Voyage to the Center of the Earth

by Jacques Collin de Plancy

  “In more recent times, little men have been seen who lived hidden in woods, where they were mistaken for satyrs. Some have been found in countries near the pole that were, it is said, a foot and a half tall; they were given the name of mountain demons, or guardians of mines, but no one is enlightened on their account, because no one dared approach them.

  “Cabalists have made those same dwarfs the beings of short stature that they call gnomes. Saint Anthony encountered one in his desert, with whom he conversed; and what is more, Leloyer24 says somewhere that in the north one day, two little men were found: ‘or rather two satyrs, who, after having learned the language of the region, said they were from an antipodean land where the sun does not shine’…etc.

  “It is therefore reasonable to believe that these pygmies, these demons of mines, these gnomes of the Cabala, are nothing other than a few little Felinois, who have arrived in our world expecting to go to Heaven, and who have advanced into its lands when they did not die on the way.”

  These arguments on Clairancy’s part gave us a great satisfaction. We embraced one another with a keen effusion of joy, and saluted the southern pole from afar. After that, Edward asked a Felinois whether it was a long time since anyone had been seen to rise into the sky.

  “It has been ten years,” the little man replied, “because people began to weary of it, and to become somewhat incredulous. This year, however, we have, a devotee who wants to quit the earth, and as the feast of Burma is in twenty days, you’ll be able to see him fly away. I’ve witness the fête here times since I came into the world, and I’ve seen eight Felinois quit the earth for the sky, without being tempted to follow them so soon. But I like to consider the efforts of my compatriots to go there; the spectacle gives me pious thoughts.”

  “And do the priests go into the sky like some of your compatriots?” I asked the little man.

  “No,” he replied. “That is forbidden to them by one of the great pontiff’s laws.”

  We had more than sixty leagues to travel to reach the polar mountain; we left immediately, in order to arrive there before the feast of Burma and alert the priests to our design, so that they would have time to fabricate our bonnets.

  After a week’s march, we arrived at the foot of the magnetic mountain, where the principal college of Felinois priests lived in the bosom of opulence in a great and magnificent castle. We made them party to our resolution, and immediately, without seeking to know what religion was ours, or whether we were prepared in a saintly fashion for the great voyage, or what our way of life was, they only asked us whether we could pay for the sacred bonnets.

  “Yes, if the price isn’t excessive,” Clairancy replied. “Also, think what a good and religious example we will be giving to your people, and that we ought to be treated as poor strangers...”

  “I know all that, replied the chief priest, “so we’ll only ask you for a hundred pieces of gold for each bonnet.”

  Those coins were worth about five francs of our money, which made each coiffure about five hundred francs.

  “We’ll pay you what you ask now,” Edward replied, “since we have enough for that. But make our bonnets solid. Remember that we weigh ten times as much as the people of the land.

  The priest, satisfied with the manner of speech that Edward had adopted, summoned a young worker, who took measurements of our heads, and we were promised that the bonnets would be made, and solidly, for the day of the great feast. We paid in advance, as we had offered to do, and the news was published that five giants, inflamed with the desire to see the abode of Burma, would quit the earth a few days hence.

  That news attracted to the mountain an innumerable crowd of Felinois, curious to see us take flight. Several good people came to visit us, and asked us whether we believed in Burma. As we did not want to deceive anyone, we replied that we had a religion different from all those of the small globe, and that we were going to leave it in order to return to our homeland.

  Then the Felinois, who had heard it said that we came from an unknown and very distant land, imagined that we had descended from the sky in order to examine their conduct, that we had a celestial origin, and that we were surely neither human nor mortal. That opinion soon spread through the crowd; there was talk of worshiping us...

  Far from thinking that what they called the sky was only a habitable earth like theirs, from which we originated, they believed more than ever that the sky from which we had descended really was Heaven, and that we were divine beings. So a few days after the first news of our imminent departure, when we went out into the country, we were amazed to see the people kneeling before us, asking us for blessings, graces, a long life, a great fortune, and all that materialistic people are wont to desire.

  We made every effort to persuade the good people that they were mistaken; that we were only fragile humans like them; that what they believed to be Heaven was only another earth, where everyone died, as among them, but we could not extract them from their extravagant prejudice.

  On the other hand, the priests of the mountain sent word to us that they would not permit us to put on the sacred bonnets and quit the small globe if we sowed any more impiety among the people; and to obviate further attempts scandalous in their eyes, they invited us, rather imperiously, to come and spend the remaining time we had to live down below in their house, in order to sanctify us.

  At the same time, they spread the word that we were veritable envoys from Heaven, but that we did not want to be recognized as such, because Burma had not permitted us to accord graces; that furthermore, although we were discontented with the other peoples of the small globe, we had a good account to render of the Felinois, etc.

  The ardent desire that we had to see our native soil again caused us to endure all these impostures in silence, and we remained with the priests until the day of the feast of Burma.

