yellow fairy tale book

Chapter 51 Travels to Lilliputian Country (2)

2.

It was about two hours before the palace was all gone, leaving behind only a strong guard to keep the people from making trouble—for arrows had been rudely shot at me while I was sitting at the door.The colonel of the guard ordered the arrest of six men and delivered them to me in bundles.I pocketed five of them, and as for the sixth, I made the poor fellow howl with terror, as if I were going to eat him raw.The colonel and officers were also very upset, especially when they saw me pull out my pocket knife.But I soon allayed their fear, for I cut the ropes that bound him, and lowered him lightly to the ground, whereupon he ran away.I did the same for the remaining five people, releasing them one by one from my pocket.I could see that both the soldiers and the civilians were pleased with this act of kindness.

In the evening, I managed to crawl back into the house and lay down on the floor, and I slept like this for about two weeks, until they prepared for me a bed that was as big as six hundred ordinary beds. .The king appointed six hundred men to be my servants, and three hundred tailors to make me a suit of clothes.In addition, six of the greatest scholars were hired to teach me their language, so that I was soon able to communicate with the king, and he often praised me when he came to see me.The first words I learned were to express my desire to him: to ask him if he would set me free.I knelt on the ground and kept chanting this sentence every day, but he replied: It depends on the time. First of all, I have to promise to live in peace with him and his people.He also told me that, by the laws of the kingdom, I had to be searched by two officials, and that they could not do it without my assistance.He handed them over to me with confidence, and told me that whatever they took from me, I would give back when I left the country.So I put the two officials in my pocket.The two gentlemen, who had pen, ink, and paper with them, made a detailed inventory of what they saw, which I have afterwards translated into English, and I transcribe as follows:

In the right pocket of the giant's tunic we found only a large piece of coarse cloth, large enough for a carpet in His Majesty's hall.In the left pocket we see a huge silver chest, also with a silver lid, which we cannot open.We let him open the box, and one of us stepped in, only to find something like dust in it, up to the middle of his leg.The blowing dust made us both sneezed several times.In the right pocket of his vest we found a large bundle of thin white things, the size of three men, stacked on top of each other, bound by a thick cable, marked with black figures , according to our estimation, this is probably their text.

In the left pocket was a sort of machine, with twenty long pillars protruding from its back, which we supposed the Giants used to comb their hair.In the smaller pocket on the right, there were round flat metal plates of various sizes, white and red.The white ones were like silver, and they were so big and heavy that neither my companion nor I could lift them.Outside the other pocket hung a great silver chain, and at the end was fastened a wonderful machine, spherical in shape, half of silver, half of transparent metal; and in the transparent part we saw some strange The fonts, I thought I could touch them, but my fingers were blocked by the shiny substance.The machine was making a constant noise like a waterwheel, and we guessed it was either some unknown animal or some god he worshipped, but we were more inclined to the latter guess, because he told us that no matter what you do, , almost always ask what it means first.

That's the list of what we scoured the giant, who was very polite to us.

I have escaped their inspection by a secret pocket, containing a pair of spectacles and a pocket telescope, which are of no importance to the king, nor do I feel compelled to give them.

3.

My gentlemanly manner and courteous manners endeared me to the king and his ministers.In fact, people generally liked me, so I began to hope that I would be free in the short term.The locals are less and less afraid of me. Sometimes I lie on the ground and let five or six of them dance on my hands. Later, boys and girls dare to play hide-and-seek in my hair.

As war horses and royal horses are brought to me every day, they are no longer timid.One of the royal hunters also jumped over my feet on a steed, which was an amazing jump!One day I entertained the King in a very peculiar way.I took nine sticks, and stuck them firmly in the ground of the square, and four more sticks, and tied them across each corner, about two feet above the ground.Then I spread the handkerchief, spread it on each corner of the nine upright sticks, and made the handkerchief taut like a drum, and then I asked the king to send a cavalry consisting of 24 men and the best horses. Block platform to practice.The king obeyed my advice, so I put the horses with the officers on the handkerchief one by one.

As soon as they stood neatly, they immediately divided into two teams. At once, all arrows were fired, swords were unsheathed, and they ran and chased. In short, they showed strict military discipline that I had never seen before.With the protection of four cross bars, they did not fall off the platform.The king was overjoyed and ordered them to perform the show repeatedly for several days.He even persuaded the Queen to let me lift her, palanquin, and person within two yards of the platform, from where she would have a panoramic view of the drill.I was lucky, because there were no accidents in several drills, only one time, a violent horse kicked a hole in the handkerchief with its hooves, which made people turn their backs.But I rescued the man and the horse at once, covering the hole with one hand, and lowering the man and the horse back to the ground with the same hand as when I sent them to the stage.The horse that stumbled sprained its left shoulder blade, but the rider was unscathed.I mended the handkerchief as best I could, but I don't think its strength will withstand such dangerous games any longer.

