his manhood, to
consult the sensibilities of the ladies, by appearing in the garments
of that only decent and respectable tailor and draper, nature. To this
suggestion I gave a ready approval; when each went his way, after the
usual salutations of bowing and tail-waving, with a mutual promise of
being punctual to the appointment.

CHAPTER X. A GREAT DEAL OF NEGOTIATION, IN WHICH HUMAN SHREWDNESS
IS COMPLETELY SHAMED, AND HUMAN INGENUITY IS SHOWN TO BE OF A VERY
SECONDARY QUALITY.

Mr. Poke listened to my account of all that had passed, with a very
sedate gravity. He informed me that he had witnessed so much ingenuity
among the seals, and had known so many brutes that seemed to have the
sagacity of men, and so many men who appeared to have the stupidity of
brutes, that he had no difficulty whatever in believing every word I
told him. He expressed his satisfaction, too, at the prospect of hearing
a lecture on natural philosophy and political economy from the lips of
a monkey; although he took occasion to intimate that no desire to learn
anything lay at the bottom of his compliance; for, in his country, these
matters were pretty generally studied in the district schools, the very
children who ran about the streets of 'Stunin'tun' usually knowing more
than most of the old people in foreign parts. Still a monkey might have
some new ideas; and for his part, he was willing to hear what every
one had to say; for, if a man didn't put in a word for himself in this
world, he might be certain no one else would take the pains to speak
for him. But when I came to mention the details of the programme of
the forthcoming interview, and stated that it was expected the audience
would wear their own skins, out of respect to the ladies, I greatly
feared that my friend would have so far excited himself as to go into
fits. The rough old sealer swore some terrible oaths, protesting "that
he would not make a monkey of himself, by appearing in this garb, for
all the monikin philosophers, or high-born females, that could be stowed
in a ship's hold; that he was very liable to take cold; that he once
knew a man who undertook to play beast in this manner, and the first
thing the poor devil knew, he had great claws and a tail sprouting out
of him; a circumstance that he had always attributed to a just judgment
for striving to make himself more than Providence had intended him for;
that, provided a man's ears were naked, he could hear just as