than human beings. Do you take me for--?" "For what?" said I.
Belle was silent. "Were you going to say mare?" said I. "Mare!
mare! by the bye, do you know, Belle, that mare in old English
stands for woman; and that when we call a female an evil mare, the
strict meaning of the term is merely a bad woman. So if I were to
call you a mare without prefixing bad, you must not be offended."
"But I should though," said Belle. "I was merely attempting to
make you acquainted with a philological fact," said I. "If mare,
which in old English, and likewise in vulgar English, signifies a
woman, sounds the same as mare, which in modern and polite English
signifies a female horse, I can't help it. There is no such
confusion of sounds in Armenian, not, at least, in the same
instance. Belle, in Armenian, woman is ghin, the same word, by the
by, as our queen, whereas mare is madagh tzi, which signifies a
female horse; and perhaps you will permit me to add, that a hard-
mouthed jade is, in Armenian, madagh tzi hsdierah."

"I can't bear this much longer," said Belle. "Keep yourself
quiet," said I; "I wish to be gentle with you; and to convince you,
we will skip hntal, and also for the present verbs of the first
conjugation and proceed to the second. Belle, I will now select
for you to conjugate the prettiest verb in Armenian; not only of
the second, but also of all the four conjugations; that verb is
siriel. Here is the present tense:- siriem, siries, sire, siriemk,
sirek, sirien. You observe that it runs on just in the same manner
as hntal, save and except that the e is substituted for a; and it
will be as well to tell you that almost the only difference between
the second, third, and fourth conjugation, and the first, is the
substituting in the present, preterite and other tenses e or ou, or
i for a; so you see that the Armenian verbs are by no means