ent, and which had so surprised him in the morning, had soon been
adopted in private life; and although it was a drowning matter to pick
up pink shells, still there was nothing to prevent the whole commerce
of the country from being carried on by means of a system equally
conchological. He found that the social action in every part of the
island was regulated and assisted by this process. Oyster-shells were
first introduced; muscle-shells speedily followed; and, as commerce
became more complicate, they had even been obliged to have recourse to
snail-shells. Popanilla retired to rest with admiration of the people
who thus converted to the most useful purposes things apparently so
useless. There was no saying now what might not be done even with a
nutshell. It was evident that the nation who contrived to be the richest
people in the world while they were over head and ears in debt must be
fast approaching to a state of perfection. Finally, sinking to sleep in
a bed of eiderdown, Popanilla was confirmed in his prejudices against a
state of nature.

CHAPTER 8

Skindeep called upon Popanilla on the following morning in an elegant
equipage, and with great politeness proposed to attend him in a drive
about the city.

The island of Vraibleusia is one hundred and fifty miles in
circumference, two-thirds of which are covered by the city of Hubbabub.
It contains no other city, town, or village. The rest of the island
consists of rivers, canals, and railroads. Popanilla was surprised when
he was informed that Hubbabub did not contain more than five millions
of inhabitants; but his surprise was decreased when their journey
occasionally lay through tracts of streets, consisting often of
capacious mansions entirely tenantless. On seeking an explanation
of this seeming desolation, he was told that the Hubbabubians
were possessed by a frenzy of always moving on, westward; and that
consequently great quarters of the city are perpetually deserted. Even
as Skindeep was speaking their passage was stopped by a large caravan
of carriages and wagons heavily laden with human creatures and their
children and chattels. On Skindeep inquiring the cause of this great
movement, he was informed by one on horseback, who seemed to be the
leader of the horde, that they were the late dwellers in sundry squares
and streets situated far to the east; that their houses having been
ridiculed by an itinerant balladeer, the female part of the tribe had