I made many memorials to the King for my freedom, and he finally brought it up in the National Council, with no objection except Skyresh Bergram.Bergram was the current admiral, and he seemed happy to be my sworn enemy.In the end, however, he agreed, although he succeeded in proposing that my release be subject to several conditions.After the papers concerning these conditions were read, they made me take an oath, in the manner prescribed by their laws, to firmly abide by the above terms.The way to take the oath is: hold the right foot with the left hand, put the middle finger of the right hand on the top of the head, and put the thumb on the tip of the right ear.I have translated this file, please take a look:

Gobust-Momalem-Evram-Gader-Shefen-Muri-Uli-Gu, the supreme king of Liliput, who is awe-inspiring all over the world, whose territory covers the whole world, and who is taller than a human King of all kings; feet on the earth, head above the sun; a little head, the knees of the kings of the world tremble; kind as spring, comfortable as summer, fertile as autumn, majestic as winter, His Majesty, the supreme emperor, came to this dynasty not long ago The giant of the land proposes the following clauses, which the giant must solemnly swear and abide by:
[-]. Without a permit affixed with the national seal of our country, one is not allowed to leave the mainland without authorization.

[-]. It is not allowed to enter the capital without a special permit; if one enters the capital with a special permit, the residents should be warned not to leave their homes within two hours.

[-]. You can only walk on the main roads of our country, and you are not allowed to walk or lie down in the pastures or fields at will.

[-]. When walking on the above-mentioned roads, you must be absolutely careful not to trample on the good people of our country and their chariots and horses; and not to take the good people of our country into your hands without your consent.

[-]. In case of documents that need to be delivered by express delivery, the special messenger must be put in the pocket with the horse and man and run for six days; if necessary, the special messenger must be safely delivered to the king.

[-]. To ally with our country against the enemies of Blafasca, and to do everything in our power to destroy the enemy fleet which is preparing to invade us.

Finally, if the giant solemnly swears to abide by the above terms, he can get meat and drink enough to maintain the lives of 720 people in our country every day, and he can visit the king and courtiers at any time, and he can also enjoy other graces.

Since my emperor's accession to the throne, No.90 has been in Belfabrak Palace on January [-]th.

I swore the oath willingly, and they immediately released the chains that bound me, and set me free.

About the morning of the No. 14 day after my freedom, the Secretary of the Interior, Redrich, came to my lodgings, with only one attendant.He ordered his carriage to wait at a distance, and begged me to speak to him for an hour.I offered to lie down and talk so it would be easier for me to listen to him, but he would have preferred me to hold him in my hand and talk.He first congratulated me on being free, but then said that if it weren't for the current situation of the court, I might not have been free so soon. "Because," said he, "though our country appears to foreigners to be prosperous, we are in fact in danger of being invaded by the Isle of Blafasca. Blafasca is another powerful kingdom in the world, Its land area and national strength are comparable to the kingdom of my majesty. As we have heard you say that there are other kingdoms in the world, inhabited by human beings as tall as you, our philosophers are deeply suspicious of this, They'd rather think you fell from the moon or some other planet, because a hundred people your size would eat up all the fruits and livestock in His Majesty's domain in no time.

Moreover, our six thousand month history contains no mention of any country other than the empires of Liliput and Blefasca.What I want to tell you is that these two great powers have been fighting bitterly, and the war started like this: We all think that the original way to eat eggs is to break the larger end of the egg, but when the grandfather of the current king ate eggs when he was a child, according to the ancient He happened to break a finger while trying to break the egg.So his father, who was the king at the time, issued a law ordering all his subjects to break the smaller end of the egg when eating it.The common people were so disgusted with this law that they staged six rebellions.In the rebellion, one king died and the other lost his throne.According to statistics, there have been one thousand one hundred people who would rather die than break the smaller end of the egg.But these mobs were encouraged by the king of Blefasca, and they always fled to the kingdom of Blefasca to seek refuge. Therefore, as I just said, there was a continuous war between the two countries. A bloody battle that lasted 100 months.Now the Blafascans have armed a large fleet and are preparing to attack us.His Majesty is so convinced of your courage and strength that he has ordered me to tell you the story. "

I asked the Minister of the Interior to tell the king: I am ready and willing to risk my life to resist all invaders and defend Your Majesty.

(End of this chapter)