CHAPTER XXXI.
_A litigated contention between Don Quixote, Gog, Magog, &c .-- A grand court assembled upon it--The appearance of the company--The matrons, judges, &c .-- The method of writing, and the use of the fashionable amusement quizzes--Wauwau arrives from the country of Prester John, and leads the whole Assembly a wild-goose chase to the top of Plinlimmon, and thence to Virginia--The Baron meets a floating island in his voyage to America--Pursues Wauwau with his whole company through the deserts of North America--His curious contrivance to seize Wauwau in a morass._ The contention between Gog and Magog, and Sphinx, Hilaro Frosticos, the Lord Whittington, &c., was productive of infinite litigation.

All the lawyers in the kingdom were employed, to render the affair as complex and gloriously uncertain as possible; and, in fine, the whole nation became interested, and were divided on both sides of the question.
Colossus took the part of Sphinx, and the affair was at length submitted to the decision of a grand council in a great hall, adorned with seats on every side in form of an amphitheatre.

The assembly appeared the most magnificent and splendid in the world.

A court or jury of one hundred matrons occupied the principal and most honourable part of the amphitheatre; they were dressed in flowing robes of sky-blue velvet adorned with festoons of brilliants and diamond stars; grave and sedate-looking matrons, all in uniform, with spectacles upon their noses; and opposite to these were placed one hundred judges, with curly white wigs flowing down on each side of them to their very feet, so that Solomon in all his glory was not so wise in appearance.

At the ardent request of the whole empire I condescended to be the president of the court, and being arrayed accordingly, I took my seat beneath a canopy erected in the centre.