ok. Everybody
knows Catullus's contribution, which begins:

"A log of oak, some rustic's blade
Hewed out my shape; grotesquely made
I guard this spot by night and day,
Scare every vagrant knave away,
And save from theft and rapine's hand
My humble master's cot and land."

The chief complaint to be made against the writers of these verses is
that they so rarely strayed from their subject. The address entitled "A
Word to the Reader," is padded with citations from Burton's Camoens and
his Supplemental Nights, including the well-known passage concerning
his estimate of a translator's office, [622] and the whole work
bears evidence of extreme haste. We are assured that it will be "most
interesting to anthropologists and humanists."

169. Catullus and the Last Trip, July--September 1890.

Burton, as we have seen, had commenced his translation of Catullus, 18th
February 1890, at Hammam R'irha. He finished the first rough copy of
Trieste March 31st, and commenced a second copy on May 23rd. "He would
bring his Latin Catullus," says Lady Burton, "down to the table d'hote
with him, and he used to come and sit by me, but the moment he got a
person on the other side who did not interest him he used to whisper to
me 'Talk, that I may do my Catullus.'" "Sir Richard," says Mr.
Leonard Smithers, upon whom had devolved the task of making the
prose translation that was to accompany it, "laid great stress on the
necessity of thoroughly annotating each translation from an erotic and
especially pederastic point of view." [623]

On July 1st the Burtons, accompanied as usual by Dr. Baker, Lisa and the
magpie trunk, set out on what proved to be their last trip--a journey
through the Tyrol and Switzerland. They arrived at Zurich just in time
for "the great Schiefs-Statte fete, the most important national function
of Switzerland," which was held that year at the neighbouring town of
Frauenfeld. Seven thousand pounds had been set aside for prizes for
shooing, and forty thousand persons were present. Next day there was
a grand Consular dinner, to which Burton was invited. Dr. Baker having
expressed regret that he also had not been included, Burton remarked,
"Oh, I'll manage it. Write a letter for me and decline." So a letter was
written to the effect that as Sir Richard Burton made it a rule not to
go anywhere without his medical attendant he was obliged to decline
the honour, &c., &c. Presently, as had been ex