Now this miserable old miser must have been idiotic; for soon
forgetting what he had but just told us of his utter toothlessness, he
was so smitten with the pearly mouth of Hohora, one of our attendants
(the same for whose pearls, little King Peepi had taken such a fancy),
that he made the following overture to purchase its contents: namely:
one tooth of the buyer's, for every three of the seller's. A
proposition promptly rejected, as involving a mercantile absurdity.

"Why?" said Babbalanja. "Doubtless, because that proposed to be given,
is less than that proposed to be received. Yet, says a philosopher,
this is the very principle which regulates all barterings. For where
the sense of a simple exchange of quantities, alike in value?"

"Where, indeed?" said Hohora with open eyes, "though I never heard it
before, that's a staggering question. I beseech you, who was the sage
that asked it?"

"Vivo, the Sophist," said Babbalanja, turning aside.

In the hearing of Jiji, allusion was made to Oh-Oh, as a neighbor of
his. Whereupon he vented much slavering opprobrium upon that miserable
old hump-back; who accumulated useless monstrosities; throwing away
the precious teeth, which otherwise might have sensibly rattled in his
own pelican pouches.

When we quitted the hovel, Jiji, marking little Vee-Vee, from whose
shoulder hung a calabash of edibles, seized the hem of his garment and
besought him for one mouthful of food; for nothing had he tasted that
day.