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Introduction.
ix.

not produce funnier English. “He burns one’s self the brains,” “He was fighted in duel,” “They fight one's selfs together,” “He do want to fall,” would be more intelligible if less picturesque in their original form of “Il se brûle la cervelle,” “Il s'est battu en duel," “Ils se battent ensemble,” “Il manque de tomber.” The comic vein running through the “Familiar Phrases” is so inexhaustible that space forbids further quotation from this portion of the book, which may be appropriately closed with “Help to a little most the better yours terms,” a mysterious adjuration, which a reference to the original Portuguese leads one to suppose may be a daring guess at “Choisissez un peu mieux vos paroles.

In the second part, entitled “Familiar Dialogues,” the fun grows fast and furious. Let

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