31 No greater mark of respect could be given to someone than to pluck out a hair. And when they kept it, it meant that the person whose hair was plucked was dear.
32 Only the king was rendered this honor, but over time his ministers pulled out all his hair in front.
33 No one in the market could barter or trade before the kiaouf or leader had taken what he wanted.
34 This means caliph in the native language.
35 Abdalles, the people near the zenith.
36 The Abdalles recognized only the Universal Being, whom they called Vilkonhis or Father of Light. We will see what they thought about religion in the second part.
37 Of ice.
38 Vizier.
39 Sealed letter. They only gave it to proclaim death. It was a leaf from a tree that was guarded at the house of the minister or kirzif and was the image of his power. It was kept in a huge pot behind a strong, iron gate whose key the king wore around his neck. When he wanted to get rid of someone he went to the chief minister, opened the gate, tore off a leaf and pressed it against his face—it kept the imprint forever.
40 The famous pit of Houzaïl is so deep that they never found the bottom. It seems that the author wanted to play with the gullibility of the people living around the pit who claim they descend from Motacoa and reel off the following tales.
41 The reader should pay attention here that the author says it took three days for the basket to reach the bottom of Houzaïl and later that it only took one day for Motacoa and Lodaï to come back. It is an important slip that cannot be understood.
42 Quicksilver or mercury.
43 The central fire.
44 The vegetal soul or spirits.
45 A league of 5,000 feet.
46 The author seems to be talking about gold.
47 The royal cave where once the King enters, he never leaves.
48 This is obviously an error in the French original. “Sinouis” should be changed to “Lamekis.” Whilst the overarching narrative is one being related by Lamekis to Sinouis established right at the beginning, the “we” being referred to here is Motacoa referring to himself, Lodai, Hildae and Boldeon. Earlier, on page 54, Motacoa acknowledges Lamekis as the recipient of his tale: “Imagine the impression those words had on me, Lamekis, finding out that I was…” And then, “my unjustly banished mother who was dearer to me than the fate that had torn me from her arms.” The latter phrase: “the fate that had torn me from her arms” is obviously a reference to the death of his mother, given that he and his mother spent many years underground with Lodaï. So if we assume, incorrectly, that Mouhy is simply, and without a line break or parentheses, switching over to the main narrative of Lamekis and Sinouis, the “we” of the sentences on page 57 contradict the fact that Motacoa’s mother (Hildae/Nasildae) has died by the time Lamekis comes into the care of Motacoa and Nasilae. (Ed.)
49 The color of rose.
50 Angels.
51 Mouhy at times waits for the second mention of something before he footnotes it. He also, at times, will repeat a footnote (such as defining a unit of measurement). This, for example, is the first mention of a zenghuis, but the explanation footnote is on page 63. We have obviously left these anomalies intact. (Ed.)
52 Sword.
53 It is in the middle region, next to the moon. Some claim that it is the cloud that follows it.
54 Scealgalis was an Egyptian. In his time he got such a great reputation as a judicial astrologer that he was regarded as divine. The cabal made him a god.
55 The name of an admirable man who, through his abstract and profound study, was able to remain like a man of the world. He will be spoken of below.
56 Mountain of fire or rather cloud composed of fumes from the ground that the slightest rustling fuels and sets on fire.
57 Lamekis seems to claim that the stars are all different worlds.
58 The sun.
59 A league.
60 Place where things brought from distant lands are purified of bad air.
61 A Phoenician philosopher who was convinced that the middle region was inhabited by aerial spirits. He tried so hard to get there that he finally succeeded by filling a bunch of bladders with dew, which lifted him to the solar meridian on the day of the equinox. He was the first to enter this region after being found worthy by Scealgalis who at first wanted to cast him down to Earth. He himself asked to be stripped of humanity, which was granted him along with a place at the edge of the island. A tree had been carried by the winds onto the Island of the Sylphs and it was agreed that he would keep it to put ships in, when columns of water carried them up into the clouds. He placed it in such a way that the sea had never since then been sucked up from the region without the uplifted ships crashing into the extraordinary tree. A Frenchman who recently came back from the Island of the Sylphs guaranteed that the tree had been removed.
62 The Egyptian wife of Lamekis.
63 The Inner Earth.
64 Sword.
65 The divinity worshipped in the center of the Earth in the form of a grotesquely huge worm.
66 The name given to all nations that differ from the people inside the Earth, which means foreigner or stranger in their language.
67 The plain where the High Council gathers.
68 Public tracking or hunt.
69 Years. They are counted by the people of the Inner Earth by the number of assemblies of the elders of Kin-zan-da-or, which are called every 225 days.
70 Great Hunter.
71 To leap and bound.
72 This only took place in the first century.
73 The tradition is recorded in bas-reliefs, as writing was not in use then, and this method was so ingenious and so cleverly accomplished that the most minor parts of a story were displayed.
