Salmagundi; or, The whim-whams and opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, esq. [pseud.] and others. By William Irving, James Kirke Paulding and Washington Irving. Printed from the original ed., with a preface and notes by Evert A. Duyckinck.

TILE IOPPINGTOTS. 347
they, Pirouet and Rigadoon, did accordingly put their army behind them, and striking up the right jolly and sprightful tune of
9a Ira, away they all capered toward the devoted city of
Gotham, with a most horrible and appalling chattering of
voices.
Of their first appearance before the beleagured town, and of
the various difficulties which did encounter them in their march,
this history saith not; being that other matters of more weighty
import require to be written. When that the army of the Hoppingtots did peregrinate within sight of Gotham, and the people
of the city did behold the villainous and hitherto unseen capers,
and grimaces which they did make, a most horrific panic was
stirred up among the citizens; and the sages of the town fell
into great despondency and tribulation, as supposing that these
invaders were of the race of the Jig-hees, who did make men
into baboons when they achieved a conquest over them. The
sages, therefore, called upon all the dancing men, and dancing
women, and exhorted them, with great vehemence of speech, to
make heel against the invaders, and to put themselves upon such
gallant defence, such glorious array, and such sturdy evolution,
elevation, and transposition of the foot as might incontinently
impester the legs of the Hoppingtots, and produce their complete
discomfiture. But so it did happen, by great mischance, that
divers light-heeled youths of Gotham, more especially those who
are descended from three wise men, so renowned of yore for having most venturesomely voyaged over sea in a bowl, were, from
time to time, captured and inveigled into the camp of the enemy;
where, being foolishly cajoled and treated for a season with outlandish disports and pleasantries, they were sent back to their
friends, entirely changed, degenerated, and turned topsy-turvy;
insomuch that they thought thenceforth of nothing but their