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The day had been a stupid one in Gotham, and I hadn't enough temperament to light a cigarette, so I simply pressed the nombril button, took my Rig-Veda—a sacred buggy—projected my astral being, and sailed through space to the French capital, there to enjoy a bath in the new art, or synthesis of the seven arts, eating included.

But Nobody, in one of Cummings' descriptions of him, is "Wifeless and only half awake, cursed with pimples, correctly dressed, cleanshaven above the nombril . . . in brief: an American."

What charming things Ronsard has to say of either might be said of any charming woman—'le mignard embonpoint de ce sein,'—   'Petit nombril, que mon penser adore,   Non pas mon oeil, qui n'eut oncques ce bien …' And though he assures Hélène that she has turned him from his grave early style, 'qui pour chanter si bas n'est point ordonné,' the difference is too hard to detect; one is forced to conclude that it is precisely the difference between a court lady and an inn-keeper's daughter.

Les envieus et envieuses sont en ung fleuve congelé plongés jusques au nombril et par dessus les frappe un vent moult froid et quant veulent icelluy vent éviter se plongent dedans ladite glace.'