The Cook Asks to Kiss His Shoulders

The same tempter comes back as a cook, and the Shahnameh makes the seduction culinary. Men had lived on plants; he serves egg yolk, then partridge and pheasant, then lamb, then a chine of veal with saffron, rosewater, musk and old wine. Offered any reward he likes, he asks only to kiss the king's shoulders — and having kissed them, vanishes. Two black snakes grow where his mouth was. Cut them off and they come back like branches from a pruned tree. Then a physician arrives, who is the same person again, and prescribes the cure that is really the disease: do not cut them, feed them.