Chapter XXIII.
I confess that my conversation with Aph-Lin, and the extreme coolnesswith which he stated his inability to control the dangerous caprice ofhis daughter, and treated the idea of the reduction into a cinder towhich her amorous flame might expose my too seductive person, took awaythe pleasure I should otherwise have had in the contemplation of myhost's country-seat, and the astonishing perfection of the machineryby which his farming operations were conducted. The house differed inappearance from the massive and sombre building which Aph-Lin inhabitedin the city, and which seemed akin to the rocks out of which the cityitself had been hewn into shape. The walls of the country-seatwere composed by trees placed a few feet apart from each other, theinterstices being filled in with the transparent metallic substancewhich serves the purpose of glass among the Ana. These trees were all inflower, and the effect was very pleasing, if not in the best taste. Wewere received at the porch by life-like automata, who conducted usinto a chamber, the like to which I never saw before, but have often onsummer days dreamily imagined. It was a bower--half room, half garden.The walls were one mass of climbing flowers. The open spaces, whichwe call windows, and in which, here, the metallic surfaces were slidedback, commanded various views; some, of the wide landscape with itslakes and rocks; some, of small limited expanses answering to ourconservatories, filled with tiers of flowers. Along the sides of theroom were flower-beds, interspersed with cushions for repose. In thecentre of the floor was a cistern and a fountain of that liquid lightwhich I have presumed to be naphtha. It was luminous and of a roseatehue; it sufficed without lamps to light up the room with a subduedradiance. All around the fountain was carpeted with a soft deep lichen,not green (I have never seen that colour in the vegetation of thiscountry), but a quiet brown, on which the eye reposes with the samesense of relief as that with which in the upper world it reposeson green. In the outlets upon flowers (which I have compared to ourconservatories) there were singing birds innumerable, which, while weremained in the room, sang in those harmonies of tune to which they are,in these parts, so wonderfully trained. The roof was open. The wholescene had charms for every sense--music form the birds, fragrance fromthe flowers, and varied beauty to the eye at every aspect. About all wasa voluptuous repose. What a place, methought, for a honeymoon, if a Gybride were a little less formidably armed not only with the rightsof woman, but with the powers of man! But when one thinks of a Gy, solearned, so tall, so stately, so much above the standard of the creaturewe call woman as was Zee, no! even if I had felt no fear of beingreduced to a cinder, it is not of her I should have dreamed in thatbower so constructed for dreams of poetic love.
The automata reappeared, serving one of those delicious liquids whichform the innocent wines of the Vril-ya.
"Truly," said I, "this is a charming residence, and I can scarcelyconceive why you do not settle yourself here instead of amid thegloomier abodes of the city."
"As responsible to the community for the administration of light, I amcompelled to reside chiefly in the city, and can only come hither forshort intervals."
"But since I understand from you that no honours are attached to youroffice, and it involves some trouble, why do you accept it?"
"Each of us obeys without question the command of the Tur. He said, 'Beit requested that Aph-Lin shall be the Commissioner of Light,' so I hadno choice; but having held the office now for a long time, the cares,which were at first unwelcome, have become, if not pleasing, at leastendurable. We are all formed by custom--even the difference of our racefrom the savage is but the transmitted continuance of custom, whichbecomes, through hereditary descent, part and parcel of our nature. Yousee there are Ana who even reconcile themselves to the responsibilitiesof chief magistrate, but no one would do so if his duties had not beenrendered so light, or if there were any questions as to compliance withhis requests."
"Not even if you thought the requests unwise or unjust?"
"We do not allow ourselves to think so, and, indeed, everything goes onas if each and all governed themselves according to immemorial custom."
"When the chief magistrate dies or retires, how do you provide for hissuccessor?"
"The An who has discharged the duties of chief magistrate for many yearsis the best person to choose one by whom those duties may be understood,and he generally names his successor."
"His son, perhaps?"
"Seldom that; for it is not an office any one desires or seeks, and afather naturally hesitates to constrain his son. But if the Tur himselfdecline to make a choice, for fear it might be supposed that he owedsome grudge to the person on whom his choice would settle, then thereare three of the College of Sages who draw lots among themselves whichshall have the power to elect the chief. We consider that the judgmentof one An of ordinary capacity is better than the judgment of three ormore, however wise they may be; for among three there would probablybe disputes, and where there are disputes, passion clouds judgment. Theworst choice made by one who has no motive in choosing wrong, is betterthan the best choice made by many who have many motives for not choosingright."
