neither."

Surrendering this line of inquiry, he went on to ask the following
questions:

"Are there more creatures than you where you came from?"

"Large cities full of them."

"Are they smaller than you?"

"Their average height equals mine."

"It must be a ponderous world of immense giants beyond the
comprehension of any inhabitant of our whole globe."

"But just as I appear large to you, you appear unnaturally small to me,"
I calmly added.

"How came that lump in the middle of your face?"

I knew the questioner referred to my nose. I took a good wholesome
laugh, and the large concourse of people watched my wrinkling face with
strange delight. The Moonites express all their emotions by exclamations
and almost infinite variations of the lower lip in conjunction with
their three eyes.

I told the spokesman that the lump on my face was called "nose," using
our pronunciation, and that it grew there by nature and not by accident.
I also informed him that each person in our world had such a nose, at
which much merriment ensued. Lips twitched and quivered, as their eyes
blinked and rolled. It seemed to me like a hideous way to laugh, but no
doubt my nose seemed just as hideous to them.

Then I explained all about our dense atmosphere, the part that air
played in our life, and what a fine convenience the nose is during
eating and speaking. Of course all this was unintelligible to them.

I then busied myself in ascertaining the secret of their signal system.
I learned, much to my surprise, that with scarcely any knowledge of
electricity the Moonites had long ago discovered a means of
communication which is somewhat similar to our wireless telegraphy. From
central stations messages are transmitted to sensitive metal rods set up
on each house-top, somewhat like the lightning rods that decorate
house-tops on my own Earth. I also learned that a very thin atmosphere
is prevalent on the Moon, and that this rare medium is more suited to
their wireless telegraphy than our heavier atmosphere would be with its
different composition.

I soon learned that great excitement was prevailing throughout the
adjacent villages. Wireless telegraphy carried the news, and from all
directions throngs were pressing toward the city. Furthermore I saw that
the noted personage with whom I had spent a quiet season was now making
his way toward me. Not wishing to hold further conversation with him,
and desiring to escape the ever-rising ti