The Senators, at my Entrance, extended their Branches toward the Skies; which Ceremony being ended, they sat down again; and being all seated, I was brought to the Bar between two Trees, whose Trunks or Bodies were covered with Sheep-Skins. I suspected they were Lawyers, and such in good Truth they were. Before they began to plead, the President wrapt his Head in a Garment of a dark Colour. One of these Advocates made a very short Speech, which he thrice repeated; to which the other Advocate replied with equal Brevity: These Pleadings were followed by a Silence of Half an Hour: Then the President, removing the Covering from her Head, rose up, and again extending her Branches toward the Sky, pronounc’d certain Words, which I supposed contained my Sentence; for at the End of the Speech I was dismiss’d back to my old Prison, and confin’d there, as I guess’d, to be in Readiness to be brought forth to Punishment. Being left alone, and revolving in my Memory every Thing that had happened, I could not forbear smiling at the Stupidity of this People; for they seemed rather to be acting a Play than exercising Justice, and every Thing I had seen, their Gesture, their Dress, and Method of Proceeding seem’d to favour more of the Buffoonery of the Stage, than the awful Tribunal of Justice. Then I congratulated the Happiness of our World, and the Superiority of the _Europeans_ to all others. But tho’ I arraigned the Folly and Dulness of this subterraneous Nation, yet I was forced to own that they ought to be distinguished from the Brute Creation; for the Elegance of the City, the Symmetry of the Buildings, with several other Particulars, loudly proclaimed that these Trees were not devoid of Reason, nor altogether ignorant of the Arts, especially Mechanicks; but then it was in this alone that I thought all their Virtues, all their whole Perfection consisted.