"These people have queer ideas about their dress. The women wear
strangely figured garments, and adorn their heads, like some Indian
nations, with feathers and other fanciful head-dresses.
"One thing surprised me very much. They bring up in their houses an
animal of the tiger species, having the same kind of teeth and claws as
the tiger.
"In spite of the natural fierceness of this little beast, it is played
with and caressed by the most timid and delicate of their women and
children."
"I am sure I would not play with it," said Harry.
"You might get an ugly scratch, if you did," said the captain.
"Aha!" cried Mary; "I've found you out: you have been telling us of our
country and what is done at home all this while!"
"But we don't burn stones, or eat grease and powdered seeds, or wear
skins and caterpillars' webs, or play with tigers," said Harry.
"No?" said the captain. "Pray, what is coal but a kind of stone; and is
not butter, grease; and wheat, seeds; and leather, skins; and silk, the
web of a kind of caterpillar; and may we not as well call a cat an
animal of the tiger kind, as a tiger an animal of the cat kind?"
"So, if you will remember what I have been describing, you will find
that all the other wonderful things that I have told you of, are well
known among ourselves.
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