Having a gentlemanly and kindly demeanor, I won the hearts of the Emperor and the full court, and, indeed, the army and the people were so kindly disposed towards me that I began to entertain hopes of obtaining my liberty in a short time. I took every possible means to ingratiate myself with them. Gradually the natives were less worried about what danger I might be to them. Sometimes I lay down on the ground and let five or six of them dance on my hands; it grew to the point where boys and girls dared to run inside my hair and play hide-and-seek. In hearing their language, too, I was now making great progress. One day the Emperor was to entertain me with several of his domestic performances. For subtlety and grandeur, their performances surpassed those of any country I have ever known. What amused me most was the performance of the rope dancers. They made their performance on a thin white rope about two feet long and twelve inches above the ground. This is a matter which I would ask the reader to bear with me and listen to me in detail.
Only those who were waiting for important offices or who wished to gain favor with the court performed this art. They were trained in this art from a very young age. Not all of them were of noble birth or well educated. Whenever there was a vacancy in an important office, whether the original official had died or had been removed from office out of favor (which was often), five or six alternates would ask the emperor for permission to perform a rope dance for his majesty and all the officials of the court; whoever danced the highest without falling would take over the position. The important ministers were often instructed to perform this skill, to convince the Emperor that they had not forgotten their own skill. It was thought that Frimnaypool, the minister of finance, danced on a straightened rope at least an inch higher than any other minister in the kingdom. I have seen him turn several times in a row on the top of a plank fastened to a rope that was only as thick as the ordinary English packing-line. If I am not biased, as far as I can see, my friend Rildrisha, the Minister of the Interior, is second only to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the rest of the officers are not equal to each other.
Accidents often occur in such games, and they are well documented. I saw with my own eyes two or three alternates fall and break their arms and legs. But the greater danger occurs when the ministers themselves are ordered to come and show their kung-fu, for they want to jump better than before, and to outwit their fellow-jumpers, and coming in so violently that they seldom fail to fall, and some even fall two or three times. I have heard that Frimnaypu nearly fell to his death on this account a year or two before I came to this place, and that his neck would have been broken for certain, had not a piece of the Emperor's seat cushion happened to be on the ground to lessen the force of his fall.
There is also a game which is performed for the Emperor, the Empress, and the Prime Minister on particularly important holidays. The emperor placed on the table three fine silk threads, purple, yellow and white, six inches long. These three threads were prizes prepared by the Emperor, who intended to reward different people for their different favors. The ceremony of the performance took place in the great hall of the palace, where the alternates were to compete in an entirely different art from that which preceded them, an art which I have never seen in any of the kingdoms of the Old and New Worlds bear the slightest resemblance. The Emperor holds a stick in his hand, with the ends parallel to the ground, and the candidates run up to it one after another, at one time jumping over the bar, at another crawling under it, and repeating it many times back and forth, these repetitions being determined by the lifting and lowering of the bar. Sometimes the Emperor and the Prime Minister each held one end of the stick, sometimes the Prime Minister alone. Whoever performed with the greatest agility, jumping and crawling around and holding on the longest, was rewarded with a purple silk thread, the next was rewarded with a yellow silk thread, and the third got a white silk thread. They wrapped the silk thread twice round their waists; and you can see that there were few people up and down the court who did not use such sashes for decoration.
