e cause I cannot say, but I feel that if
I embraced her I would hold in my hands the heaven of human pleasure. It
is certain that modesty communicates an invincible attraction to women.
My uneasiness is so great that it would be vain for me to try to conceal
it."

He spoke, and, gathering up his habit, he rushed among the crowd of
penguins, pushing, jostling, trampling, and crushing, until he reached
the daughter of Alca, whom he seized and suddenly carried in his arms
into a cave that had been hollowed out by the sea.

Then the penguins felt as if the sun had gone out. And the holy Mael
knew that the Devil had taken the features of the monk, Magis, in order
that he might give clothes to the daughter of Alca. He was troubled in
spirit, and his soul was sad. As with slow steps he went towards his
hermitage he saw the little penguins of six and seven years of age
tightening their waists with belts made of sea-weed and walking along
the shore to see if anybody would follow them.

II. THE FIRST CLOTHES (Continuation and End)

The holy Mael felt a profound sadness that the first clothes put upon
a daughter of Alca should have betrayed the penguin modesty instead of
helping it. He persisted, none the less, in his design of giving clothes
to the inhabitants of the miraculous island. Assembling them on the
shore, he distributed to them the garments that the monks of Yvern
had brought. The male penguins received short tunics and breeches, the
female penguins long robes. But these robes were far from creating the
effect that the former one had produced. They were not so beautiful,
their shape was uncouth and without art, and no attention was paid to
them since every woman bad one. As they prepared the meals and worked
in the fields they soon had nothing but slovenly bodices and soiled
petticoats.

The male penguins loaded their unfortunate consorts with work until they
looked like beasts of burden. They knew nothing of the troubles of the
heart and the disorders of passion. Their habits were innocent. Incest,
though frequent, was a sign of rustic simplicity and if drunkenness led
a youth to commit some such crime he thought nothing more about it the
day afterwards.

III. SETTING BOUNDS TO THE FIELDS AND THE ORIGIN OF PROPERTY

The island did not preserve the rugged appearance that it had formerly,
when, in the midst of floating icebergs it sheltered a population of
birds within its rocky amphitheatre. Its snow