shall
die, it is usual to postpone repentance till the last hour. They only
are really pious who begin to sing their death song.

I saw several move about the streets with drooping heads and miserable
looks--the signs upon their foreheads proclaimed their speedy
dissolution.

They counted their remaining hours and minutes upon their fingers, and
regarded with horror the rapidity of time.

The Creator's wisdom and goodness to us in this respect became obvious
to me in this land. I could no longer doubt that it is better for us to
be ignorant of the future.

From Kiliak I sailed over a black sound to the kingdom of Askarak; there
new wonders greeted me. While in Cabac, people are to be seen without
heads, here, on the contrary, individuals come into the world with seven
heads. These are great universal geniuses. In former times, they were
worshiped with almost divine veneration, and were made senators, chief
magistrates, &c. As they had as many plans and expedients as heads, they
executed with zeal and rapidity many different things, and while the
government was in their hands, there was nothing left unchanged.

But as they made several sets of ideas effective at once, it happened,
very naturally, that these ideas came in contact with each other. At
last, they mingled together so intricately, that the seven-headed
geniuses could not discriminate in from out. The affairs of government
became so disordered that centuries were required to restore them to the
simplicity from which these all-knowing magistrates had brought them.

A law had been established, before I went there, by which all
seven-headed people were excluded from important offices, and the
administration of government was given to simple and ordinary persons,
that is, persons with but one head.

The many-headed now occupy the same places as the headless of Cabac.

Beyond Askarak, and separated from it by extensive deserts, lays the
Duchy of Bostanki. The Bostankins resemble the Potuans in their external
form. Their internal construction is very singular. The heart is placed
in the right leg; so that it may be literally said of them, that their
hearts are in their breeches.

They are notorious for being the greatest cowards among all the
inhabitants of Nazar.

Angry, from faintness and fatigue, I came to a tavern near the city
gates. I could not abstain from growling at the landlord because he
could not provide what I called for. The poor fellow fel