by Jerry
Of course it was difficult to judge from the pictures, because we could establish no certain standard of measurement; since everything pictured was strange to us. In fact we had no way of arriving at the actual size of anything, until we found one or two objects that were pictured the same as we now saw them in the museum. (By common consent we were calling this place a museum, for want of a more expressive name).
The furniture here—the chairs, tables and so forth—seemed to be about earthly size; and the books, implements and the like seemed to indicate that these people had about the same spread of hand as we have.
We had been some hours submerged—for submerged we literally were in this sea of strangeness—when we noticed that there were several hands in various places, all pointing in one direction. At first we paid little attention to this, thinking it might indicate an exit, or the custodian’s office, or some like convenience.
At length, after noticing quite a number of them, we decided to follow up and see what was meant. We found that they led back to the book department and here, in the book department, was another hand that pointed to a little table in a corner. On this was a glass case, very carefully sealed, and containing three small roll books. The case seemed to have no door or opening of any kind, and the material was so tough that it was with the greatest difficulty we were able to break it. We pounced eagerly upon the books, and it only took a moment to discover what the first one was. It was unmistakably a primer and key to the; language.
Here was positive proof that things had been arranged for our benefit; that is to say, for whoever might find these things, and who would naturally want to be able to read their language. The first pages were devoted to what we at once recognized as their alphabet.
There was a picture of the organs of speech—lips, tongue and teeth, etc.—showing how the sounds were produced; and under it the character representing the sound. If the tongue and lips assumed more than one position, as in bur letter B, all the positions were faithfully indicated. I had never realized until that moment, what a purely mechanical process talking is. Here were 28 characters, representing as many sounds, and full instructions how to speak each one. Practically all the sounds of which the human voice is capable seemed to be represented, for neither of us was able to produce a syllable that was not depicted.
The next few pages were devoted to names and pictures of familiar objects; supposedly familiar, but alas! few of them were familiar to our eyes. It was, however, interesting to know what they called the strange objects shown.
Here was the situation in a nutshell. These people had foreseen, or at least recognized the danger of their extinction; and had made these elaborate preparations in order that the progress made by their civilization might not be wholly lost. We could not help thinking how narrowly it had escaped being lost, even at that; and we thought how marvelous it was that we should be the favored ones to find these results of such prodigious labors.
But if they had been to such pains to reach us, it was evident that we must now reciprocate, and expend a great deal of labor in order to profit fully by their gift.
By this time we were in need of supplies and proper rest, and we deemed it best to take these few books back to the mole, where we could have leisure to study them, and opportunity to use a phone.
Needless to say, we were fairly bursting with eagerness, if I may use a common idiom, to “tell the world” of our success. Safely back to the mole once more, we decided that we must establish better communication with the museum, and also get some help to carry on. We were resolved that nothing should be removed till all had been inspected and tabulated. Mr. Kingston thought it might be possible to reconstruct the room with all its contents, just as we found them.
We asked Mr. Thomas, camp superintendent, to procure a quantity of lumber with which to build hanging walks and ladders; and to engage a gang of riggers and carpenters to send down. We also asked him to send a photographer with a large supply of films and flashes.
Then we wired to the various institutions that were interested in the expedition, asking them to send us language experts, archeologists, and whatever research workers were available. Mr. Thomas came down to take charge of our rigging work, leaving the camp in care of an assistant, and bringing with him the photographer, who was an athletic young man, and who had no difficulty in getting down to the museum and taking some pictures.
After showing the superintendent what needed to be done, we went up to camp, and set up a primary school. There were but two pupils, both for the first grade work; and it was their first concern to learn the alphabet, and perhaps how to read a few numbers.
Pending the arrival of more help, we gave our entire attention to this work; working all day, and only snatching time for meals and necessary exercise. The alphabet was very simple as compared with ours, and very little skill was required in forming the characters. We found there were only four characters; or to be more precise, one character with three variations of form. These in various positions represented, as I have said, 28 sounds.
The forms and positions were represented in this manner:
It will be seen from the lower figure that the position was horizontal, perpendicular, at an angle of 45°, there being therefore eight primary positions as the spokes of a wheel.
Written in line, they appeared as shown above: We first learned to spell a word that indicated a hand,—finally by the end of the fourth day, we were reading aloud to each other, with very improper accent no doubt, such simple exercises as, “The man took a drink of water,” or “I want to go home.”
CHAPTER VI
The History of Vallenna
OF course we were frightfully handicapped by not having an inter-language dictionary. We were obliged to refer so constantly to the illustrations that we had little opportunity for other study; and in a great many cases, these illustrations meant very little to us when we did find them; owing to the fact that the objects themselves were new and strange to us. We found that their numerals also were of a very simple design, and that their methods of computation were not greatly unlike ours; and we quite readily learned to read and write numbers.
