"
"As to that, if I wanted evidence of a fact, which is abundantly
apparent by the habits of the animal, I have the word of Ishmael
himself. A reason can be given for my smallest deductions. I am not
troubled, young man, with a vulgar and idle curiosity, but all my
aspirations after knowledge, as I humbly believe, are, first, for the
advancement of learning, and, secondly, for the benefit of my fellow-
creatures. I pined greatly in secret to know the contents of the tent,
which Ishmael guarded so carefully, and which he had covenanted that I
should swear, (jurare per deos) not to approach nigher than a defined
number of cubits, for a definite period of time. Your jusjurandum, or
oath, is a serious matter, and not to be dealt in lightly; but, as my
expedition depended on complying, I consented to the act, reserving to
myself at all times the power of distant observation. It is now some
ten days since Ishmael, pitying the state in which he saw me, a humble
lover of science, imparted the fact that the vehicle contained a
beast, which he was carrying into the prairies as a decoy, by which he
intends to entrap others of the same genus, or perhaps species.
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