There were many candlesticks on the supper table, but to his disappointment and indignation their candles seemed to have been all left to burn out, and some of them, indeed, he found still hot in the neck.
Presently, one after another, he came upon seven men fast asleep, most of them upon tables, one in a chair, and one on the floor.

They seemed, from their shape and colour, to have eaten and drunk so much that they might be burned alive without wakening.

He grasped the hand of each in succession, and found two ox hoofs, three pig hoofs, one concerning which he could not be sure whether it was the hoof of a donkey or a pony, and one dog's paw.

'A nice set of people to be about a king!' thought Curdie to himself, and turned again to his candle hunt.

He did at last find two or three little pieces, and stowed them away in his pockets.