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Chapter 2: Life in Lilliput
I was careful to behave as well as possible to persuade the King to give me my freedom. Lilliputians soon began to loose their fear of me. They called me the Man-Mountain. Sometimes I lay down and let them dance on my hand, and from time to time children came to play games in my hair. By now I was able to speak their language well.
Entertainments in Lilliput
One day the King invited me to watch the regular entertainments, which are greatly enjoyed by him, his family, and his lords and ladies. I was most interested in the rope-dancing. A very thin rope is fixed thirty centimetres above the ground. People who want to become the King’s most important officials jump and dance on this rope, and whoever jumps highest without falling gets the best job. Sometimes the King orders his lords to dance on the rope, rather dangerous, and there are occasional deaths as a result. It seems a strange way of choosing officials.
There was another interesting entertainment. The King hold a stick in front of him, and sometimes moves it up and down. One by one, people crawl under it. They go on jumping and crawling as the King moves the stick. The winner is the one who jumps and crawls for the longest time, and received a blue ribbon to wear around his waist. The second best receives a red ribbon, and the third best gets a green one.
Many if the Lilliput lords wear their ribbons proudly at all times. I had certainly, never seen entertainments like this in any of the countries I had visited before.
Some days later a strange black thing was seen on the beach where I had first arrived in Lilliput. When the people realized it was not alive, they decided that it must belong to the Man-Mountain, and the ordered them to bring it to me. I though I knew what it was. When it arrived, it was rather dirty because it had been pulled along the ground by horses. But I was delighted to see that it was in fact my hat. I had lost it in the sea when swimming away from the ship.
I begged the King so often for my freedom that at last he and his lords agreed that I need not be a prisoner any longer. However, I had to promise certain things:
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To help the Lilliputians in war and peace.
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To give two hours warning before a visit to their capital, so that people could stay indoors.
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To be careful not to step on any Lilliputians or their animals.
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To carry important messages for the King if necessary.
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To help the King’s workmen carry heavy stones.
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To stay in Lilliput until the King allowed me to leave.
On his side the King promised I would receive food and drink enough for 1,724 Lilliputians. I agreed to everything at once. My chains were broken, and I was free at last!
The first thing I did was visit the capital city. The people were warned, so that they would not be in danger. I stepped carefully over the city wall, which was less than a metre high usually very busy city, with shops and markets full of people, but today the streets were empty. There were crowds watching me from every window. In the middle of the city is the King’s palace. The King had invited me to enter it, so I stepped over the surrounding wall into the palace garden. But unfortunately the palace itself has walls a metre and a high half around it . I did not want to damage these walls by trying to climb over them. So I walked carefully back to out city and into the King’s park. Here I cut down several of the largest trees with my knife, and made two wooden boxes, I was able to stand on one box on one side of the wall and step on to the other box on the other side. I lay down on the ground and looked through the windows, right into the King’s rooms. You cannot imagine a more beautiful place to live in. the rooms and the furniture are perfect in every detail. As I was looking in, I could see the Queen, surrounded by her lords and ladies. She kindly put her hand out of the window for me to kiss.
I think I should give some general information about Lilliput. Most Lilliputians are about fifteen centimetres tall. The birds and animals are, of course, much smaller than the people, and the tallest trees are only a little taller than I am.
All crimes here are punished. But if someone is accused of a crime and then it is proved that the accuser is lying, the accuser is immediately killed. Lilliputians believe that there are two sides to the law. Criminals must be punished, but people of good character must be rewarded. So if a man can prove that he has obeyed the law for six years, he receives a present of money from the King. They also believed that any man who is honest, truthful, and good can serve his King and country. It is more important to have a good character than to be clever or intelligent. However, only those who believe in God are allowed to be the King’s officials.
Many of their laws and customs are very different from ours, but human nature is the same in every country. The Lilliputians, like us, have learnt bad ways – choosing officials because they are able to dance on a rope is just one example.
Now I shall return to my adventures in Lilliput. About two weeks after my first visit to the capital, I was visited by one the King’s most important officials. His name was Reldresal, and he has helped me many times since I had arrived in Lilliput. I started the conversation.
“I’m so glad they’ve taken away my chains,” I told him.
“Well, my friend,” he answered, “let me tell you something. You’re only free because the King knows we’re in a very dangerous situation.”
“Dangerous?” I cried. “What do you mean?”
“Lilliput has enemies at home and abroad,” he explained. “For six years now we’ve had two political groups, the High-Heels and the Low-Heels. Perhaps the High-Heels were more popular in the past, but as you can see, our present King and all his officials wear the lowest heels. The two groups hate each other, and a High-Heel refuse to speak to a Low-Heel. That’s the problem in Lilliput. Now, we’re getting information that the people of Blefuscu are going to attack us. Have you heard of Blefuscu? It’s an island very near us, almost as large and important as Lilliput. They’ve been at war with us for three years, you see.”
“But how did this war start?” I asked.
“Well, you know, of course, most people used to break their boiled eggs at the larger end. But our King’s grandfather once cut a finger breaking his egg this way, and so his father the King ordered all Lilliputians, from then on, to break the smaller end of their eggs. People who do that are called Small-Endians. But Lilliputians feel strongly about this and some fought angrily against this law. As many as eleven thousand people have been killed because they refuse to break their eggs at the smaller end.
The war between Lilliput and Blefuscu started because of an argument on how to break eggs.
Some of the Big-Endians have escaped to Blefuscu. The King of Blefuscu has always wanted to defeat Lilliput in warm and now we hear that he’s prepared a large number of ships, which will attack us very soon. So you see, my friend, how much our King needs your help, in order to defeat his enemies.”
I did not hesitate for a moment. “Please tell the King,” I answered warmly, “that I am ready to give my life to save him or his country.”