Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
espied me as I lay on the ground. He considered awhile, with the
caution of one who endeavours to lay hold on a small dangerous animal
in such a manner that it shall not be able either to scratch or bite
him, as I myself have sometimes done with a weasel in England. At
length he ventured to take me behind, by the middle, between his
fore-finger and thumb, and brought me within three yards of his eyes,
that he might behold my shape more perfectly. I guessed his meaning,
and my good fortune gave me so much presence of mind, that I resolved
not to struggle in the least as he held me in the air above sixty feet
from the ground, although he grievously pinched my sides, for fear I
should slip through his fingers. All I ventured was to raise my eyes
towards the sun, and place my hands together in a supplicating posture,
and to speak some words in a humble melancholy tone, suitable to the
condition I then was in: for I apprehended every moment that he would
dash me against the ground, as we usually do any little hateful animal,
which we have a mind to destroy. But my good star would have it, that
he appeared pleased with my voice and gestures, and began to look upon
me as a curiosity, much wondering to hear me pronounce articulate
words, although he could not understand them. In the mean time I was
not able to forbear groaning and shedding tears, and turning my head
towards my sides; letting him know, as well as I could, how cruelly I
was hurt by the pressure of his thumb and finger. He seemed to
apprehend my meaning; for, lifting up the lappet of his coat, he put me
gently into it, and immediately ran along with me to his master, who
was a substantial farmer, and the same person I had first seen in the
field.
The farmer having (as I suppose by their talk) received such an account
of me as his servant could give him, took a piece of a small straw,
about the size of a walking-staff, and therewith lifted up the lappets
of my coat; which it seems he thought to be some kind of covering that
nature had given me. He blew my hairs aside to take a better view of my
face. He called his hinds about him, and asked them, as I afterwards
learned, whether they had ever seen in the fields any little creature
that resembled me. He then placed me softly on the ground upon all
fours, but I got immediately up, and walked slowly backward and
forward, to let those people see I had no intent to run away. They all
sat down in a circle about me, the better to observe my motions. I
pulled off my hat, and made a low bow towards the farmer. I fell on my
knees, and lifted up my hands and eyes, and spoke several words as loud
as I could: I took a purse of gold out of my pocket, and humbly
presented it to him. He received it on the palm of his hand, then
applied it close to his eye to see what it was, and afterwards turned
it several times with the point of a pin (which he took out of his
sleeve,) but could make nothing of it. Whereupon I made a sign that he
should place his hand on the ground. I then took the purse, and,
opening it, poured all the gold into his palm. There were six Spanish
pieces of four pistoles each, beside twenty or thirty smaller coins. I
saw him wet the tip of his little finger upon his tongue, and take up
one of my largest pieces, and then another; but he seemed to be wholly
ignorant what they were. He made me a sign to put them again into my
purse, and the purse again into my pocket, which, after offering it to
him several times, I thought it best to do.
The farmer, by this time, was convinced I must be a rational creature.
He spoke often to me; but the sound of his voice pierced my ears like
that of a water-mill, yet his words were articulate enough. I answered
as loud as I could in several languages, and he often laid his ear
within two yards of me: but all in vain, for we were wholly
unintelligible to each other. He then sent his servants to their work,
and taking his handkerchief out of his pocket, he doubled and spread it
on his left hand, which he placed flat on the ground with the palm
upward, making me a sign to step into it, as I could easily do, for it
was not above a foot in thickness. I thought it my part to obey, and,
for fear of falling, laid myself at full length upon the handkerchief,
with the remainder of which he lapped me up to the head for further
security, and in this manner carried me home to his house. There he
called his wife, and showed me to her; but she screamed and ran back,
as women in England do at the sight of a toad or a spider. However,
when she had a while seen my behaviour, and how well I observed the
signs her husband made, she was soon reconciled, and by degrees grew
extremely tender of me.
