 will not serve to carry them from the Beginning of a Sentence to the End;
and by this Defect they are deprived of the only Entertainment whereof they
might otherwise be capable.
    The Language of this Country being always upon the Flux, the Struldbruggs of
one Age do not understand those of another; neither are they able after two
Hundred Years to hold any Conversation (farther than by a few general Words)
with their Neighbours the Mortals; and thus they lye under the Disadvantage of
living like Foreigners in their own Country.
    This was the Account given me of the Struldbruggs, as near as I can
remember. I afterwards saw five or six of different Ages, the youngest not above
two Hundred Years old, who were brought to me at several Times by some of my
Friends; but although they were told that I was a great Traveller, and had seen
all the World, they had not the least Curiosity to ask me a Question; only
desired I would give them Slumskudask, or a Token of Remembrance; which is a
modest Way of begging, to avoid the Law that strictly forbids it, because they
are provided for by the Publick, although indeed with a very scanty Allowance.
    They are despised and hated by all Sorts of People: When one of them is
born, it is reckoned ominous, and their Birth is recorded very particularly; so
that you may know their Age by consulting the Registry, which however hath not
been kept above a Thousand Years past, or at least hath been destroyed by Time
or publick Disturbances. But the usual Way of computing how old they are, is, by
asking them what Kings or great Persons they can remember, and then consulting
History; for infallibly the last Prince in their Mind did not begin his Reign
after they were Fourscore Years old.
    They were the most mortifying Sight I ever beheld; and the Women more
horrible than the Men. Besides the usual Deformities in extreme old Age, they
acquired an additional Ghastliness in Proportion to their Number of Years, which
is not to be described; and among half a Dozen I soon distinguished which was
the eldest, although there were not above a Century or two between them.
    The Reader will easily believe, that from what I had heard and seen, my keen
Appetite for Perpetuity of Life was much abated. I grew heartily ashamed of the
pleasing Visions I had formed; and thought no Tyrant could invent a Death into
which I would not run with Pleasure from such a Life. The King heard of all that
had passed between me and my Friends upon this Occasion, and raillied me very
pleasantly
