Luckily for us, the monikin ingenuity had greatly diminished the labor of the acquisition.

The whole language was spoken and written on a system of decimals, which rendered it particularly easy, after the elementary principles were once acquired.

Thus, unlike most human tongues, in which the rule usually forms the exception, no departure from its laws was ever allowed, under the penalty of the pillory.

This provision, the captain protested, was the best rule of them all, and saved a vast deal of trouble; for, as he knew by experience, a man might be a perfect adept in the language of Stunin'tun, and then be laughed at in New York for his pains.

The comprehensiveness of the tongue was also another great advantage; though, like all other eminent advantages or excessive good, it was the next-door neighbor to as great an evil.