“As I was passing to other bustos, a sudden noise made me look back. It was made by a band of men cloth’d in long black gowns. Some carried censers, which exhaled a gross vapor; others had garlands of flowers in their hands, gather’d without choice, and disposed without taste. They march’d up to the bustos, and offered incense to them, singing hymns in two unknown languages. The smoke of their incense stuck to the bustos, and the crowns of flowers put on them made a most ridiculous sight. But the antiques soon resumed their beauty, and I saw the crowns wither and fall shriveled on the ground. There arose a quarrel amongst this set of barbarians, because some of them had not bent the knee low enough in the opinion of others; and they were on the point of coming to blows, when my guide dispersed them with one look, and reestablished tranquillity in her habitation.
“Scarcely were they eclipsed, when I saw a long train of pygmies entering by an opposite door. These little men were not two cubits high, but in recompense they had very sharp teeth and very long nails. They divided into several bands, and fell on the bustos. Some endeavour’d to scratch the basso relievos, and the floor was strewed with the broken pieces of their nails. Others, with greater insolence, mounted on one another’s shoulders, to the height of the heads, and gave them raps with their fists. But what diverted me much, was that these raps, instead of reaching the nose of the bust, rebounded on that of the pygmy; in consequence of which, upon a close inspection, I found most of them to be flat-nosed.
“ ‘You see,’ says my guide, ‘the impudence and chastisements of these myrmidons. This war has lasted a long while, and always to their disadvantage. I use them with less severity than the black gowns. The incense of the latter might possibly disfigure the bustos; but the efforts of the former generally end in augmenting their beauty. But as you have not above an hour or two to remain here, I advise you to pass to other objects.’
“A great curtain opened that instant, and I saw a work shop occupied by a different sort of pygmies. These had neither teeth nor nails; but in return they were armed with razors and scissors. In their hands they held heads, which seemed animated; and they were very busy with these heads, in cutting off the hair of one, pulling off the nose and ears of another; putting out the right eye of this, the left of that, and in dissecting almost all of them. After this fine operation, they viewed them attentively, and smiled, as if they thought them the prettiest heads in the world. In vain did the heads send forth loud cries, they scarcely deign’d to make them any answer. I heard one begging back its nose, and remonstrating that it could not possibly appear in public without that piece. ‘My friend, head,’ replied the pygmy, ‘you are a fool. That nose, which you regret, disfigured you. It was long, long—You never would have made your fortune with it. But since it has been curtail’d and pared, you are charming, and you will have many a spark after you.’
“While the fate of those heads moved my compassion, at a distance I saw other more charitable pygmies, who were crawling on the ground with spectacles on. They were picking up noses and ears, and fitting them to some old heads, from which time had disengaged them. There were some of them, but those were few in number, who succeeded: the rest fixed the nose where the ear should be, and the ear where the nose: and this rendered the heads more disfigured than before.
“Being very desirous to know what all those things meant, I ask’d my guide: and she had just open’d her lips, in order to give me an answer, when I awoke in a fright.”
“That was cruel,” says Mangogul: “this female would have revealed a number of mysteries to you. But in her stead, I am of opinion that we ought to address ourselves to my juggler Bloculocus.”
“Who?” replied the favorite. “That silly fellow, to whom you have granted the sole privilege of showing the magic lantern in your court.”
“The same,” answered the Sultan. “He will interpret your dream, or nobody can. Let Bloculocus be called,” says Mangogul.
XXXVIII
Twenty-First and Twenty-Second Trials of the Ring
Fricamona and Callipiga
The African author does not inform us what became of Mangogul, while he waited for Bloculocus. ’Tis very probable that he went out, catechized some Toys; and that satisfied with the intelligence he received from them, he returned to the favorite, sending forth shouts of joy, which begin this chapter. “Victory, victory!” cried he. “You triumph, madam; the castle, the porcelains, and the little Sapajou are yours.”
“ ’Tis Egle, without doubt?” replied the favorite. “No, madam, no, ’tis not Egle,” interrupted the Sultan, “but another female.”
“Prince,” says the favorite, “envy me no longer the comfort of knowing this Phoenix.”
“Well, ’tis: who would have thought it?”
“It is?” says the favorite.
“Fricamona,” replies Mangogul.
“Fricamona!” says Mirzoza: “I see no impossibility in that. This woman has spent the greatest part of her youth in a convent; and since she left it, she has led the most edifying and most retired life imaginable. No man has set his foot within her doors, and she has, in some measure, made herself the abbess of a troop of young devotees, whom she trains up to a state of perfection, and of whom her house does not grow thin. There was nothing there to answer your purpose,” added the favorite, smiling and nodding her head.
“Madam, you are in the right,” says Mangogul. “I have interrogated her Toy, but no answer. I doubled the virtue of my ring, by rubbing it once and again. Nothing came of it. ‘To be sure,’ said
