106 THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS.

left the town without la»ing out so much as one farthing upon these vanities.“* This
fair, therefore, is an ancient thing of long-standing, and a very great fair.

‘Now, these pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through this fair. Well, so they did;
but, behold, even as they entered into the fair, all the people in the fair were moved
and the town itself, as it were, in a hubbub about them, and that for several reasons;
for,

First,—The pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was diverse from
the raiment of any that traded in that fair. The people, therefore, of the fair, made a
great gazing upon them: some said they were fools; some, they were bedlams; and
some, they were outlandish men.™

Secondly,—And, as they wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise at their
speech ; for few could understand what they said. They naturally spoke the language
of Canaan; but they that kept the fair were the men of this world. So that from one
ond of the fair to the other, they seemed barbarians each to the other.

Thirdly,—But that which did not a little amuse the merchandisers was, that these
pilgrims set very light by all their wares. They cared not so much as to look upon
them ; and if they called upon them to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears,
and look upwards, signify-

and ery, ‘Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,”

ing that their trade and traffic were in heaven.

One chanced, mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say unto them,
“What will you buy?” But they, looking gravely upon him, said, “ We buy the
truth.” At that there was an occasion taken to despise the men the more: some
mocking, some taunting, some speaking reproachfully, and some calling on others to
smite them. At last things came to a hubbub and great stir in the fair, insomuch
that all order was confounded. Now was word presently brought to the great one of
the fair, who quickly came down, and deputed some of his most trusty friends to take
these men into examination about whom the fair was almost overturned. So the men
were brought to examination; and they that sat upon them asked them whence they
came, whither they went, and what they did there in such an unusual garb. The men
told them that they were pilgrims and strangers in the world, and that they were going
to their own country, which was the heavenly Jerusalem,“* and that they had given
no occasion to the men of the town, nor yet to the merchandisers, thus to abuse them,
and to let them in their journey, except it was for that, when one asked them what
they would buy, they said they would buy the truth. But they that were appointed
to examine them did not believe them to be any other than bedlams and mad, or else
such as came to put all things into a confusion in the fair. Therefore they took them