and easily you will spare the poor, for you Will leave them
the wealth of the rich. And how could you possibly proportion taxes to
wealth? Yesterday I had two hundred oxen, to-day I have sixty, to-morrow
I shall have a hundred. Clunic has three cows, but they are thin; Nicclu
has only two, but they are fat. Which is the richer, Clunic or Nicclu?
The signs of opulence are deceitful. What is certain is that everyone
eats and drinks. Tax people according to what they consume. That would
be wisdom and it would be justice."

Thus spoke Morio amid the applause of the Elders.

"I ask that this speech be graven on bronze," cried the monk, Bulloch.
"It is spoken for the future; in fifteen hundred years the best of the
Penguins will not speak otherwise."

The Elders were still applauding when Greatauk, his hand on the pommel
of his sword, made this brief declaration:

"Being noble, I shall not contribute; for to contribute is ignoble. It
is for the rabble to pay."

After this warning the Elders separated in silence.

As in Rome, a new census was taken every five years; and by this means
it was observed that the population increased rapidly. Although children
died in marvellous abundance and plagues and famines came with perfect
regularity to devastate entire villages, new Penguins, in continually
greater numbers, contributed by their private misery to the public
prosperity.

V. THE MARRIAGE OF KRAKEN AND ORBEROSIA

During these times there lived in the island of Alca a Penguin whose arm
was strong and whose mind was subtle. He was called Kraken, and had his
dwelling on the Beach of Shadows whither the inhabitants never ventured
for fear of serpents that lodged in the hollows of the rocks and
lest they might encounter the souls of Penguins that had died without
baptism. These, in appearance like livid flames, and uttering doleful
groans, wandered night and day along the deserted beach. For it was
generally believed, though without proof, that among the Penguins that
had been changed into men at the blessed Mael's prayer, several had
not received baptism and returned after their death to lament amid the
tempests. Kraken dwelt on this savage coast in an inaccessible cavern.
The only way to it was through a natural tunnel a hundred feet long, the
entrance of which was concealed by a thick wood. One evening as Kraken
was walking through this deserted plain he happened to meet a young and
charming woman Penguin. She was