  In the meantime, we wanted to see the two sacred animals, which people came to the temple on the mountain to honor. Although they were not supposed to appear to profane eyes until the day of the festival, we obtained permission, in exchange for a few gold coins, to visit them before our departure.

  We were taken first to the palace of the sacred elephant. The people had given it that name, believing it to be immortal and descended directly from Burma’s paradise because it resembled no other elephant on the small globe. It was very beautiful, sky blue in color, which is as rare among the little people as in the sublunar world; but we soon realized that its color was artificial, and that it had been carefully painted. As the people did not see it often, it could easily be replaced when it grew old, and the priests took care to maintain its color.

  The elephants of the subterranean globe are always white or dark puce. Their conformation does not differ much from our ordinary elephants, with the exception of the ears, which are slightly upturned, and the tail, which is more proportionate to their size.

  I forgot to say that the Felinois near the pole are lightly tanned, and that their hair is generally brown and very curly.

  After visiting the celestial elephant we were taken to see the “crowned bird,” which we called an eagle because it bore some resemblance to the eagles of our world. Birds of that kind were frequently encountered in Felinois territory, and infinitely respected. They are about the size of a chicken; their form is identical to that of an eagle, but they have more magnificent plumage. Their neck is surrounded by fire-colored feathers; the rest of their plumage is crimson, with the exception of the tail, which is golden yellow. The one that was about to be worshiped was distinguished from other birds of its species by a crown of diamonds, which the priests had fastened cleverly to its head, and which the people believed to be as natural as the beautiful bird’s other ornaments.

  When we had studied it we were able to compare it with the phoenix. It is, in fact, such as ancient historians depict that solitary being, which is now said to be fabulous. It is the same with Chinese sunbird of which Père Martini25 speaks. What confirmed us in that i
dea is that the Felinois eagle has both sexes and lives without society. We were also assured that it could fly all the way to the sky. I will even dare to suggest that it can rise up to our globe...

  XXXIV. Magnetic bonnets.

  The magnetic vapors of the austral pole.

  The feast of Burma.

  Return from the central planet to the sublunar globe. The South Pole.

  On the eve of the feast of Burma everyone prepared, in silence and meditation, to celebrate its solemnity. But the day was as noisy as the one before had been calm. The sound of drums, trumpets and a multitude of musical instruments announced to the people the great spectacle that was about to take place. The crowd assembled around the mountain was waiting impatiently for the moment when we would take flight toward the sky.

  In the middle of the day, all the preparations being concluded, we were taken to the summit of a magnetic rock, with the Felinois devotee who was to accompany us in the aerial voyage. The priests had expressly forbidden us to say anything to our little companion that might persuade him to stay on the earth, and we obeyed with all the more pleasure because we were not sorry to be taking a little Felinois with us to Europe.

  When the people saw us on the summit of the hill from which we were going to take off for the sky, loud cries were uttered everywhere, and we were given a great musical concert. During that racket the priests had us enter a vaulted chamber carved in stone built on the rock and very high. It was there that the miraculous bonnets were fabricated. We had not been permitted to see them before the day of the festival, but then we assured ourselves that they really were magnetic. The material was taken into a corner of the chamber where they were fabricated, and wrought under a solid vault, for fear that the attractive forces of the mountains might lifted them out of the workman’s hands.

  As soon as we entered the chamber, they ascertained whether the bonnets were precisely measured. They fitted our heads perfectly; their form was round, very wide, and very flat on the upper surface. The inside was fitted with extremely soft cushions, and they were attached under the chin by a strong copper chain wrapped in woolen fabric, similar to the chin-straps of our helmets, with the difference that the Felinois chain is as broad as a hand and solidly fixed around the bonnet. In addition to that precaution, the magnetic bonnet is equipped with large rings that retain strong linen cords, by means of which the traveler is firmly attached to his headgear. Those cords were passed under our arms, between our legs and even under the soles of our feet, in order that the weight of our bodies was entirely supported, in precise equilibrium.

  These preliminaries might have opened the eyes of the Felinois and proved to them that the mysterious bonnet had no supernatural virtue, but superstition dazzled the devotees too much for them to suspect knavery, and I think that on our globe too, if one saw a means of rising up to Heaven, many people might undertake the voyage. In any case, even if the aspirant to the joys of paradise were to perceive the imposture, from the moment that he was fitted with the holy bonnet, he did not have time to retreat.

  We were ready to depart and we embraced one another affectionately, full of hope and joy. At the same time, we begged the priests of Burma to hasten our departure, because some of us were beginning to be frightened by the perils of the route that we were about to take. All the ceremonies had not yet been completed, though; the youngest of the priests had to talk to the people beforehand, and his sermon lasted a good hour. In the meantime, Clairancy reassured the more timid among us.

  “Well get out of here,” he said, “as fortunately as we got in. Then again, if we have some danger to run, we ought to face up to any in order to see our homeland again. What kind of life do we have here? Whereas in Europe, we’ll find our families, our friends, our religion and our mores. Finally, do you count for nothing the pleasure of recounting our adventures?”

