house were rather looked up to, I could perceive that I had produced a painful impression and raised some prejudice against myself, which I could only do away with by remarking that I highly disapproved of the practice.
The magistrate from whom I obtained my lease was a venerable looking man, and the ceremony of signing and registering the agreement was solemn and imposing. Two witnesses were required to attest the signature, and the magistrate delivered an impressive discourse, in which he painted in glowing terms the pure pleasures attending the strict observance of the engagement I had just entered into, and the certain misery that awaited any attempt to evade its obligations.
The friends of the lessee presented him with gifts of more or less valuable ornaments for the decoration of his new abode. My newly found friends showed their goodwill towards myself by supplying me with many tokens of their friendship, which were displayed in my room for the admiration of all the callers who came to congratulate me on this great event of my life.
Strangers arriving in Colymbia are assigned a certain salary, enough to keep them in comfort until they have become sufficiently at home in their aquatic life to enable them to earn their own livelihood. A period of five years is considered adequate for this purpose, after which the salary would be discontinued, unless special reasons were assigned for its continuance. But I was informed that the state was not very particular in enforcing this term, and that I might continue to draw my salary for a much longer time if I did not feel myself quite able to do without
