or other which I suppose was a joke; for the girl laughed
merrily and ran away, leaving her father to take away the dinner things.
Then I had another visitor, who was not so prepossessing, and who seemed
to have a great idea of himself and a small one of me. He brought a book
with him, and pens and paper--all very English; and yet, neither paper,
nor printing, nor binding, nor pen, nor ink, were quite the same as ours.

He gave me to understand that he was to teach me the language and that we
were to begin at once. This delighted me, both because I should be more
comfortable when I could understand and make myself understood, and
because I supposed that the authorities would hardly teach me the
language if they intended any cruel usage towards me afterwards. We
began at once, and I learnt the names of everything in the room, and also
the numerals and personal pronouns. I found to my sorrow that the
resemblance to European things, which I had so frequently observed
hitherto, did not hold good in the matter of language; for I could detect
no analogy whatever between this and any tongue of which I have the
slightest knowledge,--a thing which made me think it possible that I
might be learning Hebrew.

I must detail no longer; from this time my days were spent with a
monotony which would have been tedious but for the society of Yram, the
jailor's daughter, who had taken a great fancy for me and treated me with
the utmost kindness. The man came every day to teach me the language,
but my real dictionary and grammar were Yram; and I consulted them to
such purpose that I made the most extraordinary progress, being able at
the end of a month to understand a great deal of the conversation which I
overheard between Yram and her father. My teacher professed himself well
satisfied, and said he should make a favourable report of me to the
authorities. I then questioned him as to what would probably be done
with me. He told me that my arrival had caused great excitement
throughout the country, and that I was to be detained a close prisoner
until the receipt of advices from the Government. My having had a watch,
he said, was the only damaging feature in the case. And then, in answer
to my asking why this should be so, he gave me a long story of which with
my imperfect knowledge of the language I could make nothing whatever,
except that it was a very heinous offence, almost as bad (at least, so I
thought I understood him) as ha