Gulliver in Lilliput – I

Gulliver, the doctor of an English ship wrecked in the Atlantic and is

thrown up on the island of Lilliput, inhabited by a race of little people not

more than six inches tall. He is tied up and made prisoner by Lilliputians, but

later they come to trust him, and set him free. Our story takes place soon after

this.

In a later adventure Gulliver visits a land of giants twelve times as tall as

himself. You can read the complete story in Gulliver’s travels, by Jonathan

Swift.

I

One morning, two weeks after I had obtained my freedom, Reldresal, the

Chief Secretary for Private affairs, came to my house, attended only by one

servant. He wanted to have a private conversation with me, because he had been

sent by the Emperor to discuss with me some important problems of state. I

received him with honour and offered to lie down so that he could conveniently

speak to me; but he preferred to let me hold him in my hand during our

conversation.

He congratulated me on my freedom, and added that I had obtained it so

soon partly on account of the many difficult internal and external problems that

faced the state just then. It was thought that if I was released, I might be of help to

the state in solving them.

Reldresal told me that Lilliputians were divided into two parties called

High Heels and Low Heels, according to the high or low heels of their shoes,

which distinguished one party from the other. They opposed each other bitterly,

and hated each other so much that the members of one party would hardly eat,

drink or talk with those of the other. Although the High Heels were more numerous

than Low Heels, His Majesty the Emperor was in favour of Low Heels, and

himself wore low heels only. So the Government was in their hands now. Reldresal

himself was a member of the Low Heels party. They feared, however, that the

young Prince was sympathetic to the High Heels; at least, it was clear that one of

his heels was higher than the other; and that gave him a limp in his walking.

II

To add to their problem, they now had to face a great external danger. The

country was threatened with an invasion from Blefuscu, which, Reldresal told

me, was the other great empire of the Universe. As for my report that there were

other regions in the world inhabited by men like myself, he hardly believed it;

according to their scientists and historians Lilliput and Blefuscu were the two

great regions of the Universe. These mighty powers had been engaged in a bloody

war for thirty-six ‘moons’*. The war began about a question of religious principle,

namely, whether one should break an egg at the bigger end or at the smaller end.

The anvcient practice of course was to break it at the bigger end. But the present

Emperor’s grandfather, when he was a boy, happened to cut one of his fingers

when breaking an egg at the bigger end. So the Emperor, his father, published an

order prohibiting the practice of breaking eggs at the bigger end. There was

bigger opposition to the new law, and there were frequent rebellions on the

account of it; one emperor lost his life, and another his crown, in these rebellions.

Many hundred books were published about the question, but people were

prohibited from reading the books of the Big Indians. At least 11,000 people

suffered death at various times because they preferred death to dishonour. Many

rebels escaped to Blefuscu; the Emperor of Blefuscu gave them his sympathy

and encouragement, thus interfering in the internal affairs of Lilliput. He frequently

charged the Lilliputian Emperor with causing a division in religion by encouraging

people to disobey a basic teaching of their ancient religion, which is given in the

54th chapter of their holy book: ‘All believers shall break eggs at the convenient

end’ But Reldresal thought that his charge was baseless, for, which was the

convenient end was a question for each man to decide according to his conscience.

The two empires were engaged in a war over this question and there were frequent

battles. Just now the men of Blefuscu were intending to invade Lilliput. The

scouts sent out by Lilliput had reported that a fleet was getting ready to start. In

this situation the Emperor wanted my help in defending Lilliput against the

invaders.

I avoided entering into a discussion of their party questions or religious

principles with Reldresal. I told him that as a foreigner I had no right to interfere

in them. But I asked him to tell the Emperor that I was his loyal soldier, ready to

defend his honour and the honour of the country in case there was an invasion.

*Lilliputians used a smaller time scale than we do. “A moon” is 28 days or

about 12th part of a year.