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Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745

"Gulliver's Travels"

"
He offered himself and a friend to accompany me, and that I should
be provided with a small convenient bark for the voyage.
Glubbdubdrib, as nearly as I can interpret the word, signifies the
island of sorcerers or magicians. It is about one third as large
as the Isle of Wight, and extremely fruitful: it is governed by
the head of a certain tribe, who are all magicians. This tribe
marries only among each other, and the eldest in succession is
prince or governor. He has a noble palace, and a park of about
three thousand acres, surrounded by a wall of hewn stone twenty
feet high. In this park are several small enclosures for cattle,
corn, and gardening.
The governor and his family are served and attended by domestics of
a kind somewhat unusual. By his skill in necromancy he has a power
of calling whom he pleases from the dead, and commanding their
service for twenty-four hours, but no longer; nor can he call the
same persons up again in less than three months, except upon very
extraordinary occasions.


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