CHAPTER III.
I have been thus explicit in detailing the circumstances of my entranceinto the land of Mizora, or, in other words, the interior of the earth,lest some incredulous person might doubt the veracity of this narrative.
It does seem a little astonishing that a woman should have fallen byaccident, and without intention or desire, upon a discovery thatexplorers and scientists had for years searched for in vain. But suchwas the fact, and, in generosity, I have endeavored to make my accidentas serviceable to the world in general, and Science in particular, as Icould, by taking observations of the country, its climate and products,and especially its people.
I met with the greatest difficulty in acquiring their language.Accustomed to the harsh dialect of the North, my voice was almostintractable in obtaining their melodious accentuation. It was,therefore, many months before I mastered the difficulty sufficiently toconverse without embarrassment, or to make myself clearly understood.The construction of their language was simple and easily understood, andin a short time I was able to read it with ease, and to listen to itwith enjoyment. Yet, before this was accomplished, I had mingled amongthem for months, listening to a musical jargon of conversation, that Icould neither participate in, nor understand. All that I could thereforediscover about them during this time, was by observation. This soontaught me that I was not in a seminary--in our acceptance of theterm--but in a College of Experimental Science. The ladies--girls I hadsupposed them to be--were, in fact, women and mothers, and had reachedan age that with us would be associated with decrepitude, wrinkles andimbecility. They were all practical chemists, and their work was thepreparation of food from the elements. No wonder that they possessed thesuppleness and bloom of eternal youth, when the earthy matter andimpurities that are ever present in our food, were unknown to theirs.
I also discovered that they obtained rain artificially when needed, bydischarging vast quantities of electricity in the air. I discovered thatthey kept no cattle, nor animals of any kind for food or labor. Iobserved a universal practice of outdoor exercising; the aim seeming tobe to develop the greatest capacity of lung or muscle. It wasastonishing the amount of air a Mizora lady could draw into her lungs.They called it their brain stimulant, and said that their faculties weremore active after such exercise. In my country, a cup of strong coffee,or some other agreeable beverage, is usually taken into the stomach toinvigorate or excite the mind.
One thing I remarked as unusual among a people of such cultured taste,and that was the size of the ladies' waists. Of all that I measured notone was less than thirty inches in circumference, and it was rare tomeet with one that small. At first I thought a waist that tapered fromthe arm pits would be an added beauty, if only these ladies would betaught how to acquire it. But I lived long enough among them to lookupon a tapering waist as a disgusting deformity. They considered a largewaist a mark of beauty, as it gave a greater capacity of lung power; andthey laid the greatest stress upon the size and health of the lungs. Onelittle lady, not above five feet in height, I saw draw into her lungstwo hundred and twenty-five cubic inches of air, and smile proudly whenshe accomplished it. I measured five feet and five inches in height, andwith the greatest effort I could not make my lungs receive more than twohundred cubic inches of air. In my own country I had been called anunusually robust girl, and knew, by comparison, that I had a much largerand fuller chest than the average among women.
I noticed with greater surprise than anything else had excited in me,the marked absence of men. I wandered about the magnificent buildingwithout hindrance or surveillance. There was not a lock or bolt on anydoor in it. I frequented a vast gallery filled with paintings andstatues of women, noble looking, beautiful women, but still--nothing butwomen. The fact that they were all blondes, singular as it might appear,did not so much impress me. Strangers came and went, but among themultitude of faces I met, I never saw a man's.
In my own country I had been accustomed to regard man as a vitalnecessity. He occupied all governmental offices, and was the arbitratorof domestic life. It seemed, therefore, impossible to me for a countryor government to survive without his assistance and advice. Besides, itwas a country over which the heart of any man must yearn, howeverinsensible he might be to beauty or female loveliness. Wealth waseverywhere and abundant. The climate as delightful as the mostfastidious could desire. The products of the orchards and gardenssurpassed description. Bread came from the laboratory, and not from thesoil by the sweat of the brow. Toil was unknown; the toil that we know,menial, degrading and harassing. Science had been the magician that haddone away all that. Science, so formidable and austere to our untutoredminds, had been gracious to these fair beings and opened the door tonature's most occult secrets. The beauty of those women it is not in mypower to describe. The Greeks, in their highest art, never rivalled it,for here was a beauty of mind that no art can represent. They enhancedtheir physical charms with attractive costumes, often of extremeelegance. They wore gems that flashed a fortune as they passed. Therarest was of a pale rose color, translucent as the clearest water, andof a brilliancy exceeding the finest diamond. Their voices, in song,could only be equaled by a celestial choir. No dryad queen ever floatedthrough the leafy aisles of her forest with more grace than theydisplayed in every movement. And all this was for feminine eyesalone--and they of the most enchanting loveliness.
Among all the women that I met during my stay in Mizora--comprising aperiod of fifteen years--I saw not one homely face or ungraceful form.In my own land the voice of flattery had whispered in my ear praises offace and figure, but I felt ill-formed and uncouth beside the perfectsymmetry and grace of these lovely beings. Their chief beauty appearedin a mobility of expression. It was the divine fire of Thought thatillumined every feature, which, while gazing upon the Aphrodite ofPraxitiles, we must think was all that the matchless marble lacked.Emotion passed over their features like ripples over a stream. Theireyes were limpid wells of loveliness, where every impulse of theirnatures were betrayed without reserve.
"It would be a paradise for man."
I made this observation to myself, and as secretly would I propound thequestion:
"Why is he not here in lordly possession?"
In _my_ world man was regarded, or he had made himself regarded, as asuperior being. He had constituted himself the Government, the Law,Judge, Jury and Executioner. He doled out reward or punishment as hisconscience or judgment dictated. He was active and belligerent always inobtaining and keeping every good thing for himself. He wasindispensable. Yet here was a nation of fair, exceedingly fair womendoing without him, and practising the arts and sciences far beyond theimagined pale of human knowledge and skill.
Of their progress in science I will give some accounts hereafter.
It is impossible to describe the feeling that took possession of me asmonths rolled by, and I saw the active employments of a prosperouspeople move smoothly and quietly along in the absence of masculineintelligence and wisdom. Cut off from all inquiry by my ignorance oftheir language, the singular absence of the male sex began to prey uponmy imagination as a mystery. The more so after visiting a town at somedistance, composed exclusively of schools and colleges for the youth ofthe country. Here I saw hundreds of children--_and all of them weregirls_. Is it to be wondered at that the first inquiry I made, was:
"Where are the men?"
Mizora: A Prophecy Page 3