Cheaper to Rob than to be Robbed 



it is ridiculous — so is the beginning of every adventure. 

 But having stepped upon that rolling rail Imprudence, you 

 slip over head and ears into this river Necessity, and then 

 Prudence shall bid you swim as best you can, to get your- 

 self out. It is the first step only ! Come, we want robbers 

 in this part of our work, and it is both cheaper and more 

 convenient to rob than to be robbed ! " 



Hereupon we ride up — pull out our pistols, and are about 

 to cry " Abajo ! bocca a tierra ! " ^ with voices of thunder, 

 when we discover them to be neither bandits nor pug-nosed 

 parsons, but cutlers of Albacete returning from Jaen, where 

 they had been selling their wares. I bought a poniard of 

 them for a dollar and a half. The punales of Albacete 

 are famous : long, narrow-pointed, murderous weapons, 

 not opening like a Sevillian navaja^ but sheathed as a 

 dagger. 



When we had passed them, we fell to discoursing upon 

 imagination, and the degree with which fancy may be 

 brought to resemble fact. As an instance of wonderful 

 power in this way, we lit upon Don Quixote's meeting 

 with the barber on his ass. First he sees something shining 

 bright, like gold, in the distance, on the top of a horseman's 

 head. The reader wonders what strange and incredible 

 thing is to appear. It turns out to be a barber, returning 

 on his ass from a neighbouring village, where there was no 

 resident member of his profession, and he had put his basin 

 over his hat, which was a new one, because it was raining 

 slightly. 



The reader being satisfied with this circumstantial solu- 

 tion of the apparent improbability, and knowing Don 

 Quixote's peculiar insanity, and his previous difficulties 

 with the pasteboard substitute, is quite prepared for the 



' " Down ! mouth to the ground ! " 

 252 



