Journeys Through Bookland, Volume 5 | Page 5

was long and thick, tied down in the
same manner. I likewise felt several slender ligatures across my body,
from my armpits to my thighs. I could only look upward; the sun began
to grow hot, and the light offended mine eyes. I heard a confused noise
about me, but, in the posture I lay, could see nothing except the sky.
In a little time I felt something alive moving on my left leg, which,
advancing gently forward over my breast, came almost up to my chin;
when, bending mine eyes downward as much as I could, I perceived it
to be a human creature not six inches high, with a bow and arrow in his
hands, and a quiver at his back. In the meantime, I felt at least forty
more of the same kind (as I conjectured) following the first. I was in the
utmost astonishment, and roared so loud that they all ran back in a
fright; and some of them, as I was afterward told, were hurt with the
falls they got by leaping from my sides upon the ground. However,

they soon returned; and one of them, who ventured so far as to get a
full sight of my face, lifting up his hands and eyes by way of
admiration, cried out, in a shrill but distinct voice, "Hekinah degul."
The others repeated the same words several times; but I then knew not
what they meant. I lay all this while, as the reader may believe, in great
uneasiness.
At length, struggling to get loose, I had the fortune to break the strings
and wrench out the pegs that fastened my left arm to the ground; for, by
lifting it up to my face, I discovered the methods they had taken to bind
me, and, at the same time, with a violent pull, which gave me excessive
pain, I a little loosened the strings that tied down my hair on the left
side, so that I was just able to turn my head about two inches. But the
creatures ran off a second time, before I could seize them; whereupon
there was a great shout, in a very shrill accent, and, after it ceased, I
heard one of them cry aloud, "Tolgo phonac"; when, in an instant, I felt
above an hundred arrows discharged on my left hand, which pricked
me like so many needles; and, besides, they shot another flight into the
air, as we do bombs in Europe; whereof many, I suppose, fell on my
body (though I felt them not), and some on my face, which I
immediately covered with my left hand.
When this shower of arrows was over, I fell a-groaning with grief and
pain; and then, striving again to get loose, they discharged another
volley, larger than the first, and some of them attempted, with spears, to
stick me in the sides; but, by good luck, I had on me a buff[2] jerkin,
which they could not pierce. I thought it the most prudent method to lie
still; and my design was to continue so till night, when, my left hand
being already loose, I could easily free myself; and as for the
inhabitants, I had reason to believe I might be a match for the greatest
armies they could bring against me, if they were all of the same size
with him that I saw.
[Footnote 2: Buff is the name given to a kind of leather, made originally
of buffalo hide, but later of the skins of other animals]
But fortune disposed otherwise of me. When the people observed I was
quiet, they discharged no more arrows; but, by the noise I heard, I knew

their numbers increased; and about four yards from me, over against
my right ear, I heard a knocking for above an hour, like that of people
at work; when, turning my head that way, as well as the pegs and
strings would permit me, I saw a stage erected about a foot and a half
from the ground, capable of holding four of the inhabitants, with two or
three ladders to mount it; from whence one of them, who seemed to be
a person of quality, made me a long speech, whereof I understood not
one syllable.
But I should have mentioned that, before the principal person began his
oration, he cried out three times, "Langro dehul san" (these words and
the former were afterward repeated and explained to me); whereupon,
immediately, about fifty of the inhabitants came and cut the strings that
fastened the left side of my head, which gave me the liberty of turning
it to the right, and of observing the person and gesture of him that was
to speak. He appeared to be of a middle age, and taller