BY JONATHAN SWIFT
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): An English prose writer, one of the most celebrated and most unlovable men of his age. He wrote satires on personal, political, and religious subjects. H i s b e s t - k n o w n w o r k s a re " G u l l i v e r "s Travels," "The Tale of a Tub," "The Battle of Books," and "Drapier"s Letters.""Gulliver"s Travels," aside from its satire, is for children a charming story of pygmies and giants. It narrates the adventures of a ship"s surgeon on four voyages: first, to the country of Lilliput where everything is diminutive; second, to Brobdingnag where everything is gigantic; third, to the flyingDean Swiftisland of Laputa and to the Academy of Lagado; fourth, to the country of the Yahoos.
This selection describes some of Gulliver"s experiences among the Lilliputians.
Ⅰ
I lay down on the grass, which was very short and soft, where I slept sounder than ever I remembered to have done in my life, and, as I reckoned, above nine hours; for when I awaked it was just daylight. I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir; for, as I happened to lie on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner.
I likewise felt several slender ligatures1 across my body, from my armpits to my thighs. I could only look upward; the sun began to grow hot, and the light offended mine eyes. I heard a confused noise about me, but in the posture I lay could see nothing except the sky.
In a little time I felt something alive moving on my left leg, which, advancing gently forward over my breast, came almost up to my chin. Bending mine eyes downward as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human creature not six inches high, with a bow and arrow in his hands and a quiver at his back. In the meantime I felt at least forty more of the same kind - as I conjectured - following the first.
I was in the utmost astonishment, and roared so loud that they all ran back in a fright; and some of them, as I was afterward told, were hurt by the falls they got by leaping from my sides upon the ground. However, they soon returned, and one of them who ventured so far as to get a full sight of my face, lifting up his hands and eyes by way of admiration cried out in a shrill but distinct voice, "Hekinah Degul." The others repeated the same words several times, but I then knew not what they meant.
I lay all this while, as the reader may believe, in great uneasiness. At length, struggling to get loose, I had the fortune to break the strings and wrench out the pegs that fastened my left arm to the ground. By lifting it up to my face I discovered the methods they had taken to bind me. At the same time, with1 Ligatutres: bands.
a violent pull, which gave me excessive pain, I a little loosened the strings that tied down my hair on the left side, till I was just able to turn my head about two inches.
But the creatures ran off a second time before I could seize them; whereupon there was a great shout in a very shrill accent, and after it had ceased I heard one of them cry aloud, "Tolgo Phonac." In an instant I felt about a hundred arrows discharged on my left hand, which pricked me like so many needles; and besides, they shot another flight into the air, as we do bombs in Europe, whereof many, I suppose, fell on my body-though I felt them not - and some on my face, which I immediately covered with my left hand.
When this shower of arrows was over, I fell a-groaning with grief and pain, and then, striving again to get loose, they discharged another volley, larger than the first, and some of them attempted with spears to stick me in the sides; but by good luck I had on me a buff jerkin, which they could not pierce. I thought it the most prudent method to lie still, and my design was to continue so till night, when, my left hand being already loose, I could easily free myself; and as for the inhabitants, I had reason to believe I might be a match for the greatest army they could bring against me, if they were all of the same size with him that I saw. But fortune disposed otherwise of me.
When the people observed I was quiet, they discharged no more arrows; but by the noise I heard I knew their numbers increased. About four yards from me, over against my rightear, I heard a knocking for about an hour, like that of people at work. Turning my head that way, as well as the pegs and strings would permit me, I saw a stage erected about a foot and a half from the ground, capable of holding four of the inhabitants, with two or three ladders to mount it; from whence one of them, who seemed to be a person of quality, made me a long speech whereof I understood not one syllable.
But I should have mentioned that before the principal person began his oration he cried out three times, "Langro Dehul san;" these words and the former were afterward repeated and explained to me. Whereupon immediately about fifty of the inhabitants came and cut the strings that fastened the right side of my head. This gave me the liberty of turning it to the right and of observing the person and gesture of him that was to speak.
He appeared to me to be of a middle age and taller than any of the other three who attended him, whereof one was a page that held up his train, and seemed to be somewhat longer than my middle finger. The other two stood one on each side to support him. He acted every part of an orator, and I could observe many periods1 of threatenings and others of promises, pity, and kindness.
I answered in a few words, but in the most submissive manner, lifting up my left hand and both mine eyes to the sun, as calling him for a witness; and being almost famished with hunger, not having eaten a morsel for some hours before I left1 Periods: sentences.
the ship, I found the demand of nature so strong upon me that I could not forbear showing my impatience-perhaps against the strict rules of decency- by putting my finger frequently on my mouth, to signify that I wanted food.