t high. As to the
natives of the moon; none of them are less in stature than thirty-six
feet: they are not called the human species, but the cooking animals,
for they all dress their food by fire, as we do, but lose no time at
their meals, as they open their left side, and place the whole quantity
at once in their stomach, then shut it again till the same day in the
next month; for they never indulge themselves with food more than twelve
times a year, or once a month. All but gluttons and epicures must prefer
this method to ours.

There is but one sex either of the cooking or any other animals in the
moon; they are all produced from trees of various sizes and foliage;
that which produces the cooking animal, or human species, is much more
beautiful than any of the others; it has large, straight boughs and
flesh-colored leaves, and the fruit it produces are nuts or pods, with
hard shells, at least two yards long; when they become ripe, which is
known from their changing color, they are gathered with great care, and
laid by as long as they think proper; when they choose to animate the
seed of these nuts, they throw them into a large cauldron of boiling
water, which opens the shells in a few hours, and out jumps the
creature.

Nature forms their minds for different pursuits before they come into
the world; from one shell comes forth a warrior, from another a
philosopher, from a third a divine, from a fourth a lawyer, from a fifth
a farmer, from a sixth a clown, etc., etc., and all of them immediately
begin to perfect themselves by practicing what they before knew only in
theory.

When they grown old they do not die, but turn into air and dissolve like
smoke! As for their drink, they need none. They have but one finger upon
each hand, with which they perform everything in as perfect a manner as
we do who have four besides the thumb. Their heads are placed under
their right arm, and when they are going to travel or about any violent
exercise, they generally leave them at home, for they can consult them
at any distance: this is a very common practice; and when those of rank
or quality among the Lunarians have an inclination to see what's going
forward among the common people, they stay at home, i.e., the body stays
at home and sends the head only, which is suffered to be present
_incog._, and return at pleasure with an account of what has passed.

[Illustration: WARRIORS OF THE MOON]

Their eyes they can take in and out