74 High Priest of Ver-fund-ver-ne.
75 The day, hour and minute of the birth of the Princess of the Amphicleocles were announced in the kingdom with the decree that all the seraskiers, or judges, make a verbal inquiry to verify the births of all male infants born at the same time as the princess. The Council of Astronomers authorized the certificates, which were then sent to the court and deposited in the archives. The verification was made among the fathers and mothers of the children and when it conformed to the law the newborns were marked and at the expense of the city were taken away to the palace of Kaiocles.
76 The palace was the second temple. It was here that they brought the children born at the same time as the heir or heiress of the crown. Of course, if it was a prince, they brought only the girls.
77 At birth the prince or princess successor to the crown was brought to the temple of the Immortal, called Fulghane, where they were raised until they were of marrying age. The High Priestess was in charge of their education.
78 When the heir of the Kingdom of the Amphicleocles was 14 years old, the general assembly of states was convened in one of the temple rooms. The High Priestess led the prince there and declared him of age. After this ceremony she left and the prince was paraded into a secret room of the palace that was held only for him. Then an audience with the sovereign was requested where they told the reasons for their convocation and presented him with the Mourche-by, the act of cession of the High Priestess, whereby she stated that she handed the prince over to the assembly and swore by Fulghane that he had been purified and she had made him pure and without stain, which duty she asked to be relieved of according to custom. Then the king sent her away, since he was bound by law to trust the statements of the priestess and the assembly and he was forbidden by law to ever see or have any relation with his children.
79 In turning the Princess over to the assembly, the High Priestess swore by Fulghane that she was a virgin and old enough to give heirs to the state. On this day the King’s daughter was dressed in a white tunic of fine linen and on her breast wore a golden sun with rays the color of fire.
80 King’s chancellor. He had the privilege of the King’s ear and of carrying out his orders, but his most important role
was as messenger between the King and his children.
81 A simple priestess chosen by the general assembly as the princess’ governess until she got married, who then changed her title to first lady-in-waiting after the marriage. Gregory of Tours, in his observations on this, wisely said that this kind of assistant, coming from this organization, was a political maneuver of the religious ministers to know all about what happened in the heart of the state and to protect the holy power in case the sovereign authority saw things too clearly and encroached upon its privileges.
82 Public criers whose express duty was to announce the hour because clocks were not in use in this kingdom. The Amphicleocles divided the night into 24 parts between sunset and sunrise using a fountain whose basin was large enough that it took exactly one half hour to fill it. When the water reached the edge, they watched for the first drop to fall and then turned a key that emptied it in one minute flat. The Bouch-chouk-chou on duty at the fountain sounded the hour at this instant with a kind of horn that was heard by the others placed at suitable distances so that at the same moment the entire city was told what time it was.
83 These people were convinced that the atoms that we breathe were so many pure or impure spirits depending on whether they did good or evil. There was even a belief among them that when the impure spirits were chased away by the good spirits, they suddenly died and were transformed into hideous, always inauspicious reptiles. Their theology taught them to protect themselves against this awful misfortune by pronouncing three mysterious words that they typically called the Great Prayer.
84 A statue or representation of a monstrous man from whom they claimed emanated the principle of all things and whom they worshipped under the name Fulghane.
85 It was forbidden for any of the King’s subjects, no matter what their rank, to scratch or knock on the doors of rooms where the king was present. There was a hole lower down to blow through to ask for entry. Behind the door stood a deaf, mute dwarf who acted as doorkeeper and whose job was to keep his ear glued to the opening waiting for the breath of air.
86 The name of all the princesses of the Amphicleocles, which means, in their language, heiress of the empire. Nasilaë, the name of this one, was given to her according to custom when she entered the temple.
87 The laying on of the Kings’ hands was the greatest of their favors.
88 The Law of Kaiocles said that the ruler’s last child was the heir apparent. The state acknowledged only the first three as the King’s children when the Queen, their mother, had been chosen in the temple of Kaiocles. So, with the third birth she was shut up by one of the priestesses of Fulghane and no longer lived with the King. If the Queen was the daughter of said King, she had the privilege of renouncing her husband after the birth of a prince or princess, but when this happened she could not marry again. If the Queen happened to die after rejecting the King, the High Priestess played the important role of regent after the death of the Queen until the general assembly in the Council of Seven (spoken of below) chose who would govern and succeed to the eminent dignity of ruler of the Amphicleocles.
