they
were the first human beings I had met during the whole voyage. They are
very like the inhabitants of our globe, who live in hot climates; their
beards are black and their hair curled; the few among them who have
long and light hair, are considered monsters. The land which they
inhabit is very rocky: from the curved ridges of the rocks and the
connecting tops of the mountains, which cut the air in multiplied
sinuosities, every sound reverberates in echo upon echo from the dales
below. The people in the yawl approached the plank upon which I floated,
drew me from it, carried me to the shore, and gave me to eat and drink.
Although the food did not taste very good, yet as I had fasted for three
days, it refreshed me very much, and in a short time I regained my
former strength.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XII.

THE AUTHOR'S ARRIVAL IN QUAMA.

Meanwhile a large multitude of people collected around me from all
parts. They requested me to speak; but as I did not understand their
language I could not answer them. They repeated often the word Dank,
Dank, and supposing them to be Germans, I addressed them in this
language, then in Danish, and finally in Latin; but they signified to
me, by shaking their heads, that these languages were unknown to them. I
tried at last to declare myself in the subterranean tongues, namely, in
Nazaric and Martinianic; but it was in vain.

After having addressed each other, thus incomprehensibly for a long
time, I was carried to a small hut, formed of wickers intricately
twisted. In this hut were neither chairs nor tables; these people seat
themselves on the ground to eat; instead of beds they spread straw on
the earthy floor, upon which they throw themselves indiscriminately at
night. Their food is milk, cheese, barley-bread and meat, which they
rudely broil on the coals; for they do not understand cooking. Thus I
lived with them, like a dog, until I learned so much of their language,
that I could speak with them and assist them a little in their
ignorance. The simplest rules of living that I prepared for them were
considered as divine commands. My fame soon spread abroad, and all the
villages around sent forth crowds to a teacher, who, they believed, had
been sent to them from heaven. I heard even, that some had commenced a
new chronology from the date of my arrival. All this pleased me only so
much the more, as formerly in Nazar I had been abused for my imprudence