a plaything. The mother out of pure
indulgence took me up, and put me towards the child, who presently
seized me by the middle and got my head in its mouth, where I roared so
loud that the urchin was frighted, and let me drop, and I should
infallibly have broke my neck if the mother had not held her apron
under me. The nurse, to quiet her babe, made use of a rattle, which was
a kind of hollow vessel filled with great stones, and fastened by a
cable to the child's waist. As she sat down close to the table on which
I stood, her appearance astonished me not a little. This made me reflect
upon the fair skins of our English ladies, who appear so beautiful to
us, only because they are of our own size, and their defects not to be
seen but through a magnifying glass, where we find by experiment that
the smoothest and whitest skins look rough, and coarse and ill-colored.

I remember, when I was at Lilliput, the complexions of those diminutive
people appeared to me the fairest in the world; and talking upon this
subject with a person of learning there, who was an intimate friend of
mine, he said that my face appeared much fairer and smoother when he
looked on me from the ground than it did upon a nearer view, when I took
him up in my hand and brought him close, which he confessed was at first
a very shocking sight. He said he could discover great holes in my skin;
that the stumps of my beard were ten times stronger than the bristles of
a boar, and my complexion made up of several colors altogether
disagreeable: although I must beg leave to say for myself that I am as
fair as most of my sex and country, and very little sunburnt by my
travels. On the other side, discoursing of the ladies of that emperor's
court, he used to tell me one had freckles, another too wide a mouth, a
third too large a nose, nothing of which I was able to distinguish. I
confess this reflection was obvious enough; which, however, I could not
forbear, lest the reader might think those vast creatures were actually
deformed: for I must do them justice to say they are a comely race of
people; and particularly the features of my master's countenance,
although he were but a farmer, when I beheld him from the height of
sixty feet, appeared very well proportioned.

When dinner was done my master went out to his labors, and, as I could
discover by his voice and gestures, gave his wife a strict charge to
take care of me. I was very much tired and disposed to sleep, wh