"There are others who keep Publick-house after a far different manner: When one is about to be gone, they demand, proportionably to the Charges, an Acquittance for the other World; and when that is given them, they write down in a great Register, which they call _Doomsday's Book_, much after this manner: _Item_, The value of so many Verses, delivered such a Day, to such a Person, which he is to pay upon the receipt of this Acquittance, out of his readiest Cash: And when they find themselves in danger of Death, they cause these Registers to be Chopt in pieces, and swallow them down; because they believe, that if they were not thus digested, they would be good for nothing." This Conversation was no hinderance to our Journey; for my Four-legged Porter jogged on under me, and I rid stradling on his Back. I shall not be particular in relating to you all the Adventures that happened to us on our way, till we arrived at length at the Town where the King holds his Residence. [1] Officious = kindly, ready to serve, doing good offices. _Cf_. Milton, _Paradise Lost_: "Yet, not to earth are those bright luminaries Officious; but to thee, earth's habitant." [2] Cf. _The Man in the Moone_, of Francis Godwin: "Their Language is very difficult, since it hath no Affinity with any other I ever heard, and consists not so much of Words and Letters, as Tunes and strange Sounds which no Letters can express; for there are few Words but signify several Things, and are distinguished only by their Sounds, which are sung as it were in uttering; yea many Words consist of Tunes only, without Words." [3] Origin. _Cf_. pp. 137, 170, 174*; and _cf_. Shakspere, _Henry IV._, Part II.: "It hath its original from much grief." (*p. 137 starts with: "...last meeting, had said, That..." p. 170: "... Thus he concluded, and..." p. 174: "CHAPTER IV") [4] "... On ne s'attendait guère De voir [Charon] en cette affaire!" In fact, our translator has made an amusing mistake, for which the printer of the 1661 edition is perhaps partly responsible; in that edition we read] "(Caron ne se sert pas d'autres chandelles)," which should of course be, as in the other editions, "Caron ...;" "For they use no other candles." CHAPTER IX. _Of the Little_ Spaniard _whom he met there, and of his quaint Wit; of_ Vacuum, _Specific Weights, and sundry other Philosophical Matters_.