The last sentence in the primer said: “This is the world of a hundred men; we call it Vallenna.” And so, for purposes of this report, and perhaps forever, it shall continue to be called Vallenna.
By the time we had finished the first book, and had its lessons fairly well in hand, experts and assistants began to arrive; and we were obliged to enlarge our school. We now had to divide our time between teaching what we already knew, and delving deeper into more advanced knowledge. Whenever there was a new arrival, one of us would play host and guide, and take him down to the museum, in case he was athletic and adventurous enough to make the trip. Seeing things at first hand in this manner served to convince one of the importance of the work, and whet his interest to a keen edge. The trips also afforded opportunities to bring up more advanced books or pictures, and occasionally some other small object that we thought might help us in our studies. We reasoned that it was of little use to allow any of our assistants to attempt any research work in the museum until they were fairly conversant with the language; except that we encouraged electricians and mechanical experts to inspect the place, to see if they could discover any signs of electrical devices, or other scientific appliances, or any substitute for these.
Although it was self-evident that there must have been some facilities for illuminating this vast subterranean place; yet, up to the time of writing this report, we have not discovered any such devices.
Meanwhile the work of constructing ladders and walks was progressing quite rapidly. By the end of the fourth week, our camp had grown to a little colony; and our progress was such that we felt sufficiently equipped to take up the Vallennian’s history. The text books told us that a set of volumes had been prepared for us, and deposited in an especially safe place.
Following the directions, we secured the first volumes, and started to translat
e them into English. We divided our forces into pairs, each couple taking a chapter and giving their entire attention to it. And here began to unroll a tale such as no man ever read before; and one that I believe will remain unique for all time.
Like that of our own race, their early history consisted largely of folk-lore and mythology; but their oldest authentic writings were dated six hundred and sixty thousand years before the opening of the ice age. I mention the ice age, because it is very plainly indicated on their astronomical photographs; and this date, in connection with two or three others that I plan to discuss later, were the mile-stones which enabled us to arrive at their method of computing time. Their history went back so far, indicating a career of such unbelievable duration, that we were very reluctant to accept it. But after several students had made the translation and separately computed the time in our years, we were compelled to consider it authentic. For about the first two hundred thousand years, there is just here and there a date at widely separated intervals; but about four hundred thousand years ago, the history becomes quite consecutive, and, with the exception of a couple of short gaps, is continuous. Therefore, in this necessarily brief account, I cannot do more than touch on the more important happenings.
Perhaps the first thing that particularly interested us, was that at about the time of our third glacial period (third from the last), they invented telescopic photography; and at periods, roughly speaking, fifty years apart, their path in space had brought them near enough to the earth to take pictures. Reprints of a great many of these photographs were found to be on file, in a fairly good state of preservation. In fact, there was a continuous series of pictures, continuing down to approximately 5000 B.C. of own era. These photographs, besides being of great value in helping to understand their history, will shed a great deal of light on the various geological changes that have taken place here on earth.
So their history progresses, century after century, dealing largely with their changes of government and the evolution of their religion; with, here and there, a biography of someone of outstanding ability.
Their religion, in the beginning, was very primitive; and consisted of superstitions about various natural phenomena. But it finally developed into what seemed to have been a very enlightened and advanced form of worship.
Several times they were nearly wiped out by famine or other disaster; and for a great many thousand years their progress was seriously retarded and hampered by over-population. I will return to this phase of their lives later.
They developed early a very complete knowledge of astronomy, and apparently had telescopes and photographing facilities a great many thousand years ago, that were equal to or better than our best at the present time. And it is largely because of their knowledge and use of these things that we have any detailed information of their lives today.
One Hundred Men
WE are told that this little planet had a diameter of 5360 feet at the equator; scarcely more than a mile. Through the poles it appears to have been about a hundred feet less. The poles pointed approximately to the same point in the heavens that the earth’s poles do. This caused an inclination of the plane of their orbit of about 21½ degrees. Their orbit around the sun being a great deal larger than ours, they made the journey in about 9½ years of our time, and the planet revolved on its axis in seven and a quarter hours. In a general way, their surface was composed of hills and valleys as ours is, but they were of course so small as to make very little difference of temperature. However, the poles of Vallenna were very cold, and the equatorial regions very hot.
There was a miniature ocean, covering nearly half of the surface, the main body covering most of one side; and broad arms meeting each other along the equator, somewhat resembling a shallow basket with a wide handle. This handle divided the land into about two equal continents, known as Mall and Yemp. They called the water area The Gult. In some places the Gult attained a depth of 120 feet, and it contained four or five small islands.
