MERCURY AND THE TRADESMEN

When Jupiter was creating man, he told Mercury to make an infusion of lies, and to add a little of it to the other ingredients which went to the making of the Tradesmen. Mercury did so, and introduced an equal amount into each in turn—the tallow-chandler, and the greengrocer, and the haberdasher, and all, till he came to the horse-dealer, who was last on the list, when, finding that he had a quantity of the infusion still left, he put it all into him. This is why all Tradesmen lie more or less, but they none of them lie like a horse-dealer.

墨丘利和商贩

在朱庇特造人的时候，他让墨丘利加入了一些谎言，来作为制造商人的原料。墨丘利遵命照办，挨个儿给所有的商人分配了相同的比例，牛油商、菜贩、服装商……全都处理完了。最后，他遇到了名单上的最后一个，马贩子，发现还剩下一些谎言，于是就都放到了马贩子身上。所以，所有的商贩都会或多或少地撒些谎，但是却没有像马贩子这样会撒谎。