"Min bashi, and head of thousands!" replied Huckaback, "I will explain to your highness. I once jammed my nail at the bottom, and I expected to lose it. It did not however come off but grew up as before, and I had the curiosity to know how often people changed their nails in the course of a year. It was exactly two months, and from this I grounded my calculations. I observed specks on my nails, and as they grew up, so did I calculate time." "Mashallah, how wonderful is God! Wallah thaib! Well said, by Allah! I never should have thought of that," observed the pacha. "Proceed with your story." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The five months had elapsed, according to my calculations, when one morning I heard a grating noise close to me; soon afterwards I perceived the teeth of a saw entering my domicile, and I correctly judged that some ship was cutting her way through the ice. Although I could not make myself heard, I waited in anxious expectation of deliverance. The saw approached very near to where I was sitting, and I was afraid that I should be wounded, if not cut in halves; but just as it was within two inches of my nose, it was withdrawn. The fact was, that I was under the main floe, which had been frozen together, and the firm ice above having been removed and pushed away, I rose to the surface. A current of fresh air immediately poured into the small incision made by the saw, which not only took away my breath from its sharpness, but brought on a spitting of blood. Hearing the sound of voices, I considered my deliverance as certain. Although I understood very little English, I heard the name of Captain Parry frequently mentioned--a name, I presume, that your highness is well acquainted with. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Pooh! never heard of it," replied the pacha. "I am surprised, your highness; I thought every body must have heard of that adventurous navigator. I may here observe that I have since read his voyages, and he mentions as a curious fact, the steam which was emitted from the ice--which was nothing more than the hot air escaping from my cave when it was cut through--a singular point, as it not only proves the correctness of his remarks, but the circumstance of my having been there, as I am now describing it to your highness." ------------------------------------------------------------------------