So they had a little less than a thousand acres of ground, the major portion of which was covered with the rich black soil that Mr. Kingston had discovered in his laboratory work. A great deal of this soil had no doubt been moved from one place to another, in order to fertilize districts that had originally been barren.
During the long summer, which extended over four and a half of our years, most of the land received enough of the sun’s rays to produce crops, but the polar regions were too cold to produce vegetable growth. In fact they were covered with snow and ice.
These long seasons enabled the Vallennians to literally transport their farms from a winter to a summer climate. When winter approached in the northern hemisphere, they gathered up their topsoil with the help of huge power scoops, and loaded it on barges and shipped it over to the southern hemisphere, where it was springtime, and set it to work anew.
We know nothing definite as to the origin of these people, but at the time of their first mentioned census, there were some sixty of all ages. These gradually increased for a long period of years, several centuries in fact, until there were nearly two hundred; which was a great many more than it was possible to provide with an adequate supply of food. There followed a long, long period of poverty and want, when every effort was put forth to produce more food.
During these centuries the inhabitants deteriorated, both mentally and physically; and dates of historical interest were few and far between.
In these days of desperate effort to survive, many of their arts and inventions were lost, either wholly or in part. Then came a great pestilence, and a merciful Providence wiped out all but about fifty.
This was, I suppose, a case of the survival of the fittest; and no doubt left a strong and superior stock. These, relieved of the necessity for intensive cultivation, and with proper nourishment, and leisure for development, took up anew the arts and sciences. They recovered some that were lost, and developed others that were new. They dug into the hills, and discovered new mines. They invented new machines, and in a general way advanced what we call civilization. This went on apace for a few centuries, until over-population again stared them in the face.
And so it went on; history repeating itself through many cycles, until finally there arose a great man—one Yambold—who became and ever remained the world hero of Vallenna. This man conceived the idea of compulsory population control; and his courage and force of character were so great that in the face of all religious and superstitious prejudice, he set to work to frame legislation and iron-clad rules to arrest the growth of population.
It happened that at that time there were about 100 people on Vallenna, and Yambold proclaimed the slogan of “The World of a Hundred Men.” He was successful in convincing a majority of the people that herein was their emancipation from poverty and periodic famine. And The World of a Hundred Men it became, and remained from that remote time to the end of their history.
In the ages that followed the life of Yambold, there were a number of discoveries that were of great benefit to agriculture. Species of fruits and vegetables were enlarged and improved, by methods not unlike those of our late Mr. Burbank. New deposits of chemical fertilizer were discovered in the ground, and a method of taking nitrogen from the air was perfected. All this, together with the construction of large green-houses, so increased the production possibilities that the population quota could be safely raised. So it was decided that thereafter only the males should be counted as a basis for making up the quota at the beginning of each period; and the slogan of a hundred men came to mean not a hundred people, but a hundred males.
The Vallennians very early became acquainted with the use of various metals, and carried on extensive mining operations. Gradually they improved their methods and machinery, and drove their shafts deeper and deeper, until finally, in one of their deepest mines, they came in contact with a huge mass of metal. This metal was very heavy, and harder by far than anything as yet discovered.
They proceeded to take out large quan
tities of this metal, and found it very useful. Now, long after, the same metal was found at the bottom of another very deep mine, and as time passed it was found that whenever a shaft was sunk to a great depth, the same solid mass was encountered.
Investigation revealed that the several points of encountering the metal were at practically a uniform distance from the surface. Hence it was concluded that there was probably an immense deposit of it, constituting the whole interior of Vallenna; or as we would say, the earth. This thought was, on the whole, rather encouraging; for by this time they were using the metal so extensively that it formed the backbone of their industry.
As their scientific researches became more advanced, they decided to try to learn what it was that attracted the magnetic needle in their compass. For there, the same as here on earth, there seemed to be something some distance from the north pole that governed the direction of the needle. Having located the spot on the surface as closely as possible, they set to work, at great labor and expense, to sink a huge shaft.
Here, the same as elsewhere, they came upon the metal deposit; but a little nearer to the surface than in the mines closer to the equator. They found that this metal, although differing only slightly from the other in composition, was about 91% iron and 9% nickel. It was very highly magnetized; in fact more so than if treated by the most advanced methods for artificial magnetizing.
Branch shafts and tunnels revealed the fact that there was quite a large area affected, that is magnetized, perhaps a couple of acres.
CHAPTER VII
A Daring Project
NOT many years after this, it was decided that the government should assist scientists in an attempt to ascertain the size and shape of the great core; and it was decreed that all removal of metal should be placed under government supervision; and that each mine should follow along the surface, taking out a groove in the metal, of uniform depth and width. No metal was to be taken out in any other way.