to the extermination of a remote tribe of reptiles, the king would have ennobled him and made him rich.  And this, too, was the origin of that school of scientists called Manologists, whose specialty is the deciphering of the ancient records of the extinct bird termed Man. [For it is now decided that Man was a bird and not a reptile.] But Professor Woodlouse began and remained chief of these, for it was granted that no translations were ever so free from error as his.  Others made mistakes he seemed incapable of it.  Many a memorial of the lost race was afterward found, but none ever attained to the renown and veneration achieved by the “Mayoritish Stone” it being so called from the word “Mayor” in it, which, being translated “King,” “Mayoritish Stone” was but another way of saying “King Stone.”

Another time the expedition made a great “find.”  It was a vast round flattish mass, ten frog-spans in diameter and five or six high.  Professor Snail put on his spectacles and examined it all around, and then climbed up and inspected the top.  He said: 

“The result of my perlustration and perscontation of this isoperimetrical protuberance is a belief at it is one of those rare and wonderful creation left by the Mound Builders.  The fact that this one is lamellibranchiate in its formation, simply adds to its interest as being possibly of a different kind from any we read of in the records of science, but yet in no manner marring its authenticity.  Let the megalophonous grasshopper sound a blast and summon hither the perfunctory and circumforaneous Tumble-Bug, to the end that excavations may be made and learning gather new treasures.”

Not a Tumble-Bug could be found on duty, so the Mound was excavated by a working party of Ants.  Nothing was discovered.  This would have been a great disappointment, had not the venerable Longlegs explained the matter.  He said: 

“It is now plain to me that the mysterious and forgotten race of Mound Builders did not always erect these edifices as mausoleums, else in this case, as in all previous cases, their skeletons would be found here, along with the rude implements which the creatures used in life.  Is not this manifest?”

“True! true!” from everybody.

“Then we have made a discovery of peculiar value here; a discovery which greatly extends our knowledge of this creature in place of diminishing it; a discovery which will add luster to the achievements of this expedition and win for us the commendations of scholars everywhere.  For the absence of the customary relics here means nothing less than this:  The Mound Builder, instead of being the ignorant, savage reptile we have been taught to consider him, was a creature of cultivation and high intelligence, capable of not only appreciating worthy achievements of the great and noble of his species, but of commemorating them!  Fellow-scholars, this stately Mound is not a sepulcher, it is a monument!”