see, the people here only live on the smell of food. The fine, lunar art
of cookery consists in collecting the exhalations that come from cooked
meat, and bottling them up. Then, at meal-time, the various jars are
uncorked, one after the other, until the appetites of the diners are
satisfied."

"It is, no doubt, an exquisite way of eating," I said; "but I am afraid
I shall starve on it."

"Oh, no, you will not," said he. "You will soon find that a man can
nourish himself as well by his nose as by his mouth."

And so it was. After smelling for a quarter of an hour a variety of
rich, appetising vapours, I rose up quite satisfied.

In the afternoon I was taken to the palace of the king, and examined by
the greatest men of science on the Moon. In spite of all that my friend
had said on my behalf, I was adjudged to be a mere animal, and again
shut up in a cage. The king, queen, and courtiers spent a considerable
time every day watching me, and with the help of the Man of the Sun I
soon learned to speak a little of their, music-language. This caused a
great deal of surprise. Several persons began to think that I was really
a man who had been dwarfed and weakened from want of nourishment.

But the learned doctors again examined me, and decided that, as I did
not walk on four legs, I must be a new kind of featherless parrot.
Thereupon I was given a pole to perch on, instead of a nice warm bed to
lie in; and every day the queen's fowler used to come and whistle tunes
for me to learn. In the meantime, however, I improved my knowledge of
the language, and at last I spoke so well and intelligibly that all the