Page:"The Mummy" Volume 3.djvu/237

 "My what nerves?" asked Hans.

"Your olfactory nerves," replied the learned cottager, with a look of the greatest possible contempt: "that is, the nerves that line the membrane of the nasal organ. Every child knows that the nasal fossæ are formed to receive sensations, as by their depth and extent a larger surface is given to the pituitary membrane, and these soft sinuses, or cavities, are enabled to retain a greater mass of air loaded with odoriferous matter."

Poor Hans stood aghast at this explanation, which he found something like that said to be given by Dr. Johnson, when he called net-work a complicated concatenation of rectangular angles; and afraid to speak, lest he should draw upon himself a new volley of words as astounding as the last, he remained silent, staring at his companions with much the same kind of feeling as that with which a wild man of the woods just caught, might be supposed to gaze upon enlightened Europeans.

"Can you give me some more warm milk?" asked Clara, who now descended in search of refreshments for the Queen.