This Conversation was no hinderance to our Journey; for my Four-legged Porter jogged on under me, and I rid stradling on his Back. I shall not be particular in relating to you all the Adventures that happened to us on our way, till we arrived at length at the Town where the King holds his Residence.
[1] Officious = kindly, ready to serve, doing good offices. Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost:
"Yet, not to earth are those bright luminaries
Officious; but to thee, earth's habitant."
[2] Cf. The Man in the Moone, of Francis Godwin: "Their Language is very difficult, since it hath no Affinity with any other I ever heard, and consists not so much of Words and Letters, as Tunes and strange Sounds which no Letters can express; for there are few Words but signify several Things, and are distinguished only by their Sounds, which are sung as it were in uttering; yea many Words consist of Tunes only, without Words."
[3] Origin. Cf. pp. [137], [170], [174]; and cf. Shakspere, Henry IV., Part II.:
"It hath its original from much grief."
"... On ne s'attendait guère
De voir [Charon] en cette affaire!"
In fact, our translator has made an amusing mistake, for which the printer of the 1661 edition is perhaps partly responsible; in that edition we read: "(Caron ne se sert pas d'autres chandelles)," which should of course be, as in the other editions, "Caron ...;" "For they use no other candles."