Life — November 4, 1926 — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Famous Fuie Tapestry, Fortunately Just Stolen than was expected) of the famous Fuie Tapestry, discovered last summer in Fuie, France, and brought to this country just in time to be stolen from Gimbel’s window. If any readers of this magazine happen to see a tapestry like this wrapped around their ice, will they please notify somebody, even if it is only acousin of theirs? Or call Longacre 4867 and ask for “Slim.” The story told on this tapestry is a very interesting one if you happen to be laid up in bed with no magazines to look at. It recounts “The Hunting of the Stag” and shows how the court of Pepin the Great in the Middle Ages used to hunt mongooses. In the lower left-hand corner we sce the hounds in full ery. This one happens to be only in half-ery, but it gets fuller as the picture goes on, Above him is a medieval zither-zither, who used to accompany the hunt in G sharp. His wife is telling him for God's sake will he stop practicing second-zither until the rest of the boys come and play the whole thing together. In the foreground (left) is a Dominican friar chiding Lady Rosamond for looking in the other direction her right eye. She is telling him that her right eye is all right—that it is her left that gives her trouble. This makes no difference at all to the trombone player be- hind them. Nothing makes any difference to him, and why should it? The stag by this time is nowhere to be scen. So Pepin the Younger stands on his head, which makes the drum- mer only play the harder. Such a drum-drum-drum- Dien is a reproduction (on a much smaller scale ming! If it had been a stag it would have bitten him. In the foreground (center) is a bit of medieval neck- ing which we would do well to pass over. If you in- sist, however, we will sp y that the one on the right is the girl and the other—we hope—the boy. As was the custom in all stag-hunts, a refreshment table, all out of drawing, stands under a tree, and the King’s armor-bearer is seen snatching a quick bite before killing the stag—or the King, « The King would seem to need little killing, however, appearing cock-eyed on a milk-white steed in the back- ground. The falcon which he carries is pretty sick of the whole business and is looking for his hood. Over in the corner (upper right) the Crown Prince is working on what scems to be a ham. Just what it really is has never been figured out. If anybody cares, Il take the thing home to-night and take a mag- ing glass to it. Up above in the clouds is the medieval conception of God, or the Old Man of the Tribe. The two birds drawing his chariot, although they are only five years old, take eight-year-old suits, and represent High and Low Tide. In the lower right-hand corner, we see the stag, making believe he is asleep. When everybody has gone home (which ought to be any minute now) he will come out from behind the bush and clean up the refreshments. We hope that nobody asks us what the legends on the scrolls mean. We have a feeling that it is some- thing dirty. Robert Benchley. comicbooks.com