on his back with his graundee open, and after a recapitulation of his crimes, and his condemnation, the officer with a sharp stone slits the gume * between each of the filuses ** of the graundee, so that he can never fly more. But what is still worse to new-comers, if they are not very young, is the light of the place, which is so strong that it is some years before they can overcome it, if ever they do." This discourse gave me a great pleasure; thereupon I repeated the dialogue that had passed between me and Youwarkee about my being slit, and how we had held an argument a long time, without being able to come at one another's meaning. "But pray, brother," says I, "how comes that light country to agree so well with you?"--"Why," says he, "the colambat *** of Crashdoorpt is reckoned one of the most honourable employments in the state, by reason of the hazard of it, and the person accepting it must be young: it was, by my father's interest at court, given to me at nine years of age; my friend Rosig has followed my fortune in it ever since, being much about my age, and has a post under me there: in short, by being obliged to be so much there, and from so tender an age too, I have pretty well inured myself to any light." * The membrane. ** Ribs. *** Government. By this time we had got home again to dinner, which Pedro had set out as elegantly as my country could afford, consisting of pickles and preserves, as usual, a dish of hard eggs, and boiled fowls with spinage. My guests, as I expected, stared at the fowls, but never offered to touch them, or seemed in the least inclined to do so. I was afraid they would be cold, and begged them to let me help them. I put a wing on each of their plates, and a leg on my own; but perceiving they waited to see how I managed it, I stuck in my fork, cut off a slice, dipped it in the salt, and put it in my mouth. Just as I did they did, and appeared very well pleased with the taste. "I never in my life," says Rosig, "saw a crullmott*of this shape before;" and laid hold of a leg (taking it for a stick I had thrust in, as he told me afterwards), intending to pull it out; but finding it grew there, "Mr. Peter," says he, "you have the oddest-shaped crullmotts that ever I saw; pray what part of the woods do they grow in?"--"Grow in?" says I.--"Aye," says he, "I mean whether your crullmott-trees are like ours or not?"--"Why," says I, "these fowls are about my yard and the wood too."--"What!" says he, "is it a running plant like a bott?" **--"No, no," says I, "a bird that I keep tame about my house; and these (showing him the eggs) are the eggs of these birds, and the birds grow from them."--"Pr'ythee," says Quangrollart, "never let's inquire what they are till we have dined; for my brother Peter will give us nothing we need be afraid of." * A fruit like a melon. ** A gourd.