Laputans are certainly strange-looking people. Their heads always turn either to right or left: one of their eyes turns inwards, the other upwards. Their main interests are music and mathematics. They spend so much time thinking about mathematical problems that they do not notice what is happening around them. In fact, rich Laputans employ a servant whose job is to follow his master everywhere. The servant warns him if he is going to step into a hole, and reminds him to reply if someone speaks to him I was taken to see the King, but had to wait for at least an hour while he struggled with a difficult mathematical question. However, when he had finished he spoke politely to me, and ordered his servants to show me to a room. For dinner they gave me three kinds of meat a square of beef, D a triangle of chicken and a circle of lamb. Even the bread was cut into mathematical shapes. In the evening a teacher arrived to help me learn the language, and in a few days l was able to make conversation with the island people Laputa is a circle of land, about eight kilometres across covered with houses and other buildings. It is moved by a simple machine which uses magnets to pull the island closer to land or push it higher into the sky. The island always moves slowly. can only fly over the country called Balnibarbi, which belongs to the King of Laputa It is difficult talking to Laputans, as they have little interest in anything except music and mathematics. They are, however, very worried about the future of the earth the sun, and the stars, and they often discuss this. I heard a