t hazard one of these female
penguins to whom the male penguins give such little thought, and let us
dress her as well as we can.

"Here is one coming towards us. She is neither more beautiful nor
uglier than the others; she is young. No one looks at her. She strolls
indolently along the shore, scratching her back and with her finger
at her nose as she walks. You cannot help seeing, father, that she has
narrow shoulders, clumsy breasts, a stout figure, and short legs. Her
reddish knees pucker at every step she takes, and there is, at each of
her joints, what looks like a little monkey's head. Her broad and sinewy
feet cling to the rock with their four crooked toes, while the great
toes stick up like the heads of two cunning serpents. She begins to
walk, all her muscles are engaged in the task, and, when we see them
working, we think of her as a machine intended for walking rather than
as a machine intended for making love, although visibly she is both,
and contains within herself several other pieces of machinery, besides.
Well, venerable apostle, you will see what I am going to make of her."

With these words the monk, Magis, reached the female penguin in three
bounds, lifted her up, carried her in his arms with her hair trailing
behind her, and threw her, overcome with fright, at the feet of the holy
Mael.

And whilst she wept and begged him to do her no harm, he took a pair of
sandals out of his chest and commanded her to put them on.

"Her feet," observed the old man, "will appear smaller when squeezed in
by the woollen cords. The soles, being two fingers high, will give
an elegant length to her legs and the weight they bear will seem
magnified."

As the penguin tied on her sandals she threw a curious look towards
the open coffer, and seeing that it was full of jewels and finery, she
smiled through her tears.

The monk twisted her hair on the back of her head and covered it with
a chaplet of flowers. He encircled her wrist with golden bracelets
and making her stand upright, he passed a large linen band beneath her
breasts, alleging that her bosom would thereby derive a new dignity and
that her sides would be compressed to the greater glory of her hips.

He fixed this band with pins, taking them one by one out of his mouth.

"You can tighten it still more," said the penguin.

When he had, with much care and study, enclosed the soft parts of her
bust in this way, he covered her whole body with a rose-coloure