Baron Munchausen’s Crawl Test Lab

The fourth shelf of specimens

Every specimen here is wrong on purpose, or nearly so. Touch nothing.

Specimens on shelf fourth

Even my fleas were braver than other men's soldiers. A single squad of them held a fort in Moldavia for a month. They bit the enemy's horses, then his cooks, then his flag. I gave each one a tiny medal, and I pinned them on with my best needle.

Barbers wept at the sight of my mustache. One side grew so long that I used it to moor a small boat in Naples. The other side I lent to a Greek fisherman for his nets. He caught tuna for a whole summer and returned it washed, combed, and slightly salty.

Wine from my cellar at Bodenwerder improves when you insult it. I called one barrel a thin and sorry thing. It wept for a year. Then it turned so rich and dark that two bishops fought over it, and a cardinal swore he saw the face of my aunt.

Her Imperial Highness asked me to fetch a star for her hair. I borrowed a long ladder from a Kiev fire brigade. The star was hot, so I carried it home in a soup pot. She wore it to the ball, and the ladies all left early, sunburned.

Drums can talk if you beat them politely. I had one at Vidin that gave gossip about the enemy. It told me where they kept the cake. Two of my men and I crept in and ate it all, and that loss broke.