"I asked him what hour it might be, for it appeared to me the night was long, and the day slow in coming. He told me, that the year in these countries was divided into four parts; three months of total night, when the sun never shone upon the earth at all; and three months of twilight, neither night nor day; there were also three months of perpetual day, when the sun was never hid, and three more of a night twilight; that the present season was the day twilight, and it was a vain hope to look for the light of the sun; and that it would be equally hopeless to look for a return to my own country, except during the season when it was always day, at which time ships sailed from these parts to England, France, and Spain, with various sorts of merchandise. He asked me if I knew of any way of gaining my bread, till the time should arrive when I could hope to return home to my own land. I told him I was a dancer, and a wonderful man for cutting capers, and that I knew a good many sleight of hand tricks. The man laughed aloud, and told me that these exercises, or employments, or whatever I was pleased to call them, would not avail me much, in Norway, or in any of these parts. He asked me if I knew what a goldsmith's business was. I told him I had skill to learn anything he could teach me.
"'Then come along brother,' said he, 'but first, let us go and bury this miserable creature.'
"We did so, and then he took me to a city where all the inhabitants walked about the streets, carrying lighted pine-branches in their hands, and so transacting the business of daily life. As we went along I enquired how and when he had come to this country, and if he really was Italian. He replied that one of his ancestors had married and settled here, having come to transact some important business, and that he had taught all his children his native language, and so it had descended to all his posterity until it had reached him, who was one of his cousins four times removed.... I could tell you much of the house where I was received, of the wife and children I found there, and servants of whom he had many, of his immense possessions, of the kind and hospitable reception I met with, but it would be to go on for ever; enough to tell you briefly that I learned his business, and in the space of a few months, could gain my own livelihood.
"At last there came a day when my master and patron, for so I might call him, gave orders that a quantity of his merchandise should be got ready to carry to some of the neighbouring islands, and to some which were very far distant. I accompanied him as much out of curiosity as a desire to sell what I had of my own property, in which voyage I saw many wonderful and fearful things, and others amusing and pleasant. I took note of manners, and customs, and ceremonies, unknown elsewhere. In fine, at the end of two months, we were overtaken by a tempest that lasted nearly forty days, at the end of which we were cast upon the island, from whence we have just escaped, among some rocks whereon our vessel went to pieces, and not one of its crew escaped alive but myself."
CHAPTER IX.
Wherein Rutilio continues his Story.
"The first thing that offered itself to my sight was the body of a barbarian hanging to a tree, by which I knew that I was in a country of savages, and immediately fear placed before my eyes a thousand different modes of death. Not knowing precisely which to dread, I expected and feared them all by turns. At last, since necessity is said to be the mother of invention, I bethought myself of an experiment, extraordinary enough; this was, to pull the dead barbarian off his bough, and having taken off all my own clothes, which I buried in the sand, to dress myself in his, which easily fitted, seeing they were made only of the skins of animals, not cut or fashioned in any way, but fastened round the waist, as you have seen. To conceal my foreign tongue, and that I might not be known to be a stranger, I pretended to be deaf and dumb, and in this guise I proceeded further into the island, jumping and making fantastic capers in the air.
"At a short distance I perceived a great number of the barbarians who flocked round me, and one and all asked (as I have since known) who I was, and whence I came, and whither I was going. I answered by keeping silence and making all the signs I could devise, again beginning to jump and cut capers in the air. I was followed by all the boys, let me go where I would, and thus I passed for a dumb barbarian, and the boys gave me food in return for my capers and merry-andrew tricks. In this way I have lived three years among them, and might pass all my life without being discovered. I paid great attention to their language, and learned to speak it very tolerably. I heard the prophecy about the duration of their kingdom, which had been pronounced by a very ancient and wise man, in whom they placed implicit credit. Many men have I seen sacrificed in order to accomplish it, many maidens I have seen purchased for the same purpose, until the conflagration of the island which you, sirs, have witnessed with your own eyes.