4.2 Hills Like White Elephants

4.2 Hills April 02, 2013
White Elephant Story
Once there was a cruel and unjust king in an ancient
kingdom in Asia. One of his subjects displeased him, so he
sent to that subject a white elephant, as a ‘gift.’ In that
culture, a white elephant was sacred, and could not be
slaughtered for meat or other uses, and could not be put to
work (as other elephants might be) as a labor-animal. The
unlucky subject thus had to care for and feed the elephant,
which lives on average as long as a human, and over the
course of his life the expense of caring for and feeding the
elephant (which has an enormous appetite) ruined him
financially, leaving him destitute.
White Elephant
Definition: a largely useless object which
may be overly expensive to own.
Reale = Spanish coin, currency.
Anis is a type of plant (that resembles a starfish) that is important in making
absinthe, which is now outlawed in America and cannot be legally imported.
Anis is yellow, but turns greenish-yellow when water is added. Anis liqueurs
are the most popular liqueurs in France and in all of the Mediterranean
countries. Absinthe was the classic anis spirit. Absinthe is a drink made from
wormwood, which has a licorice-like taste and is high in alcoholic content,
and may cause hallucinations if taken in large quantities. Hemingway drank
a lot of absinthe. Today, absinthe is the drink of choice for Marilyn
Manson.”
definitions