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after-
    wards we made a board from the side of a packing—case,
    and a set of men from buttons, Belgian coins and the like.
    Boris, like many Russians, had a passion for chess. It was
    a saying of his that the rules of chess are the same as the
    rules of love and war, and that if you can win at one you can
    win at the others. But he also said that if you have a chess-
    board you do not mind being hungry, which was certainly
    not true in my case.
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    1
    VII
    My money oozed away—to eight francs, to four francs,
    to one franc, to twenty-five centimes; and twenty-five
    centimes is useless, for it will buy nothing except a newspa-
    per. We went several days on dry bread, and then I was two
    and a half days with nothing to eat whatever. This was an
    ugly experience. There are people who do fasting cures of
    three weeks or more, and they say that fasting is quite pleas-
    ant after the fourth day; I do not know, never having gone
    beyond the third day. Probably it seems different when one
    is doing it voluntarily and is not underfed at the start.
    The first day, too inert to look for work, I borrowed a
    rod and went fishing in the Seine, baiting with bluebottles.
    I hoped to catch enough for a meal, but of course I did not.
    The Seine is full of dace, but they grew cunning during the
    siege of Paris, and none of them has been caught since, ex-
    cept in nets. On the second day I thought of pawning my
    overcoat, but it seemed too far to walk to the pawnshop, and
    I spent the day in bed, reading the MEMOIRS OF SHER-
    LOCK HOLMES. It was all that I felt equal to, without food.
    Hunger reduces one to an utterly spineless, brainless condi-
    tion, more like the after-effects of influenza than anything
    else. It is as though one had been turned into a jellyfish, or as
    though all one’s blood had been pumped out and luke-wann
    water substituted. Complete inertia is my chief memory of

    Down and Out in Paris and London
    hunger; that, and being obliged to spit very frequently, and
    the spittle being curiously white and flocculent, like cuck-
    oo-spit. I do not know the reason for this, but everyone who
    has gone hungry several days has noticed it.
    On the third morning I felt very much better. I realized
    that I must do something at once, and I decided to go and
    ask Boris to let me share his two francs, at any rate for a day
    or two. When I arrived I found Boris in bed, and furiously
    angry. As soon as I came in he burst out, almost choking:
    ‘He has taken it back, the dirty thief! He has taken it
    back!’
    ‘Who’s taken what?’ I said.
    ‘The Jew! Taken my two francs, the dog, the thief! He
    robbed me in my sleep!’
    It appeared that on the previous night the Jew had flatly
    refused to pay the daily two francs. They had argued and
    argued, and at last the Jew had consented to hand over the
    money; he had done it, Boris said, in the most offensive
    manner, making a little speech about how kind he was, and
    extorting abject gratitude. And then in the morning he had
    stolen the money back before Boris was awake.
    This was a blow. I was horribly disappointed, for I had al-
    lowed my belly to expect food, a great mistake when one is
    hungry. However, rather to my surprise, Boris was far from
    despairing. He sat up in bed, lighted his pipe and reviewed
    the situation.
    ‘Now listen, MON AMI, this is a tight comer. We have
    only twenty-five centimes between us, and I don’t suppose
    the Jew will ever pay my two francs again. In any case his
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    behaviour is becoming intolerable. Will you believe it, the
    other night he had the indecency to bring a woman in here,
    while I was there on the floor. The low animal! And I have a
    worse thing to tell you. The Jew intends clearing out of here.
    He owes a week’s rent, and his idea is to avoid paying that
    and give me the slip at the same time. If the Jew shoots the
    moon I shall be left without a roof, and the PATRON will
    take my