It was about twelve at noon, and a servant brought in dinner. It was
only one substantial dish of meat (fit for the plain condition of a
husbandman,) in a dish of about four-and-twenty feet diameter. The
company were, the farmer and his wife, three children, and an old
grandmother. When they were sat down, the farmer placed me at some
distance from him on the table, which was thirty feet high from the
floor. I was in a terrible fright, and kept as far as I could from the
edge, for fear of falling. The wife minced a bit of meat, then crumbled
some bread on a trencher, and placed it before me. I made her a low
bow, took out my knife and fork, and fell to eat, which gave them
exceeding delight. The mistress sent her maid for a small dram cup,
which held about two gallons, and filled it with drink; I took up the
vessel with much difficulty in both hands, and in a most respectful
manner drank to her ladyship’s health, expressing the words as loud as
I could in English, which made the company laugh so heartily, that I
was almost deafened with the noise. This liquor tasted like a small
cider, and was not unpleasant. Then the master made me a sign to come
to his trencher side; but as I walked on the table, being in great
surprise all the time, as the indulgent reader will easily conceive and
excuse, I happened to stumble against a crust, and fell flat on my
face, but received no hurt. I got up immediately, and observing the
good people to be in much concern, I took my hat (which I held under my
arm out of good manners,) and waving it over my head, made three
huzzas, to show I had got no mischief by my fall. But advancing forward
towards my master (as I shall henceforth call him,) his youngest son,
who sat next to him, an arch boy of about ten years old, took me up by
the legs, and held me so high in the air, that I trembled every limb:
but his father snatched me from him, and at the same time gave him such
a box on the left ear, as would have felled an European troop of horse
to the earth, ordering him to be taken from the table. But being afraid
the boy might owe me a spite, and well remembering how mischievous all
children among us naturally are to sparrows, rabbits, young kittens,
and puppy dogs, I fell on my knees, and pointing to the boy, made my
master to understand, as well as I could, that I desired his son might
be pardoned. The father complied, and the lad took his seat again,
whereupon I went to him, and kissed his hand, which my master took, and
made him stroke me gently with it.
In the midst of dinner, my mistress’s favourite cat leaped into her
lap. I heard a noise behind me like that of a dozen stocking-weavers at
work; and turning my head, I found it proceeded from the purring of
that animal, who seemed to be three times larger than an ox, as I
computed by the view of her head, and one of her paws, while her
mistress was feeding and stroking her. The fierceness of this
creature’s countenance altogether discomposed me; though I stood at the
farther end of the table, above fifty feet off; and although my
mistress held her fast, for fear she might give a spring, and seize me
in her talons. But it happened there was no danger, for the cat took
not the least notice of me when my master placed me within three yards
of her. And as I have been always told, and found true by experience in
my travels, that flying or discovering fear before a fierce animal, is
a certain way to make it pursue or attack you, so I resolved, in this
dangerous juncture, to show no manner of concern. I walked with
intrepidity five or six times before the very head of the cat, and came
within half a yard of her; whereupon she drew herself back, as if she
were more afraid of me: I had less apprehension concerning the dogs,
whereof three or four came into the room, as it is usual in farmers’
houses; one of which was a mastiff, equal in bulk to four elephants,
and another a greyhound, somewhat taller than the mastiff, but not so
large.
When dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of a year
old in her arms, who immediately spied me, and began a squall that you
might have heard from London Bridge to Chelsea, after the usual oratory
of infants, to get me for a plaything. The mother, out of pure
indulgence, took me up, and put me towards the child, who presently
seized me by the middle, and got my head into his mouth, where I roared
so loud that the urchin was frighted, and let me drop, and I should
infallibly have broke my neck, if the mother had not held her apron
under me. The nurse, to quiet her babe, made use of a rattle which was
a kind of hollow vessel filled with great stones, and fastened by a
cable to the child’s waist: but all in vain; so that she was forced to
apply the last remedy by giving it suck. I must confess no object ever
disgusted me so much as the sight of her monstrous breast, which I
cannot tell what to compare with, so as to give the curious reader an
idea of its bulk, shape, and colour. It stood prominent six feet, and
could not be less than sixteen in circumference. The nipple was about
half the bigness of my head, and the hue both of that and the dug, so
varied with spots, pimples, and freckles, that nothing could appear
more nauseous: for I had a near sight of her, she sitting down, the
more conveniently to give suck, and I standing on the table. This made
me reflect upon the fair skins of our English ladies, who appear so
beautiful to us, only because they are of our own size, and their
defects not to be seen but through a magnifying glass; where we find by
experiment that the smoothest and whitest skins look rough, and coarse,
and ill-coloured.
I remember when I was at Lilliput, the complexion of those diminutive
people appeared to me the fairest in the world; and talking upon this
subject with a person of learning there, who was an intimate friend of
mine, he said that my face appeared much fairer and smoother when he
looked on me from the ground, than it did upon a nearer view, when I
took him up in my hand, and brought him close, which he confessed was
at first a very shocking sight. He said, “he could discover great holes
in my skin; that the stumps of my beard were ten times stronger than
the bristles of a boar, and my complexion made up of several colours
altogether disagreeable:” although I must beg leave to say for myself,
that I am as fair as most of my sex and country, and very little
sunburnt by all my travels. On the other side, discoursing of the
ladies in that emperor’s court, he used to tell me, “one had freckles;
another too wide a mouth; a third too large a nose;” nothing of which I
was able to distinguish. I confess this reflection was obvious enough;
which, however, I could not forbear, lest the reader might think those
vast creatures were actually deformed: for I must do them the justice
to say, they are a comely race of people, and particularly the features
of my master’s countenance, although he was but a farmer, when I beheld
him from the height of sixty feet, appeared very well proportioned.