“A great curtain opened that instant, and I saw a work shop occupied by a different sort of pygmies. These had neither teeth nor nails; but in return they were armed with razors and scissors. In their hands they held heads, which seemed animated; and they were very busy with these heads, in cutting off the hair of one, pulling off the nose and ears of another; putting out the right eye of this, the left of that, and in dissecting almost all of them. After this fine operation, they viewed them attentively, and smiled, as if they thought them the prettiest heads in the world. In vain did the heads send forth loud cries, they scarcely deign’d to make them any answer. I heard one begging back its nose, and remonstrating that it could not possibly appear in public without that piece. ‘My friend, head,’ replied the pygmy, ‘you are a fool. That nose, which you regret, disfigured you. It was long, long⁠—You never would have made your fortune with it. But since it has been curtail’d and pared, you are charming, and you will have many a spark after you.’