'Now I understand the word Windhandel in a new way,' was all that he could come up with. 'This is real,' he said, slapping a barrel-head, 'and this' (stomping the deck of God's Wounds ) 'is real, and these' (lofting a double handful of cowrie shells) 'are real, and all of them every bit as real, now, as they were, ten minutes ago, or before this rumor arrived from the Maldives and the Laccadives . . .'