"A very bad example to follow.

Do you, Babbalanja, come to the point, and not travel off with it, which is too much your wont." "Since my lord insists upon it then, thus much for the Tapparians, though but a thought or two of many in reserve.

They ignore the rest of Mardi, while they themselves are but a rumor in the isles of the East; where the business of living and dying goes on with the same uniformity, as if there were no Tapparians in existence.

They think themselves Mardi in full; whereas, by the mass, they are stared at as prodigies; exceptions to the law, ordaining that no Mardian shall undertake to live, unless he set out with at least the average quantity of brains.

For these Tapparians have no brains.