INTERVIEW WITH THE JUDGE OF YREKA. 253 



in a large armchair, cleverly balanced on 



the two hind -legs. No, it was not sitting, or 

 lying, or standing, or lounging; it was a posture 

 compounded of all these positions. His (I mean 



Judge 's) legs were extended on a level 



with his nose, and rested on the square deal table 

 before him. He was smoking an immense cigar, 

 one half of which was stowed away in his cheek, 

 rolled aj)out, and chewed; whilst the other half 

 protruded from the corner of his mouth, and 

 reached nearly to his eye. A little distance from 

 the Judge was an immense spittoon, like a young 

 sponging-bath. He was ' whittling ' a piece of 

 stick with a pocket-knife, and looked the em- 

 bodiment of supreme indifference. The chair 

 he occupied and the table whose only use, as 

 far as I could see, was to rest his legs on con- 

 stituted the entire furniture. 



The Judge himself was a long spare man, and 

 gave me the idea of an individual whose great 

 attribute consisted in possessing length without 

 breadth or thickness ; everything about him was 

 suggestive of length. Beginning at his head, his 

 hair was long, and his face was long, and his nose 

 was long, and a long goatee-beard terminated the 

 end of his chin ; his arms were long, and his legs 

 were long, and his feet were long ; he had a long 



