s passport to distinction. For, after all, this gaining a name,
is but the individualizing of a man; as well achieved by an
extraordinary nose, as by an extraordinary epic. Far better, indeed;
for you may pass poets without knowing them. Even a hero, is no hero
without his sword; nor Beelzebub himself a lion, minus that lasso-tail
of his, wherewith he catches his prey. Whereas, he who is famous
through his nose, it is impossible to overlook. He is a celebrity
without toiling for a name. Snugly ensconced behind his proboscis, he
revels in its shadow, receiving tributes of attention wherever he goes.

Not to enter at large upon the topography of Oh-Oh's nasal organ, all
must be content with this; that it was of a singular magnitude, and
boldly aspiring at the end; an exclamation point in the face of the
wearer, forever wondering at the visible universe. The eyes of Oh-Oh
were like the creature's that the Jew abhors: placed slanting in his
head, and converging their rays toward the mouth; which was no Mouth,
but a gash.

I mean not to be harsh, or unpleasant upon thee, Oh-Oh; but I must
paint thee as thou wert.

The rest of his person was crooked, and dwarfed, and surmounted by a
hump, that sat on his back like a burden. And a weary load is a hump,
Heaven knows, only to be cast off in the grave.

Thus old, and antiquated, and gable-ended, was the tabernacle of Oh-
Oh's soul. But his person was housed in as curious a structure. Built
of old boughs of trees blown down in the groves, and covered over with
unruly thatching, it seemed, without, some ostrich nest. But within,
so intricate, and grotesque, its brown alleys and cells, that the
interior of no walnut was more labyrinthine.

And here, strewn about, all dusty and disordered, were the precious
antiques, and curios, and obsoletes, which to Oh-Oh were dear as the
apple of his eye, or the memory of departed days.

The old man was exceedingly importunate, in directing attention to his
relics; concerning each of which, he had an endless story to tell.
Time would fail; nay, patience, to repeat his legends. So, in order,
here follow the most prominent of his rarities:--

The identical Canoe, in which, ages back, the god Unja came from
the bottom of the sea.
(Very ponderous; of lignum-vitae wood).

A stone Flower-pot, containing in the original soil, Unja's last
footprints, when he embarked from Mardi for parts unknown.
(One foo