89 The King’s saliva was highly venerated among these people who claimed that when they had the honor of being moistened on the forehead not only were they ennobled, but also impure spirits dared not approached them. When the heir or heiress of the crown went to the temple of Kaiocles, it was their saliva that designated their spouse, but this valuable grace was given only after a general examination of the suitors, which ceremony was described by the learned Scaliger in his treatise on these antiquities. When the princess Cleannes entered the temple of Kaiocles, the doors were barricaded. They blindfolded her and led her into the royal hall. When she was sitting on the throne that was prepared for her, a priestess removed the blindfold. The steps forming a semi-circle around the throne were full of all the predestined males dressed only in their natural graces. If Cleannes made a decision on first sight, the assembly was broken up and the spouse was announced at that very instant to the people. But if the Princess happened to appear uncertain, she had as many days to chose her husband as there were suitors. The wise Heinsius, who commented on this, added that the heir or heiress of the Amphicleocles had to pass one day with those wishing to marry in order to examine the character and countenance of each. The same scholar informs us that the children shut up in the temple of Kaiocles were called Kails and each of them were kept in a cell under lock and key, since it was forbidden by law for them to have any communication with one another. It was in one of these cells that the prince or princess made the examination. Strabo, moreover, observes that there was a secret peephole in each of these cells through which a priestess watched what happened with the two people. If a Kail happened to be chosen, the prince or princess had to stick to the choice that love favored. Abbé Aubignac in his research on the ancients claimed that this happened three times over three centuries and that the people of the kingdom noticed there was never a happier reign. The famous De Thou, who expanded on this more than any other scholar, tells the story of a prince named Heliobol who spent 22 days in the temple of Kaiocles for his examination. The following year 17 successors were born, which started a very fierce war 15 years later on the death of the King, their father, over which of these children should get the throne. The High Priestess pronounced an oracle on these divisions whereby all the rivals were excluded and she became regent until the general assembly could convene and elect a new king.
90 Tradition had it that one day the people were gathered in the temple of Fulghane to pray for his mercy because of a widespread sterility brought on by a famine. The god’s statue turned its back on the people, trembled and cried out. The people were dismayed at this frightful omen, threw themselves on the ground and shouted even more loudly. Their fear increased when lightning struck the roof and brought it down, exposing the inflamed sky. A voice boomed forth, “You will not always be powerful, Fulghane. Your altars will be destroyed when a princess looks upon her father and gets from him my name and my laws.” After these words a divine music sang, “Praise be the airs, a princess will triumph over Fulghane, overthrow his altars and ministers, be taken away from his blasphemous subjects and in the center of the earth she will find a faithful man who will restore the true worship and bury the bones of his father and his king and return to the kingdom to build a temple for Vilkonhis.
91 In the few fragments of the history of Lindiagar that have been preserved by the ancients, we read that coming back from the hunt one day, a venerable old man appeared to him and made a sign for him to follow. When the king obeyed, the specter covered his eyes with his hand and asked him if he saw clearly. The prince answered no and the old man said, “Well, Lindiagar, the same cloud that covers you now obscures the eyes of your mind. There is only one being who should be worshipped. Kneel down at his feet and recognize the great Vilkonhis. Come back here tomorrow at the same time and you will receive his laws and learn that a princess of his blood will build a temple for the being of the airs. The Historian of the time said nothing more. Apparently the Lindiagar followed the old man’s orders.
92 History does not tell us the origin of this council, which proves how old it must be. What is certain is that it had immense power. It alone had the right to call the general assembly of states, to set the agenda and resolve the most important matters. It had the right to declare war or peace and to reign under the high priestess during an interregnum. Its members were the elders of the kingdom. When a seat was vacant, the council had no authority until it was filled. To be admitted, a person had to have lived four generations, be sullied by no passion and to have rendered four important services to the state.
93 The Council never gathered except in the direst emergencies of the state.
94 An effigy of the King that the Karveder wore around his neck. It was used as the seal of the King’s orders to his subjects and they had such high respect for this sign that when it was presented before them they closed their eyes as if they were unworthy to loo
k upon the sacred effigy.
95 A finger in the mouth was still a sign of respect. A learned English commentator has given a good reason for this: he claims that the fear of suffocating by holding your breath for so long produced this respectful stratagem because you can breathe like this without being noticed.
96 This book was 18 feet long and 12 feet wide and was filled only with periods and commas, but it was the way these characters were arranged that gave them meaning. All the laws were written in this great tome, which was only opened in the direst emergencies of the state.
97 When the ruler of the Amphicleocles allowed one of his subjects to breathe, it was to command him to die. The people were raised in such submission that when the word “Ookhilgrhouk” was repeated three times, the one it was addressed to went home, covered his head with his shirt (a sign of banishment), gave the mark of superiority (the thumb of the left hand, which he cut off himself) to the head of the family and then went to the temple of Fulghane with the closest of his family who considered it an honor to die with the outcast. When the victim of this superstition had shown his mutilated hand to the priestesses, they sang a hymn in honor of the god, bound the guilty one’s head with a fire-red bandage and then hanged him by his arms in front of the statue. The lucky ones had the sweet consolation of dying before the idol that they imagined was possessed by the god. This death was not considered dishonorable by the Amphicleocles, but quite the opposite, as Strabo confirms, it was sought for as a reward for services rendered. However, Abbé Aubignac contradicts this, saying that there was a minister named Koïl in the reign of Taphaik who asked the King for the favor of dying in the temple of Fulghane, but that he died of old age and not of hunger there because the priestesses took special care of him.
98 In this kingdom the youngest were the oldest and enjoyed all the rights of being such.
99 The King’s slipper. When he took it off his left foot, it was a sign that they had to carry him to the temple.
100 The Greek here must not have been understood because the oldest were bestowed with the most menial tasks and Cyrano says that the honor of carrying the standard was conferred only on the youngest priestesses, i.e. the oldest according to the customs of the realm.
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