at can be done in this way, and form a
standard by which all other attempts must be judged. But this writer
is tawdry; he has the worst vices of the sensational school--he shows
everywhere marks of haste, gross carelessness, and universal
feebleness. When he gets hold of a good fancy, he lacks the patience
that is necessary in order to work it up in an effective way. He is a
gross plagiarist, and over and over again violates in the most glaring
manner all the ordinary proprieties of style. What can be more absurd,
for instance, than the language which he puts into the mouth of
Layelah? Not content with making her talk like a sentimental
boarding-school, bread-and-butter English miss, he actually forgets
himself so far as to put in her mouth a threadbare joke, which
everyone has heard since childhood."

"What is that?"

"Oh, that silly speech about the athaleb swallowing its victuals
whole."

"What's the matter with that?" asked Oxenden. "It's merely a chance
resemblance. In translating her words into English they fell by
accident into that shape. No one but you would find fault with them.
Would it have been better if he had translated her words into the
scientific phraseology which the doctor made use of with regard to the
ichthyosaurus? He might have made it this way: 'Does it bite?' 'No; it
swallows its food without mastication.' Would that have been better?
Besides, it's all very well to talk of imitating Defoe and Swift; but
suppose he couldn't do it?"

"Then he shouldn't have written the book."

"In that case how could his father have heard about his adventures?"

"His father!" exclaimed Melick. "Do you mean to say that you still
accept all this as bona fide?"

"Do you mean to say," retorted Oxenden, "that you still have any doubt
about the authenticity of this remarkable manuscript?"

At this each looked at the other; Melick elevated his eyebrows, and
Oxenden shrugged his shoulders, but each seemed unable to find words
to express his amazement at the other's stupidity, and so they took
refuge in silence.

"What do you understand by this athaleb, doctor?" asked Featherstone.

"The athaleb?" said the doctor. "Why, it is clearly the pterodactyl."

"By-the-bye," interrupted Oxenden, "do please take notice of that
name. It affords another exemplification of 'Grimm's Law.' The Hebrew
word is 'ataleph,' and means bat. The Kosekin word is 'athaleb.' Here
you see the thin letter of Hebrew represented by the a