next wonder that stopped us in the fair, was a little fat man, who
was shouting away at the top of his voice, while he briskly sharpened a
knife on a long, rough board, which was smeared over with a black
ointment. He was a vender of magical strop-salve! something in the
fashion of Mechi. "Ladies and gentlemen;" shouted he, "witness my
wonderful invention! The dullest knife, stick-knife, bread-knife,
clasp-knife, table-knife, carving-knife, shaving-knife,
(_rasier-messer_) pen-knife, pruning-knife, though dull as this
knife--_though dull as this knife_!" and here he began hacking away upon
the edge of a big knife with a strong piece of broken pitcher. "Yes,
though dull, dull, dull as this knife!--when subjected to my wonderful
salve," and here he smeared it with his black ointment, "will cut a
hair, or the most delicate shaving of paper--as it now does!" and with
that he severed paper shavings as if they had been nothing. If it was
really the _same knife_, his was a wonderful invention, and beat Mechi
hollow.

Next, I had my fortune told at three different places, for six
kreutzers, or two-pence each, and as I was promised pretty much the same
fortune by all, I suppose I ought to believe in the truth of it. They
foretold me lots of trouble in the way of love-crosses, false friends,
and unkind relations, and such small trifles; but were equally liberal
of rich lovers, and plenty of them, plenty of money, and a good husband
to crown all, and good children to be the _props_ of my old age; so I
think I had, after all, a good sixpenny-worth.

Next we came upon a little caravan, on the steps of which vociferated a
most picturesque Tyrolian, in broad-brimmed sugar-loafed hat, adorned
with chamois hair, and eagles' feathers; in broad-ribbed stockings, and
with a broad, gayly-embroidened band round his waist, which half covered
his chest. He assured the crowd below that there was not in the whole
of Bavaria, any thing half as interesting, half as extraordinary, half
as astounding as the singularly gifted, singularly beautiful, singularly
intellectual being within; a being from another quarter of the globe, a
being adapted to an entirely different mode of existence to ours; a
being who could see in the dark, a being who only lived upon raw meat! A
wonderful Albino who could speak the German tongue!

Of course we must see the Albino; so in we went, and some way or other I
felt an unusual shock. There he sat, in a black velvet d