FABLES FOR GOOD OLD BOYS AND CIKLS. 141 



phrase " lumgath molo," or "Burial-Place." Upon entering, the scientists were 

 well astonished. But what they saw may be best conveyed in the language of their 

 own official report : 



" Erect, and in a row, were a sort of i;igid great figures which struck us instantly 

 as belonging to the long extinct species of reptile called Man, described in our 

 ancient records. This was a peculiarly gratifying discovery, because of late times 

 it has become fashionable to regard this creature as a myth and a superstition, a 

 work of the inventive imaginations of our remote ancestors. But here, indeed, was 

 Man, perfectly preserved, in a fossil state. And this was his burial place, as 

 already ascertained by the inscription. And now it beigan to be suspected that the 

 caverns we had been inspecting had been his ancient haunts in that old time that 

 he roa.med the earth — for upon the breast of each of these tall fossils was an 

 inscription in the character heretofore noticed. One read, ' Captain Kidd, the 

 Pirate ;' another ' Queen Victoria ;' another, ' Abe Lincoln ;' another, ' George 

 Washington,' etc. 



" With feverish interest we called for our ancient scientific records to discover if 

 perchance the description of Man there set down would tally with the fossils before 

 us. Professor Woodlouse read it aloud in its quaint and musty phraseology, to 

 wit: 



" ' In ye time of our fathers Man still walked ye earth, as by tradition we know. 

 It was a creature of exceeding great size, being compassed about with a loose skin, 

 sometimes of one color, sometimes of many, the which it was able to cast at will ; 

 which being done, the hind legs were discovered to be armed with short claws like 

 to a mole's but broader, and ye fore-legs with fingers of a curious slimness and a 

 length much more prodigious than a frog's, armed also with broad talons for 

 scratching in ye earth for its food. It had a sort of feathers upon its head such as 

 hath a rat, but longer, and a beak suitable for seeking its food by ye smell thereof. 

 When it was stirred with happiness, it leaked water from its eyes ; and when it suf- 

 fered or was sad, it manifested it with a horrible hellish cackling clamor that was 

 exceeding dreadful to hear and made one long that it might rend itself and perish, 

 and so end its troubles. Two Mans being together, they uttered noises at each 

 other like to this : * Haw-haw-haw — dam good, dam good,' together with other 



