Page 57 - erewhon

ter another. They were all powerful men. I might have been
a match for any one of them singly, for I have been told that
I have more to glory in the flesh than in any other respect,
being over six feet and proportionately strong; but any two
could have soon mastered me, even were I not so bereft of
energy by my recent adventures. My colour seemed to sur-
prise them most, for I have light hair, blue eyes, and a fresh
complexion. They could not understand how these things
could be; my clothes also seemed quite beyond them. Their
eyes kept wandering all over me, and the more they looked
the less they seemed able to make me out.
At last I raised myself upon my feet, and leaning upon my
stick, I spoke whatever came into my head to the man who
seemed foremost among them. I spoke in English, though
I was very sure that he would not understand. I said that I
had no idea what country I was in; that I had stumbled upon
it almost by accident, after a series of hairbreadth escapes;
and that I trusted they would not allow any evil to overtake
me now that I was completely at their mercy. All this I said
quietly and firmly, with hardly any change of expression.
They could not understand me, but they looked approving-
ly to one another, and seemed pleased (so I thought) that
I showed no fear nor acknowledgment of inferiority—the
fact being that I was exhausted beyond the sense of fear.
Then one of them pointed to the mountain, in the direction
of the statues, and made a grimace in imitation of one of
them. I laughed and shuddered expressively, whereon they
all burst out laughing too, and chattered hard to one anoth-
er. I could make out nothing of what they said, but I think

Erewhon