The officers were then released and retired to their special part of the room.
The chief then stepped toward me and peered into my face with a puzzled look of great anxiety. I returned his glances calmly, but uttered not a word.
There was a breathless suspense as the chief lifted up his hands, touched my face, and felt my mustache and whiskers. The hair was perhaps the strangest feature of my whole head, since there is nothing on their human or animal species that resembles hair.
The chief then called for a certain professor who was an expert in zoology. This intelligent man quickly came to my side and, at the request of the chief, commenced to examine me carefully.
My manner of breathing confused him most of all. He watched my chest rising and falling and my sides increasing and decreasing with every breath, until he was mystified beyond all power of explanation.
When the dignitaries saw that I could be touched with safety, numerous messages were flying to the chief, each one asking for the privilege of a closer inspection of me.
The presiding officer was cool-headed and firmly followed his own cause. He waited until the professor had finished his examination and was prepared to report, whereupon he announced to the bewildered audience that heed should now be given to the conclusion of the zoologist.
The professor mounted a throne-like elevation from which all expert opinion is submitted. A painful silence ensued as this learned man proceeded with his report.
Of course I pretended that I could not understand their language and that I was oblivious to all these occurrences, but you may be assured that I was careful not to miss a word that fell from the lips of this noted specialist who conducted himself with a dignity both pleasing and fascinating.
"I pronounce this creature an enigma," commenced the professor as he pointed his bony finger toward me, "and declare him to be the strangest problem of my life. How, and whence, and why he came to us are all alike shrouded in impenetrable mystery."