stomach, with the Å“sophagus attached. This,
then, the waiter caught as it was thrown
down to him, and hung it carelessly over his
arm, together with the four smaller bags
(which I now knew to be also stomachs)
collected from the passengers within the
coach. I started up, and as I happened to
look round, observed a skeleton face upon the
shoulders of a gentleman who sat immediately
behind my back. My own features were
noticed at the same time by the guard, who
now came forward, touching his hat.

"Beg your pardon, Sir, but you've been
and done it."

"Done what?"

"Why, Sir, you should have booked your
place, and not come up in this clandestine
way. However, you've been and done it!"

"My good man, what have I done?"

"Why, sir, the Baron Terroro's eyes had
the box-seat, and I strongly suspect you've
been and sat upon them."

I looked involuntarily to see whether I had
been sitting upon anything except the simple
cushion. Truly enough, there was an eye,
which I had crushed and flattened.

"Only one," I said.

"Worse for you, and better for him. The
other eye had time to escape, and it will know
you again, that's certain. Well, it's no business
of mine. Of course you 've no appetite
now for dinner? Better pay your fare, Sir.
To the Green Hippopotamus and Spectacles,
where we put up, it's ten-and-six."

"Is there room inside? " I enquired. It
was advisable to shrink from observation.

"Yes, Sir. The inside passengers are
mostly skeleton. There's room for three,
Sir. Inside, one-pound-one."

I paid the money, and became an inside
passenger.

CHAPTER THE SECOND.

Of Divisions which occur in Skitzland—I am taken up.

Professor Essig's Lectures on Anatomy
had so fortified me, that I did not shrink from
entering the Skitzton coach. It contained
living limbs, loose or attached to skeletons in
other respects bare, except that they were
clothed with broadcloth garments, cut after
the English fashion. One passenger only had
a complete face of flesh, he had also one living
hand; the other hand I guessed was bony,
because it was concealed in a glove obviously
padded. By observing the fit of his clothes,
I came to a conclusion that this gentleman
was stuffed throughout; that all his limbs,
except the head and hand, were artificial.
Two pairs of Legs, in woollen stockings, and
a pair of Ears, were in a corner of the coach,
and in another corner there were nineteen or
twenty Scalps.

I thought it well to look astonished at
nothing, and, having pointed in a careless
manner to the scalps, asked what might be
their destination? The person with the Face
and Hand replied to me; and although
evidently himself a gentleman, he addressed me
with a tone of unconcealed respect.

"They are going to Skitzton, Sir, to the
hair-dresser's."

"Yes, to be sure," I said. " They are to
make Natural Skin Wigs. I might have
known."

"I beg your pardon, Sir. There is a ball
to-morrow night at Culmsey. But the gentry
do not like to employ village barbers, and
therefore many of the better class of people
send their hair to Skitzton, and receive it
back by the return coach properly cut and
curled."

"Oh," said I. " Ah! Oh, indeed!"

"Dinners, gentlemen! " said a voice at the
window, and the waiter handed in four
stomachs, now tolerably well filled. Each
passenger received his property, and pulling
open his chest with as much composure as if
he were unbuttoning his waistcoat, restored
his stomach, with a dinner in it, to the right
position. Then the reckonings were paid,
and the coach started.

I thought of my garden, and much wished
that somebody could throw Professor Essig
down the hole that I had dug. A few things
were to be met with in Skitzland which would
rather puzzle him. They puzzled me; but I
took refuge in silence, and so fortified,
protected my ignorance from an exposure.

"You are going to Court, Sir, I presume?"
said my Face and Hand friend, after a short
pause. His was the only mouth in the coach,
excepting mine, so that he was the only
passenger able to enter into conversation.

"My dear Sir," I replied, " let me be frank
with you. I have arrived here unexpectedly
out of another world. Of the manners and
customs, nay, of the very nature of the people
who inhabit this country, I know nothing.
For any information you can give me, I shall
be very grateful."

My friend smiled incredulity, and said,

"Whatever you are pleased to profess, I
will believe. What you are pleased to feign a
wish for, I am proud to furnish. In Skitzland,
the inhabitants, until they come of age, retain
that illustrious appearance which you have
been so fortunate as never to have lost.
During the night of his twenty-first birthday,
each Skitzlander loses the limbs which
up to that period have received from him no
care, no education. Of those neglected parts
the skeletons alone remain, but all those
organs which he has employed sufficiently
continue unimpaired. I, for example, devoted
to the study of the law, forgot all occupation
but to think, to use my senses and to write.
I rarely used my legs, and therefore Nature
has deprived me of them."

"But," I observed, " it seems that in Skitzland
you are able to take yourselves to
pieces."

"No one has that power, Sir, more largely
than yourself. What organs we have we
can detach on any service. When dispersed,