|
|
"Well 'toves' are something like badgers-they're something like lizards-and they're something like corkscrews."
"They must be very curious-looking creatures."
"They are that," said Humpty Dumpty, "also they make their nests under sundials-also they live on cheese."
"And what's to 'gyre' and to 'gimble'?"
"To 'gyre' is to go round and round like a gyroscope. To 'gimble' is to make holes like a gimlet."
"And 'the wabe' is the grass plot round a sundial, I suppose?" said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity.
"Of course it is. It's called 'wabe,' you know, because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it."
"And a long way beyond it on each side," Alice added.
"Exactly so. Well, then, 'mimsy' is flimsy and miserable (there's another portmanteau for you). And a 'borogove' is a thin, shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round-something like a live mop."
"And then 'mome raths'?" Said Alice. "I'm afraid I'm giving you a great deal of trouble."
"Well, a 'rath' is a sort of green pig: but 'mome' I'm not certain about. I think it's short for 'from home'- meaning that they'd lost their way, you know."
"And what does 'outgrabe' mean?"
"Well, 'outgribing' is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle; however, you'll hear it done, maybe-down in the wood yonder-and when you've once heard it you'll be quite content. Who's been repeating all that hard stuff to you?
"I read it in a book," said Alice. "But I had some poetry repeated to me, much easier than that, by-Tweedledee, I think it was."
"As to poetry, you know," said Humpty Dumpty, stretching out one of his great hands, "I can repeat poetry as well as other folk, if it comes to that."
"Oh, it needn't come to that!" Alice hastily said, hoping to keep him from beginning.
"The piece I'm going to repeat," he went on, without noticing her remark, "was written entirely for your amusement."
Alice felt that in that case she really ought to listen to it, so she sat down, and said "Thank you" rather sadly.