bed, he hung the gold chain which he wore round his neck on a nail
in the wall of the bedroom. The innkeeper took careful note of this
as he followed him to bed and wished him good-night. When he thought
that the nobleman was asleep, he stole into the room, cut sixty
links out of the chain, and hung it up again. The guest got up in
the morning, had his horse saddled, and put on his clothes. But when
he came to put on the chain, he noticed that it had lost half its
length, and began to call out that he had been robbed. The host, who
was watching outside the door, ran in, putting on an expression of
the greatest consternation, and exclaimed, "Oh, what a terrible
transformation!" When the guest asked him what he meant by that, he
said, "Alas, my lord! your head is as big again as it was
yesterday." Then the host brought him a distorting mirror, which
made everything appear twice as big as it really was. When the
nobleman saw how big his head looked in the mirror, he burst into
tears and said, "Oh, now I see why my chain will not go on!"
Whereupon he mounted his horse, wrapping his head in his cloak, that
none might see it on the road. They say that he kept the house for
several days, unable to get over the idea that it was not the chain
that had grown too short, but his head that had grown too big.

FIRST DOCTOR. There are countless examples of such illusions. I also
remember hearing of a man who imagined his nose was ten feet long,
and warned every one he met not to come too near.

SECOND FATHER. Domine Frater has undoubtedly heard the story of the
man who thought he was dead? A young person got it into his head
that he was dead, and consequently laid himself out on a bier, and
would neither eat nor drink. His friends endeavored to show him the
absurdity of his conduct and tried every means of making him eat,