"You reverse in your policy the maxims adopted in my country."
"Are you all, in your country, satisfied with your governors?"
"All! Certainly not; the governors that most please some are sure to bethose most displeasing to others."
"Then our system is better than yours." "For you it may be; butaccording to our system a Tish could not be reduced to a cinder if afemale compelled him to marry her; and as a Tish I sigh to return to mynative world."
"Take courage, my dear little guest; Zee can't compel you to marry her.She can only entice you to do so. Don't be enticed. Come and look roundmy domain."
We went forth into a close, bordered with sheds; for though the Ana keepno stock for food, there are some animals which they rear for milkingand others for shearing. The former have no resemblance to our cows,nor the latter to our sheep, nor do I believe such species exist amongstthem. They use the milk of three varieties of animal: one resembles theantelope, but is much larger, being as tall as a camel; the other twoare smaller, and, though differing somewhat from each other, resembleno creature I ever saw on earth. They are very sleek and of roundedproportions; their colour that of the dappled deer, with very mildcountenances and beautiful dark eyes. The milk of these three creaturesdiffers in richness and taste. It is usually diluted with water, andflavoured with the juice of a peculiar and perfumed fruit, and in itselfis very nutritious and palatable. The animal whose fleece serves themfor clothing and many other purposes, is more like the Italian she-goatthan any other creature, but is considerably larger, has no horns,and is free from the displeasing odour of our goats. Its fleece is notthick, but very long and fine; it varies in colour, but is never white,more generally of a slate-like or lavender hue. For clothing it isusually worn dyed to suit the taste of the wearer. These animals wereexceedingly tame, and were treated with extraordinary care and affectionby the children (chiefly female) who tended them.
We then went through vast storehouses filled with grains and fruits.I may here observe that the main staple of food among these peopleconsists--firstly, of a kind of corn much larger in ear than our wheat,and which by culture is perpetually being brought into new varieties offlavour; and, secondly, of a fruit of about the size of a small orange,which, when gathered, is hard and bitter. It is stowed away for manymonths in their warehouses, and then becomes succulent and tender. Itsjuice, which is of dark-red colour, enters into most of their sauces.They have many kinds of fruit of the nature of the olive, from whichdelicious oils are extracted. They have a plant somewhat resembling thesugar-cane, but its juices are less sweet and of a delicate perfume.They have no bees nor honey-making insects, but they make much use of asweet gum that oozes from a coniferous plant, not unlike the araucaria.Their soil teems also with esculent roots and vegetables, which it isthe aim of their culture to improve and vary to the utmost. And I neverremember any meal among this people, however it might be confined t
othe family household, in which some delicate novelty in such articles offood was not introduced. In fine, as I before observed, their cookery isexquisite, so diversified and nutritious that one does not miss animalfood; and their own physical forms suffice to show that with them, atleast, meat is not required for superior production of muscular fibre.They have no grapes--the drinks extracted from their fruits are innocentand refreshing. Their staple beverage, however, is water, in the choiceof which they are very fastidious, distinguishing at once the slightestimpurity.
"My younger son takes great pleasure in augmenting our produce," saidAph-Lin as we passed through the storehouses, "and therefore willinherit these lands, which constitute the chief part of my wealth. To myelder son such inheritance would be a great trouble and affliction."
"Are there many sons among you who think the inheritance of vast wealthwould be a great trouble and affliction?"
"Certainly; there are indeed very few of the Vril-ya who do not considerthat a fortune much above the average is a heavy burden. We are rather alazy people after the age of childhood, and do not like undergoing morecares than we can help, and great wealth does give its owner many cares.For instance, it marks us out for public offices, which none of uslike and none of us can refuse. It necessitates our taking a continuedinterest in the affairs of any of our poorer countrymen, so that we mayanticipate their wants and see that none fall into poverty. There isan old proverb amongst us which says, 'The poor man's need is the richman's shame---'"
"Pardon me, if I interrupt you for a moment. You allow that some, evenof the Vril-ya, know want, and need relief."
"If by want you mean the destitution that prevails in a Koom-Posh, THATis impossible with us, unless an An has, by some extraordinary process,got rid of all his means, cannot or will not emigrate, and has eithertired out the affectionate aid of this relations or personal friends, orrefuses to accept it."
"Well, then, does he not supply the place of an infant or automaton, andbecome a labourer--a servant?"
