Page 65 - erewhon

spoken to showed much amazement. My guides, however,
were well known, and the natural politeness of the people
prevented them from putting me to any inconvenience; but
they could not help eyeing me, nor I them. I may as well say
at once what my after-experience taught me—namely, that
with all their faults and extraordinary obliquity of mental
vision upon many subjects, they are the very best-bred peo-
ple that I ever fell in with.
The village was just like the one we had left, only rath-
er larger. The streets were narrow and unpaved, but very
fairly clean. The vine grew outside many of the houses; and
there were some with sign-boards, on which was painted a
bottle and a glass, that made me feel much at home. Even
on this ledge of human society there was a stunted growth
of shoplets, which had taken root and vegetated somehow,
though as in an air mercantile of the bleakest. It was here as
hitherto: all things were generically the same as in Europe,
the differences being of species only; and I was amused at
seeing in a window some bottles with barley-sugar and
sweetmeats for children, as at home; but the barley-sugar
was in plates, not in twisted sticks, and was coloured blue.
Glass was plentiful in the better houses.
Lastly, I should say that the people were of a physical
beauty which was simply amazing. I never saw anything
in the least comparable to them. The women were vigorous,
and had a most majestic gait, their heads being set upon
their shoulders with a grace beyond all power of expression.
Each feature was finished, eyelids, eyelashes, and ears being
almost invariably perfect. Their colour was equal to that of

Erewhon