Methuselah threw back his head at that and laughed aloud.

"God save the king!" he cried again, in a still feebler way, "and to hell with all papists!" It was strange how they all hung on the words of that unconscious messenger from a dead and gone age, who himself knew nothing of the import of the words he was uttering.

Methuselah laughed at their earnestness, shook his head once or twice, and seemed to think to himself.

Then he remembered afresh the point he had broken off at.
"More fully discover.

For seven years have I now lived on this island, never having seen or h'ard Christian face or voice; and at the end of that time, feeling my health feail, and being apprehensive lest any of my fellow-countrymen should hereafter suffer the same fate as I have done, I began to teach this parrot his message, a few words at a time, impressing it duly and fully on his memory.
"Larn, then, O wayfarer, that the people of Boo Parry are most arrant gentiles, heathens, and carribals.