"No; then we regard him as an unfortunate person of unsound reason,and place him, at the expense of the State, in a public building, whereevery comfort and every luxury that can mitigate his affliction arelavished upon him. But an An does not like to be considered out of hismind, and therefore such cases occur so seldom that the public buildingI speak of is now a deserted ruin, and the last inmate of it was an Anwhom I recollect to have seen in my childhood. He did not seem consciousof loss of reason, and wrote glaubs (poetry). When I spoke of wants, Imeant such wants as an An with desires larger than his means sometimesentertains--for expensive singing-birds, or bigger houses, orcountry-gardens; and the obvious way to satisfy such wants is to buy ofhim something that he sells. Hence Ana like myself, who are very rich,are obliged to buy a great many things they do not require, and live ona very large scale where they might prefer to live on a small one. Forinstance, the great size of my house in the town is a source of muchtrouble to my wife, and even to myself; but I am compelled to have itthus incommodiously large, because, as the richest An of the community,I am appointed to entertain the strangers from the other communitieswhen they visit us, which they do in great crowds twice-a-year, whencertain periodical entertainments are held, and when relations scatteredthroughout all the realms of the Vril-ya joyfully reunite for a time.This hospitality, on a scale so extensive, is not to my taste, andtherefore I should have been happier had I been less rich. But we mustall bear the lot assigned to us in this short passage through time thatwe call life. After all, what are a hundred years, more or less, to theages through which we must pass hereafter? Luckily, I have one son wholikes great wealth. It is a rare exception to the general rule, and Iown I cannot myself understand it."
After this conversation I sought to return to the subject whichcontinued to weigh on my heart--viz., the chances of escape from Zee.But my host politely declined to renew that topic, and summoned ourair-boat. On our way back we were met by Zee, who, having found us gone,on her return from the College of Sages, had unfurled her wings andflown in search of us.
Her grand, but to me unalluring, countenance brightened as she beheldme, and, poising herself beside the boat on her large outspread plumes,she said reproachfully to Aph-Lin--"Oh, father, was it right in youto hazard the life of your guest in a vehicle to which he is sounaccustomed? He might, by an incautious movement, fall over the side;and alas; he is not like us, he has no wings. It were death to him tofall. Dear one!" (she added, accosting my shrinking self in a softervoice), "have you no thought of me, that you should thus hazard a lifewhich has become almost a part of mine? Never again be thus rash, unlessI am thy companion. What terror thou hast stricken into me!"
I glanced furtively at Aph-Lin, expecting, at least, that he wouldindignantly reprove his daughter for expressions of anxiety andaffection, which, under all the circumstances, would, in the world aboveground, be considered immodest in the lips of a young female, addressedto a male not affianced to her, even if of the same rank as herself.
But so confirmed are the rights of females in that region, and soabsolutely foremost among those rights do females claim the privilegeof courtship, that Aph-Lin would no more have thought of reproving hisvirgin daughter than he would have thought of disobeying the orders ofthe Tur. In that country, custom, as he implied, is all in all.
He answered mildly, "Zee, the Tish is in no danger and it is my beliefthe he can take very good care of himself."
"I would rather that he let me charge myself with his care. Oh, heart ofmy heart, it was in the thought of thy danger that I first felt how muchI loved thee!"
Never did man feel in such a false position as I did. These words werespoken loud in the hearing of Zee's father--in the hearing of the childwho steered. I blushed with shame for them, and for her, and could nothelp replying angrily: "Zee, either you mock me, which, as your father'sguest, misbecomes you, or the words you utter are improper for a maidenGy to address even to an An of her own race, if he has not wooed herwith the consent of her parents. How much more improper to address themto a Tish, who has never presumed to solicit your affections, and whocan never regard you with other sentiments than those of reverence andawe!"
Aph-Lin made me a covert sing of approbation, but said nothing. "Be notso cruel!" exclaimed Zee, still in sonorous accents. "Can love commanditself where it is truly felt? Do you suppose that a maiden Gy willconceal a sentiment that it elevates her to feel? What a country youmust have come from!"
Here Aph-Lin gently interposed, saying, "Among the Tish-a the rights ofyour sex do not appear to be established, and at all events my guest mayconverse with you more freely if unchecked by the presence of others."
To this remark Zee made no reply, but, darting on me a tenderreproachful glance, agitated her wings and fled homeward.
"I had counted, at least, on some aid from my host," I said bitterly,"in the perils to which his own daughter exposes me."
"I gave you the best aid I could. To contradict a Gy in her love affairsis to confirm her purpose. She allows no counsel to come between her andher affections."
The Coming Race Page 22