But I’ll be dished if I talked about any thing but the animal, which we had some trouble to kill; for it stands on its big tail, and fights with all four feet. Moreover, it be otherwise a strange beast; for its young ones pop out of its stomach, and then pop in again, having a place there on purpose, just like the great hole in the bow of a timber ship; and as for the other little animal, it swims in the ponds, lays eggs, and has a duck’s bill, yet still it be covered all over with hair like a beast.
The vizier interrupted. “By the Prophet, but he laughs at our beards!” exclaimed the pacha, angrily. “These are foolish lies.”
“You must not tell the pacha such foolish lies. He will be angry,” said Mustapha. “Tell lies, but they must be good lies.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” replied the sailor, “if the old beggar don’t doubt the only part which is true out of the whole yarn. Well, I will try another good un to please him.”
After I had been there about six months I was tired; and as there was only twenty thousand miles between that country and my own, I determined to swim back.
“Mashallah! swim back—how many thousand miles?” exclaimed Mustapha.
“Only twenty thousand—a mere nothing.”