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perceived upon the creature's back a vast number of animals about the
size and shape of men, and altogether much resembling them, except that
they wore no garments (as men do), being supplied (by nature, no doubt)
with an ugly uncomfortable covering, a good deal like cloth, but fitting
so tight to the skin, as to render the poor wretches laughably awkward,
and put them apparently to severe pain. On the very tips of their heads
were certain square-looking boxes, which, at first sight, I thought
might have been intended to answer as turbans, but I soon discovered
that they were excessively heavy and solid, and I therefore concluded
they were contrivances designed, by their great weight, to keep the
heads of the animals steady and safe upon their shoulders. Around
the necks of the creatures were fastened black collars, (badges of
servitude, no doubt,) such as we keep on our dogs, only much wider
and infinitely stiffer, so that it was quite impossible for these poor
victims to move their heads in any direction without moving the body at
the same time; and thus they were doomed to perpetual contemplation of
their noses--a view puggish and snubby in a wonderful, if not positively
in an awful degree.
"'When the monster had nearly reached the shore where we stood, it
suddenly pushed out one of its eyes to a great extent, and emitted from
it a terrible flash of fire, accompanied by a dense cloud of smoke, and
a noise that I can compare to nothing but thunder. As the smoke cleared
away, we saw one of the odd man-animals standing near the head of the
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