had girt round my neck, my hands, my body, and my legs. Nine hundred of
the strongest men were employed to draw up these cords, by many pulleys
fastened on the poles; and thus, in less than three hours, I was raised
and slung into the engine, and there tied fast. All this I was told;
for, while the whole operation was performing, I lay in a profound
sleep, by the force of that soporiferous medicine infused into my
liquor. Fifteen hundred of the emperor's largest horses, each about four
inches and a half high, were employed to draw me toward the metropolis,
which, as I said, was half a mile distant. About four hours after we
began our journey, I awaked by a very ridiculous accident; for the
carriage being stopped awhile to adjust something that was out of order,
two or three of the young natives had the curiosity to see how I looked
when I was asleep; they climbed up into the engine, and advancing very
softly to my face, one of them, an officer in the guards, put the sharp
end of his half-pike a good way up into my nostril, which tickled my
nose like a straw, and made me sneeze violently; whereupon they stole
off unperceived, and it was three weeks before I knew the cause of my
awaking so suddenly.

We made a long march the remaining part of that day,[3] and rested at
night with five hundred guards on each side of me, half with torches,
and half with bows and arrows, ready to shoot me if I should offer to
stir. The next morning at sunrise we continued our march, and arrived
within two hundred yards of the city gates about noon. The emperor and
all his court came out to meet us, but his great officers would by no
means suffer his majesty to endanger his person by mounting on my body.

[Footnote 3: Notice the skill with which Swift adjusts all things to his
tiny Lilliputians. The half-mile journey would have been but a few
minutes' walk for Gulliver, but the six-inch men and the