buzzing about mine ears.

They would fome

times alight upon my victuals, and leave their loathfome excrement or spawn behind, which to me was very visible, though not to the natives of that country, whofe large optics were not fo acute as mine in viewing fmaller objects. Sometimes they would fix upon my nofe or forehead, where they ftung me to the quick, smelling very offenfively; and I could eafily trace that vifcous matter, which our naturalifts tell us, enables thofe creatures to walk with their feet upwards on a ceiling. I had much ado to defend myfelf against thefe deteftable animals, and could not forbear starting when they came on my face. It was the common practice of the dwarf to catch a number of these infects in his hand, as fchoolboys do among us, and let them out fuddenly under my nofe, on purpose to frighten me, and divert the Queen. My remedy was to cut them in pieces with my knife, as they flew in the air, wherein my dexterity was much admired.

I remember, one morning when Glumdalclitch had fet me in my box upon a window, as fhe ufually did in fair days to give me air (for I durst not venture to let the box be hung on a nail out of the window, as we do with cages in England) after I had lifted up one of my fashes, and fat down at my table to eat a piece of sweet cake for my breakfaft, above twenty wafps, allured by the finell, came flying into the room, humming louder than the drones of as many bag-pipes. Some of them feized my cake, and carried it piece

meal

meal away; others flew about my head and face, confounding me with the noife, and putting me in the utmoft terror of their ftings. However I had the courage to rife and draw my hanger, and attack them in the air. I difpatched four of them, but the reft got away, and I prefently fhut window. These infects were as large as parmy tridges; I took out their ftings, found them an inch and an half long, and as fharp as needles. I carefully preferved them all; and having fince fhewn them with fome other curiofities in feveral parts of Europe, upon my return to England, I gave three of them to Gresham college, and kept the fourth for myself.

CHA P. IV.

The country defcribed. A propofal for correcting modern maps. The King's palace, and fome account of the metropolis. The author's way of travelling. The chief temple defcribed.

I

Now intend to give the reader a short description of this country, as far as I travelled in it, which was not above two thousand miles round Lorbrulgrud, the metropolis. For the Queen whom I always attended, never went farther when the accompanied the King in his progreffes, and there ftaid till his Majefty returned from viewing his frontiers. The whole extent of this prince's

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prince's dominions reached about fix thousand miles in length, and from three to five in breadth. From whence I cannot but conclude, that our geographers of Europe are in a great error by fuppofing nothing but fea between Japan and California; for it was ever my opinion, that there must be a balance of earth to counterpoife the great continent of Tartary; and therefore they ought to correct their maps and charts by joining this vast tract of land to the north-west parts of America, wherein I shall be ready to lend them my affiftance.

The kingdom is a peninfula, terminated to the north-east by a ridge of mountains thirty miles high, which are altogether impaffable by reason of the volcanoes upon the tops: Neither do the most learned know what fort of mortals inhabit beyond those mountains, or whether they be inhabited at all. On the three other fides it is bounded by the ocean. There is not one feaport in the whole kingdom; and those parts of the coafts into which the rivers iffue, are fo full of pointed rocks, and the fea generally fo rough, that there is no venturing with the smallest of their boats; fo that thefe people are wholly excluded from any commerce with the reft of the world. But the large rivers are full of veffels, and abound with excellent fifh, for they feldom get any from the fea, because the sea-fish are of the fame fize with thofe in Europe, and confequently not worth catching; whereby it is manifeft, that nature, in the production of plants and

animals

~animals of fo extraordinary a bulk, is wholly confined to this continent, of which I leave the reafons to be determined by philofophers. However, now and then they take a whale that happens to be dafhed against the rocks, which the common people feed on heartily. These whales I have known fo large, that a man could hardly carry one upon his fhoulders; and fometimes for curiofity they are brought in hampers to Lorbrulgrud: I faw one of them in a difh at the King's table, which paffed for a rarity, but I did not observe he was fond of it; for I think indeed the bignefs difgufted him, although I have feen one fomewhat larger in Greenland.

The country is well inhabited, for it contains fifty-one cities, near an hundred walled towns, and a great number of villages. To fatisfy my curious reader, it may be fufficient to defcribe Lorbrulgrud. This city stands upon almoft two equal parts on each fide the river that paffes through. It contains above eighty thousand houses, and about fix hundred thousand inhabitants. It is in length three glomglungs (which make about fiftyfour English miles) and two and a half in breadth, as I measured it myfelf in the royal map made by the King's order, which was laid on the ground on purpose for me, and extended an hundred feet I paced the diameter and circumference feveral times barefoot, and, computing by the scale, measured it pretty exactly.

:

The King's palace is no regular edifice, but an heap of building about feven miles round; the

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chief

chief rooms are generally two hundred and forty feet high, and broad and long in proportion. A coach was allowed to Glumdalclitch and me,wherein her governess frequently took her out to fee the town, or go among the shops; and I was always of the party, carried in my box; although the girl, at my own defire, would often take me out, and hold me in her hand, that I might more conveniently view the houses and people, as we paffed along the streets. I reckoned our coach to be about a square of Westminster-hall, but not altogether fo high: However, I cannot be very exact. One day the governefs ordered our coachman to ftop at feveral fhops, where the beggars, watching their opportunity, crouded to the fides of the coach, and gave me the most horrible spectacles that ever an European eye beheld. There was a woman with a cancer in her breaft, fwelled to a monftrous fize, full of holes, in two or three of which I could have easily crept, and covered my whole body. There was a fellow with a wen in his neck larger than five woolpacks, and another with a couple of wooden legs, each about twenty feet high. But the most hateful fight of all was the lice crawling on their cloaths. I could fee diftinctly the limbs of these vermin with my naked eye, much better than thofe of an European louse through a microscope, and their fnouts with which they routed like fwine. They were the first I had ever beheld, and I should have been curious enough to diffect one of them, if I had had proper inftruments (which