skies, the Munchkins are not aware of the fact.

But people DO live there, just the same. The top of Mount Munch is
shaped like a saucer, broad and deep, and in the saucer are fields
where grains and vegetables grow, and flocks are fed, and brooks flow
and trees bear all sorts of things. There are houses scattered here
and there, each having its family of Hyups, as the people call
themselves. The Hyups seldom go down the mountain, for the same
reason that the Munchkins never climb up: the sides are too steep.

In one of the houses lived a wise old Hyup named Bini Aru, who used
to be a clever Sorcerer. But Ozma of Oz, who rules everyone in the
Land of Oz, had made a decree that no one should practice magic in her
dominions except Glinda the Good and the Wizard of Oz, and when Glinda
sent this royal command to the Hyups by means of a strong-winged Eagle,
old Bini Aru at once stopped performing magical arts. He destroyed
many of his magic powders and tools of magic, and afterward honestly
obeyed the law. He had never seen Ozma, but he knew she was his Ruler
and must be obeyed.

There was only one thing that grieved him. He had discovered a new
and secret method of transformations that was unknown to any other
Sorcerer. Glinda the Good did not know it, nor did the little Wizard
of Oz, nor Dr. Pipt nor old Mombi, nor anyone else who dealt in magic
arts. It was Bini Aru's own secret. By its means, it was the
simplest thing in the world to transform anyone into beast, bird or
fish, or anything else, and back again, once you know how to pronounce
the mystical word: "Pyrzqxgl."

Bini Aru had used this secret many times, but not to cause evil or