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prisons until the fulfillment of appointed tasks.'" (*15)
"Pshaw!" said the king.
"'Quitting this land, we soon arrived at another in which the bees and
the birds are mathematicians of such genius and erudition, that they
give daily instructions in the science of geometry to the wise men
of the empire. The king of the place having offered a reward for the
solution of two very difficult problems, they were solved upon the
spot--the one by the bees, and the other by the birds; but the king
keeping their solution a secret, it was only after the most profound
researches and labor, and the writing of an infinity of big books,
during a long series of years, that the men-mathematicians at length
arrived at the identical solutions which had been given upon the spot by
the bees and by the birds.'" (*16)
"
Oh my!" said the king.
"
'We had scarcely lost sight of this empire when we found ourselves
close upon another, from whose shores there flew over our heads a flock
of fowls a mile in breadth, and two hundred and forty miles long; so
that, although they flew a mile during every minute, it required no less
than four hours for the whole flock to pass over us--in which there were
several millions of millions of fowl.'" (*17)
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