curtains, and revealed to him a magnificent city rising out of the sea.
Tower and dome, arch, and column, and spire, and obelisk, and lofty
terraces, and many-windowed palaces, rose in all directions from a mass
of building, which appeared each instant to grow more huge, till at
length it seemed to occupy the whole horizon." On his landing he is
pestered with questions from the natives; but, thanks to the Hamiltonian
system, "Popanilla, under these circumstances, was more loquacious than
could have been Capt. Parry." He announces himself as the "most injured
of human beings;" the women weep, the men shake hands with him, and all
the boys huzza: he then narrates his ill-fortunes at Fantaisie, not
forgetting the never-enough-to-be-lamented lock of hair. Other danger
awaits him, for "to be strangled was not much better than to be starved;
and certainly with half a dozen highly respectable females clinging
round his neck, he was not reminded, for the first time in his life,
what a domestic bowstring is an affectionate woman." He is next joined
by an "influential personage," who informs him that he is in _Hubbabub_
(London)--the largest city, not only that exists, but that ever did
exist, and the capital of the Island of _Vraibleusia_, the most famous
island, not only that is known, but that ever was known. "He provides
himself with a purse, and exchanges his money with a banker, who offers
him during his stay in Vraibleusia, the use of a couple of equipages, a
villa, an opera box; insists upon sending to his hotel some pineapples
and very rare wine; and gives him a perpetual ticket to his
picture-gallery." Popanilla leaves his gold and takes the banker's pink
shells, for "no genteel person has ever anything else in his pocket."
Then follow some quips on the shell question (currency), and Mr.
Secretary Perriwinkle, the most eminent conchologist, and the "debt" of
the richest nation in the world; although, "a golden pyramid, with a
base as big as the whole earth and an apex touching the heavens, would
not supply sufficient metal to satisfy the creditors." "The annual