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SUMMARY
The author finds the Luggnaggians to be a polite and generous people. Here, the author does not fail to mention the peculiar Eastern pride that he senses in the people of this kingdom. Further, he provides a brief account of struldbrugs or immortals who are born in this kingdom only. The author is much thrilled and wishes he were a struldbrug so that he could enjoy witnessing the making of history and could learn various arts. The author imagines he could be a living treasure of knowledge and wisdom if he were born as a struldbrug. He also decides to advise the king to keep some struldbrugs in his court to gain enormous benefits from their wisdom and knowledge. Very soon, he is disillusioned, as he is informed in detail about the miserable lives of the struldbrugs, who after a certain age, begin to lose their physical and mental strength. They are considered as dead in law when they reach the age of eighty years, at ninety they lose their teeth and hair. After two hundred years, they can no more converse with their neighbours, the mortals, as the language has changed beyond their comprehension. They merely live like beggars as they are nothing but loathsome bags of burden. Hence, their birth is seen as an ominous occasion. The author who earlier wanted to be a struldbrug now thanks the Almighty for making him a mortal.