As the war-horse and the royal horse are brought to me every day, they have ceased to be timid by the test of time, and come all the way to my feet without spooking. I put my hand on the ground, and the riders leaped over it with their horses; and one of the hunters, who was of the Emperor's hunting party, jumped over the top of my shoe-clad feet on a tall steed. It was indeed an amazing jump. One day I was honored with the opportunity of performing a very special game for the amusement of the Emperor. I begged him to order me to get some sticks two feet long, as thick as an ordinary cane. The emperor then ordered his officer in charge of the forest to go forth and comply. Early the next morning six lumbermen returned in six wagons, each drawn by eight horses. I took nine sticks from the wagons and stuck them firmly in the ground, arranging them in a quadrilateral of two and a half square feet. Then I took four more sticks and tied them across the corners of the quadrilateral, about two feet above the ground. Then I laid the handkerchief flat on the nine upright sticks and tied them tightly, taut on all sides like the surface of a drum. The four horizontally tied sticks were about five inches above the handkerchief to act as railings on all sides. When this was done, I asked the emperor to have a fine cavalry of twenty-four men mounted on this platform for drill. The emperor agreed to this suggestion, and I took the horses one by one by hand and placed them on the handkerchief, and on them rode the officers, fully armed, ready for the drill. They stood neatly at one stop and immediately divided into two teams, to carry out small-scale military exercises, a moment of blunt arrows, swords and knives sheathed, running, chasing, attacking, retreating, in short, showed a strict military discipline that I have never seen. Thanks to the protection of four horizontal logs, they did not fall from the platform. The emperor was so pleased that he ordered this game to be performed over and over again for several days. Surprisingly, on one occasion he asked me to lift him up to the platform to give orders. He even went to great lengths to persuade the Empress to let me lift her and her litter at the same time to a height of less than two yards above the platform, from which she was able to enjoy a panoramic view of the drill. As luck would have it, I was able to perform several times without any unfortunate mishaps. Only once did a violent horse ridden by one of the captains kick about with his hoofs and make a hole in the handkerchief, and the horse's leg slipped, and the man toppled over. But I got both horse and man up at once, covering the hole with one hand and putting them back on the ground as I had originally done when I sent them up. The lost horse's left shoulder bet was sprained, and the rider had nothing to do with it. I mended the handkerchief as best I could, but I no longer believed it was strong enough to stand up to this dangerous game.
Just two or three days before I was set at liberty, on one occasion when I was performing such arts for the amusement of the court, a special messenger suddenly came and reported to the emperor that some of the people, as they rode close to the place where I had been originally captured, had found lying on the ground a very large black thing, strange in appearance, rounded on the sides, stretching out as large as his majesty's bedchamber, and protruding in the middle as high as a man. They were afraid at first that it was some kind of living animal, but when some of them walked around it several times, and it still lay motionless on the grass, they thought it was not. They stepped on each other's shoulders and climbed to the top, which was flat and flat, and when they stepped on it with their feet they realized that it was empty. In their humble opinion, it was possible that the thing was from the Giant's Mountain. If the emperor permitted it, they would pull it back with five horses. I immediately understood what they were talking about. I was so heartily glad to hear that. Maybe it was because I was in such a mess when I first came ashore after the capsize that I lost my hat before I got to the place where I slept down. That hat I rowing with a rope tied to the head, swim in the water has been wearing, I think it was later in the accident, the rope broke, and I know nothing, but also thought that the hat fell in the sea it. I begged the Emperor to let them pull the hat back for me, and at the same time told him of its use and character. The next day the carters brought the hat, but it was much worn out. They bored two holes in the brim of the hat less than an inch and a half from the side, tied two juns to the holes, and attached a long rope to the hooks at one end to the harness, and thus dragged my hat for more than half a mile. The ground in this country is, however, exceedingly flat and smooth, so that the hat was much less injured than I had expected.
Two days after this incident, the emperor ordered a portion of the troops stationed in and around the capital to prepare for maneuvers. It turned out that he had come up with another idea to amuse himself in a very strange way. He wanted me to stand there like a colossal statue, with my legs as far apart as possible, and then ordered his general (a seasoned veteran and a great benefactor of mine) to gather the troops into a dense formation and march past my crotch. The infantry, twenty-four in a line, and the cavalry, sixteen in a line, beat their drums and hoisted their banners, and marched forward with lances in their hands. It was an army of three thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry. The Emperor ordered that every soldier in the advance must be strictly disciplined and honor me personally, and that violators would be punished by death. That order didn't prohibit a few young officers from looking up at me as they passed by my crotch, though. Truth be told, my pants were in such disrepair by then that it would have caused the officers to laugh and wonder.
