I kept my eyes
fixed upon them, and repeated at intervals, 'What strange marks!'--
for I thought that looking upon the marks tended to abate the whirl
in my head: I kept tracing the marks one after the other, and I
observed that though they all bore a general resemblance to each
other, they were all to a certain extent different. The smallest
portion possible of curious interest had been awakened within me,
and, at last, I asked myself, within my own mind, 'What motive
could induce people to put such odd marks on their crockery? they
were not pictures, they were not letters; what motive could people
have for putting them there?' At last I removed my eyes from the
teapot, and thought for a few moments about the marks; presently,
however, I felt the whirl returning; the marks became almost
effaced from my mind, and I was beginning to revert to my miserable
ruminations, when suddenly methought I heard a voice say, 'The
marks! the marks! cling to the marks? or--' So I fixed my eyes
again upon the marks, inspecting them more attentively, if
possible, than I had done before, and, at last, I came to the
conclusion that they were not capricious or fanciful marks, but
were arranged systematically; when I had gazed at them for a
considerable time, I turned the teapot round, and on the other side
I observed marks of a similar kind, which I soon discovered were
identical with the ones I had been observing.
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