obe that had
belonged to my uncle, also hosen, and showed him how to put them on,
which he learned quickly enough. A comb and a brush that were on the
table he seemed to understand already, for with them he dressed his
tangled hair.

When all was finished in a fashion, I led him down the stairs again to
the eating-room where supper was waiting, and offered him food, at
the sight of which his eyes glistened, for clearly he was well-nigh
starving. The chair I gave him he would not sit on, whether from respect
for me or because it was strange to him, I do not know, but seeing a low
stool of tapestry which my uncle had used to rest his feet, he crouched
upon this, and thus ate of whatever I gave him, very delicately though
he was so hungry. Then I poured wine from Portugal into a goblet and
drank some myself to show him that it was harmless, which, after tasting
it, he swallowed to the last drop.

The meal being finished which I thought it was well to shorten lest
he should eat too much who was so weak, again he lifted up his eyes as
though in gratitude, and as a sign of thankfulness, or so I suppose,
knelt before me, took my hand, and pressed it against his forehead,
thereby, although I did not know it at the time, vowing himself to
my service. Then seeing how weary he was I conducted him back to the
chamber and pointed out the bed to him, shutting my eyes to show that
he should sleep there. But this he would not do until he had dragged the
bedding on to the floor, from which I gathered that his people, whoever
they might be, had the habit of sleeping on the ground.

Greatly did I wonder who this man was and from what race he sprang,
since never had I seen any human being who resembled him at all. Of one
thing only was I certain, namely, that his rank was high, since no noble
of the countries that I knew had a bearing so gentle or manners so fine.
Of black men I had seen several, who were called negroes, and others of
a higher sort called Moors; gross, vulgar fellows for the most part and
cut-throats if in an ill-humour, but never a one of them like this Kari.

It was long before my curiosity was satisfied, and even then I did not
gather much. By slow degrees Kari learned English, or something of it,
though never enough to talk fluently in that tongue into which he always
seemed to translate in his mind from another full of strange figures of
thought and speech. When after many months he had mastered sufficient of
our