It was a quarter well stocked with deformed, leering, unkempt and uncombed idiots, who held out hands or caps and begged piteously.

The people of the quarter were not all idiots, of course, but all that begged seemed to be, and were said to be.
I was thinking of going by skiff to the next town, Necharsteinach; so I ran to the riverside in advance of the party and asked a man there if he had a boat to hire.

I suppose I must have spoken High German--Court German--I intended it for that, anyway--so he did not understand me.

I turned and twisted my question around and about, trying to strike that man's average, but failed.

He could not make out what I wanted.