Because of my desire to be free, I sent many petitions to the Emperor, and he finally brought the matter up first in a cabinet meeting and then in a meeting of all the State Councillors. No one objected to it except Skerish Borgolam, a man whom I had not provoked, but who preferred to make an enemy of me. But the entire cabinet was against him, so my request was approved by the Emperor. The minister was a "gerbet," the admiral of the day, who had the emperor's confidence, and was well acquainted with the affairs of state, but with a gloomy, warm, angry countenance. He was at last persuaded, but insisted that my release should be subject to conditions, and that I should take an oath to keep them, the text of which he drew up himself. Skerish Bolgolam, accompanied by two undersecretaries and several dignitaries, handed me the document in his own hand. After the document had been read out, they made me take an oath of resolute observance of the execution of the above terms, first in the manner of my country, and then in the manner prescribed by their laws. Their manner was: holding the right foot with the left hand, the middle finger of the right hand on the top of the head, and the thumb on the tip of the there ear. As the reader may be curious to know a little of the style and expression of the writings peculiar to this people, and of the terms by which my restoration to liberty is to be observed, I shall translate the whole document here, as nearly as possible, verbatim, for your perusal:
Galbestus Momarum Ephraim G?ldalo Scheffen Mulli Uli Gul, the supreme Emperor of the State of Lilliput, embraced by all the world, feared, with a territory extending over five thousand brasstrogs (about twelve miles in circumference), and with borders reaching to the four poles of the earth; the King of Kings, whose height exceeds that of mankind; with his feet on the -. earth, and the head of the sun; a point of the head, and the knees of the kings of the globe tremble; amiable as spring, comfortable as summer, bountiful as autumn, and terrible as winter. His Majesty, the Supreme Emperor, presents to the Giant Mountain, which came not long ago to the soil of this Heavenly Kingdom, the following terms, which the Giant Mountain shall solemnly swear and observe to carry out:
I. The Giant Mountain shall not leave the homeland without a license stamped with the seal of our country.
II. No one shall enter the capital without orders; and, if authorized, the inhabitants shall be notified two hours before to remain in their houses.
Third, Giant Mountain may walk only on the main roads of the country, and may not walk or lie down on the grass or in the fields of crops.
Fourth, when walking on the said main roads, be absolutely careful not to trample on our good people and their carts and horses; and not to take our good people into your hands without your consent.
V. In case of urgent cases requiring special delivery, the Giant Mountain shall pocket the special messenger with his horse, and run the six days' journey in January at once. If necessary, the special messenger must also be sent safely to the emperor before driving.
VI. He shall make an alliance with our country to meet the enemy on the island of Brefuscu, and do all in his power to destroy the enemy's fleet, which is preparing to attack us.
VII. In his spare time Giant Mountain shall help our craftsmen to carry huge stones and build the walls of the Great Park and other royal buildings.
VIII. The Giant Mountain will submit a precise measurement of the circumference of our country in two months, using the method of walking along the coastline.
Lastly, the Giant Mountain, if he solemnly swears to abide by the foregoing, shall be supplied daily with meat and drink sufficient to sustain the lives of seventeen hundred and twenty-eight of our citizens. He may visit the Emperor at any time, and at the same time enjoy the Emperor's other Siddhis.
Given at the Palace of Burfabrik, on the twelfth day of the eleventh month, since the accession of our Emperor.
I took the oath willingly and signed the articles. There were a few clauses that were not as honorable as I had imagined, however, and that was entirely due to the bad heart of Admiral Skerish Bolgolam. As soon as the chains that held me were opened, I was granted complete freedom. The Emperor was also especially gracious, and attended the entire ceremony in person. I prostrated myself at the Emperor's feet to express my gratitude, but he ordered me to stand up, and said many more kind words, but lest people should say that I was vain, I will not repeat them here. He added that he wished me to be a useful servant, and not to disappoint the grace which he had already rewarded me with and could reward me with in the future.
The reader may notice that, in the last article of my restoration to liberty, the emperor stipulated that I should be supplied daily with meat and drink sufficient to sustain one thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight Lilliputians. Shortly afterward I asked a friend of the court how they had arrived at such a definite number. He told me that the mathematicians under the emperor had determined my height with the aid of a tetradrachm. I outweighed them in the proportion of twelve to one, and as their bodies were more or less the same, it was concluded that I could be worth at least seventeen hundred and twenty-eight Lilliputians, which would require a corresponding amount of food to sustain so many people. The reader may thus imagine how resourceful this people were, and how shrewd and precise were the economic principles of this great monarch.
It was for the purpose of waiting for important positions in the court and hoping to gain the emperor's favor.