in the pot.

“I heard further that during the years of that great process of reciprocal-destruction, the beings of Germany made use of this conjury on a colossal scale, this method of preparing chicken soup having proved in practice to be, as it were, good, or at least extremely economical.

“The reason is that a single chicken could do duty for quite a long time, because it could be chased and chased and chased, until for some reason or other, the chicken all by itself, as is said there ‘went on strike’ and declined to breathe the air any longer.

“And in the event that the chicken resisted the infection of hypocrisy, in spite of its having existed among your favorites, and indeed did cease to wish to breathe the air any longer, then for this eventuality, as I afterwards learned, a common custom was established there among the beings of that group called Germany.

“Namely, when the chicken went on strike, its owners would very solemnly roast it in the oven, and for this solemn occasion would unfailingly invite all their relatives to dinner.

“It is interesting to notice also, that another professor of theirs, also famous, named Steiner, in the course of his what are called ‘scientific investigations of supernatural phenomena,’ mathematically established that on the occasions when these chickens were served at these ‘invitation dinners,’ always their owners would recite the same thing.