beginning."

"Such words indicate nothing beyond an excess of hemp spirit,"
answered Ling, with signs of displeasure. "To gain my explicit esteem,
make me smooth without delay, and do not exhibit before me the lock of
hair which, from its colour and appearance, has evidently adorned the
head of one of those maidens whose duty it is to quench the thirst of
travellers in the long narrow rooms of this city."

"Majestic and anonymous spirit," said the other, with extreme
reverence, and an entire absence of the appearance of one who had
gazed into too many vessels, "if such be your plainly-expressed
desire, this superficial person will at once proceed to make smooth
your peach-like skin, and with a carefulness inspired by the certainty
that the most unimportant wound would give forth liquid fire, in which
he would undoubtedly perish. Nevertheless, he desires to make it
evident that this hair is from the head of no maiden, being, indeed,
the uneven termination of your own sacred pigtail, which this
excessively self-confident slave took the inexcusable liberty of
removing, and which changed in this manner within his hand in order to
administer a fit reproof for his intolerable presumption."

Impressed by the mien and unquestionable earnestness of the remover of
hair, Ling took the matter which had occasioned these various emotions
in his hand and examined it. His amazement was still greater when he
perceived that--in spite of the fact that it presented every
appearance of having been cut from his own person--none of the
qualities of hair remained in it; it was hard and wire-like,
possessing, indeed, both the nature and the appearance of a metal.