a rather lean and
rather old Flathead, dressed much like the others of this strange race,
and only distinguished from them by the sly and cunning expression of
his face. He kept his eyes half closed and looked through the slits of
them at Ozma and Dorothy, who rose to receive him.

"Are you the Supreme Dictator of the Flatheads?" inquired Ozma.

"Yes, that's me," he said, rubbing his hands slowly together. "My word
is law. I'm the head of the Flatheads on this flat headland."

"I am Princess Ozma of Oz, and I have come from the Emerald City to--"

"Stop a minute," interrupted the Dictator, and turned to the man who
had brought the girls there. "Go away, Dictator Felo Flathead!" he
commanded. "Return to your duty and guard the Stairway. I will look
after these strangers." The man bowed and departed, and Dorothy asked
wonderingly:

"Is he a Dictator, too?"

"Of course," was the answer. "Everybody here is a dictator of something
or other. They're all office holders. That's what keeps them contented.
But I'm the Supreme Dictator of all, and I'm elected once a year. This
is a democracy, you know, where the people are allowed to vote for
their rulers. A good many others would like to be Supreme Dictator, but
as I made a law that I am always to count the votes myself, I am always
elected."

"What is your name?" asked Ozma.

"I am called the Su-dic, which is short for Supreme Dictator. I sent
that man away because the moment you mentioned Ozma of Oz, and the
Emerald City, I knew who you are. I suppose I'm the only Flathead that
ever heard of you, but that's because I have more brains than the rest."

Dorothy was staring hard at the Su-dic.

"I don't see how you can have any brains at all," she remarked,
"because the part of your head is gone where brains are kept."

"I don't blame you for thinking that," he said. "Once the Flatheads had
no brains because, as you say, there is no upper part to their heads,
to hold brains. But long, long ago a band of fairies flew over this
country and made it all a fairyland, and when they came to the
Flatheads the fairies were sorry to find them all very stupid and quite
unable to think. So, as there was no good place in their bodies in
which to put brains the Fairy Queen gave each one of us a nice can of
brains to carry in his pocket and that made us just as intelligent as
other people. See," he continued, "here is one of the cans of brains
the fairies gave us." He took from a poc