  After the sermon, the Felinois devotee was taken out, while it was announced to the spectators that they were about to see their virtuous fellow citizen raised to Heaven. As soon as he was in the open air on the mountain, the magnetic vapors had their usual effect; the little man was lifted up with so much rapidity that we soon lost sight of him.

  Edward departed next, and was carried away with equal velocity. The Manseau was trembling in every limb. Clairancy was taken out, and he abandoned the earth in similar fashion. I was the third taken out of the vaulted chamber. When I appeared on the mountain I only just had time to perceive the whole crowd on its knees and to hear the multiple sound of musical instruments. An irresistible force lifted me up with lightning rapidity, but I was so firmly attached to the magnetic bonnet, and my body preserved its equilibrium so well amid the plains of the air, that I did not experience any malaise.

  I cannot say how long I traveled in that manner; I only know that I lost sight of the small globe a minute at the most after quitting it, and that I rose up as smoothly as if I were in a boat, in spite of the velocity of the course that was drawing me toward our pole.

  The astonishment, the pleasure and the smoothness of that ascension would have charmed my mind if all those sentiments had not been mingled with a certain fear of breaking myself on the polar mountains. But in the end, I reached it with the greatest good fortune. I cannot describe the transports of joy that I felt when I perceived before me, like a high wall, the sides of the opening of the austral pole. From then on, I experienced a few rather violent shocks in my flight, and I soon saw that I had risen above the polar mountain.

  A mortal fright seized me at that moment, as I passed the surface of the large globe.

  God of bounty! I said to myself. Where am I being carried? Am I really going to the paradise of Burma? But I emerged from anxiety after a few moments. The force of the magnetic vapor, after having lifted me a little way above the iron mountain, suddenly carried me back to it, head first, and I felt myself stop, with a sharp shock, on a projecting rock, in a very uncomfortable position. The platform of my bonnet was fixed to the iron rock, and my body and feet were, in consequence, above my head. I could only dart glances around me with difficulty, and I saw that I was on the slope of a precipice.

  I was suffering so much from the cruel position in which I found myself that I acted as rapidly as possible to extricate myself from it, acting with one hand while the other was hanging on to a spur of rock. After I had released myself, not without difficulty, I got to my feet, and found myself on the rim of the polar opening.

  I drew away from the precipice, advancing toward the middle of the mountain, and from there I perceived the Felinois and my two companions, who were leaning against a small spur. I immediately uttered a loud cry; they beckoned to me to come to them, for they could no longer walk. I scarcely had the strength to drag myself there; I was exhausted by fatigue; every step I took drained my strength further, and by the time I had rejoined my three companions it would have been impossible for me to go any further.

  First we asked one another what we had experienced; then we congratulated one another on having arrived without mishap. But we were dying of hunger, and could not sit down in order to rest because the iron ground on which we found ourselves was extremely cold.

  After a few moments Clairancy perceived Tristan, who fell on to a rock a quarter of a league away. We were very tempted to go to the aid of our poor comrade, but it was too painful to make the slightest movement. He detached himself successfully, and advanced, as I had done, over the mountain. As he came closer to us we shouted to attract his attention and give him courage. He reached our station.

  “What a journey!” he said to us. “And how Heaven has favored us, in bringing us together like this! I hadn’t thought, before quitting the small globe, that the polar opening is at least fifty leagues across, and that some of us might have been carried to the right and some to the left, perhaps separated from one another by twenty leagues.”

  “I wasn’t afraid of that,” Clairancy replied. “If we had been lifted up from the middle of the magnetic mountain, where we wer
e so solidly coiffed, we might have had to fear that at the end of our flight that, finding ourselves in the exact center of the polar opening, the magnetic attraction would disperse us at its whim; or perhaps that we would all be thrown on to the part of the crown that presents the most projections and attracts the magnetic vapors most powerfully; but we all departed from the same corner of the magnetic mountain, and were all bound to arrive in the same part of the iron mountains.

  In spite of all this fine reasoning, the Manseau, who ought to have appeared a few minutes after us, did not show himself. We waited in vain for two long hours but saw no sign of him. Edward claimed that he had doubtless arrived far away from us, whatever Clairancy might say, and that we were separated from the unfortunate forever, but Clairancy and Tristan said that it was more probable that the Manseau had not had the courage to depart.

  Meanwhile, we were dying of hunger and thirst, and, those two imperious needs overcoming fatigue, we decided to go down the mountain, and to return later if our companions did not appear. As the little Felinois could not go with us, Tristan, who had conserved the most strength, picked him up, and we turned our backs on the opening of the austral pole.

  XXXV. Return to Europe via the austral lands,

  the southern sea of ice, New Holland, etc.

  We had no other weapons with us than long bronze daggers that we had kept hidden under our garments, but as we might need to construct a raft, we were careful to take with us the cords that had bound us to our magnetic bonnets. The little Felinois was mute with surprise at finding the paradise of Burma bleaker than the land he had quit. We deferred disillusioning him until we had found something to appease the hunger that was devouring us.