down by some raw meat (I am still partial to
raw meat), a bucket of water, and a rabbit. I
stripped off the skin of the rabbit, and devoured
the flesh ravenously. I was taken in charge by
a shepherd, who washed me, and found that the
black colour of my skin was not natural. I was
considered fair, and, on the whole, tolerably well
formed, although very short; and my fingers and
thumbs were uncommonly strong, which was
ascribed to my practice of climbing trees. On
account of my wildness I was known as the
'shepherd's beast,' and it cost a deal of trouble
to render me a little tame. I was very dexterous
in making holes in the walls or roofs—too
dexterous, no doubt, for the comfort of my shepherd
—and one day I crept through a space not larger
than a rat-hole, fled once more to the woods, and
became a gipsy.

"I was soon initiated into the arts and mysteries
of the wandering tribe I had joined, and was
foremost in all exploits for which gipsies are
famous. Being wonderfully short for my age,
which was considered then to be about twenty
or twenty-five years, I was exhibited as a famous
dwarf. My height was not more than two feet
and a half, and my weight fifty-six pounds. I
was remarkably agile, and could spring with ease
from the ground, to a table or a mantelshelf.
I remember being told by a friend, who died
about a century and a half ago, that I was rather
of a morose temper, and extremely vain of myself,
but this I can hardly believe. I was once brought
into a room, to amuse the company, enclosed in
an ordinary pie. I was often teased by many of
the visitors, and once, I admit, I so far lost my
temper as to challenge my enemy. He came to
the place of meeting armed only with a squirt,
and this so increased my anger that a real duel
ensued, and, as I was mounted on a chair to put
me on a level with my antagonist, I fired, and
shot him dead.

"After this unfortunate adventure I fled from
the town and my gipsy friends, and sought my
fortunes in another direction. I disguised
myself as a female, and went on board a large
merchant vessel as a cook's attendant. I was looked
upon as a mere child, a girl of all work, and so
escaped much attention. I discharged my duties
to the satisfaction of my employers, and passed
a very pleasant though hard-working time until
we came to an anchor at a port in the
Mediterranean. Here one of the sailors, a second mate,
became too idle to mend his own shirts, and he
handed them over to me, along with a lot of
stockings requiring footing, because I was the
only female on board. Of course I knew nothing
of needlework, and yet was afraid to confess my
ignorance, for fear the deception I had practised
upon the captain and owners of the ship should
be discovered. I saw no way out of the difficulty
except flight: so, throwing the unmended rags
down the hold, I watched my opportunity, rowed
on shore in a boat, and mixed with the natives of
Genoa in my own proper character.

"I lived for several years very comfortably in a
number of southern cities, doing little work,
because living was cheap, and the climate made
it easy to sustain nature on a very small quantity
of food. Whether the warmth of this part of
the world acted on my system like the
atmosphere of a hothouse upon plants, I never clearly
understood, but I grew so rapidly in height and
strength, during the five or six years of my
travelling, that I soon began to excite attention as
a giant.

"I was not one of those common giants, who
rely upon creating wonder by their unwieldy
size. I possessed many accomplishments, both
intellectual and physical. As a posturer I was
without a rival, and could exhibit in the most
natural manner, almost eveiy species of deformity
and dislocation. I amused myself with the
tailors, by sending for them to take my measure,
and contriving so as to have an immoderate rising
in one of my shoulders. When the clothes were
brought home to be tried on, I had shifted this
hump to the other shoulder, and the tailors took
back the garments, apologising for their mistake.
I played such tricks with the vertebra; of my
back, that a celebrated surgeon, before whom I
appeared as a patient, was so shocked at the
sight he would not even attempt my cure.

"I was now nearly nine feet high, and I made a
triumphal tour from town to town. I had gone
through the whole circle of the sciences, could
speak and write in ten different languages, was
an accomplished rider, dancer, and singer, and
a skilful performer on several musical
instruments."

"Did you ever hear of a person called the
'Admirable Crichton?' " I asked, breaking into
my host's narrative at this point.

"Crichton, Crichton," he answered, as if
reflecting. "Was he a celebrated miser?"

"Not at all," I said; "he was a half-fabulous
wonder of cleverness."

"Never heard of him in all my life," returned
my host, pettishly, "and I don't see what the
question has to do with my story.

"I will not weary you," he continued, "with
a detailed account of my success in disputing
with learned doctors, fighting with rampant
gladiators, and performing many characters in
an Italian play of my own writing. The narrative
might possibly annoy you, by exciting envy.
It is sufficient for me to tell you that I did all
these things before I had reached the age of
thirty. I distinguished myself in a much lower
sphere by several displays of extraordinary
strength, in which I pulled against two horses,
lifted three hogsheads of water weighing nearly
two thousand pounds, rolled up a very large
pewter dish with my fingers, and raised a table
six feet long, with half a hundred-weight fastened
to it, in my teeth. I tied a kitchen poker round
my neck like a cravat, and broke a rope about
two inches thick.

"About this period I began to decrease in
height, and to increase very much in breadth.
Some of the doctors attributed the change to the