Having given you, by quotation from our chroniclers, a synoptical view
of two important discoveries which facilitated our communication with
your race, I will now, continued the Dosch, refer you to your own
impressions, and the eccentricities of the uninitiated from thought
substitution, for the clear demonstration of our auramental powers. Or
if, in review, you can recall examples of instinctive spiritual
manifestations, you will be able to judge of our method in dealing with
the instinctively stupid, partly with hopes of reflecting the extremes
of absurdity, and in sub-part for our humorous gratification in tracing
the commotional hubbub of selfish instinct in its search for the means
of saving grace to rescue folly from its own attaint. You will soon be
able to judge of the limits that we are confined to in auramentation.
With the instinctively evil, our efforts excite fear and ritualistic
prayers for propitiation, and exorcism of supposed inimical agencies
foreign to self. But with the good we are able to impart happy
encouragement. Selfish excess, in all of its forms, bespeaks a material
agency and end, and as this is the god of realization with the
gregarious democracy of the gigas, the influence of our auramental
efforts—if their source was known—would be denounced with bell and book,
as heretically pedantic and puritanical. But goodness imparts an animus
joy that affords in life tangible impressions of immortality.
We now will pass to our fourth important epoch, noted for the personal
introduction of the Dosch Giganteo to Indegatus, Prætor of the present
City of the Falls. In the process of rehearsal we shall allude to the
third or falcon era.
Indegatus, Prætor of New Heraclea or more properly Heraclea of the
Falls, was a man of indefatigable energy, and at the period of
Giganteo’s introduction had just rescued the city from great peril. The
peril from the besiegers was in fact less dangerous than the factious
dissensions of the populace within the city walls. Aware that idleness
was the mother of envy and turmoil, he had caused the latifundium to be
divided into garden plots apportioned to the size of each family, for
the cultivation of edible roots and cereals. While engaged with his two
sons, Unipho and Gnipho, in the cultivation of their land, a bee
alighted on the father’s shoulder, attracting his attention from the
singularity of its appearance and fearless confidence. Apparently
satisfied with the attention it had received it flew to a neighboring
flower occupied by a companion. Shortly after he felt a sharp sting on
the back of his hand; a quick glance discovered a speck variegated with
dark and shining particles, which he was about to brush away, supposing
it to be an insect; when something peculiar in its movements attracted a
more minute inspection, this resulted in the recognition of a little
body possessing the dressed outline of the human form. Startled with
superstitious fear from an apparition so manifestly supernal, he called
his sons that their stronger eyes might confirm or dispel the impression
of his more attenuated sight. After an inspection of a few seconds they
burst into a merry peal of laughter, exclaiming in a breath, “It’s a
little man in Heraclean armor and sagum, flourishing his sword and spear
as if he wished us to understand his signs!”
“My sons,” urged the father with anxious fears, “give more reverend
heed! He appears in a guise that betokens admonition from the regions of
the nether world. Give earnest attention to his direction that the
import of his visit may be revealed.”
_Gnipho._ “The little stranger points to one of my ears as if he wished
to be admitted to a hearing?”
_Indegatus._ “My son, must I admonish you a second time to be more
reverend in speech when addressing a being bearing tidings, you know not
from whom, or from whence?”
_Gnipho._ “You have advised us, father, to follow the example of our
superiors, and this stranger phantom appears to be in no serious mood,
for he laughs at your fears. But I will admit him to an audience, that
he may declare the object of his visit!”
_Indegatus._ “Presume not to take advantage of his levity, for as you
are well instructed, and know that when I advised, it was for your
dealings with mortality?”
_Gnipho._ “Now he laughs outright, and my ear resounds with his mirth,
as if filled with the infantile chirping of a joyous cricket. But now he
speaks!”
_Indegatus._ “Listen?”
_Gnipho._ “Yes father. He asks if I can hear him distinctly.”
_Indegatus._ “Then in virtue of my office as prætor and augur, I will
address him. Speak Nuntius: What tidings bear you from the spirit world?
and from whose realm do you come in this disguise?”
_Gnipho._ “Again I hear his small voice in the chuckling check of
merriment, as if he would fain speak in reply.”
_Indegatus._ “Then listen, my child, to the message he bears? It surely
cannot presage ill if he is in merry mood!”
_Gnipho._ (Listening.) “He says he is not a spirit, but of mortal birth,
like ourselves. But I will repeat his own words. ‘Say to your father,
that I have been long acquainted with his goodness, and desire to
relieve his anxiety for the self-imposed misery of his people. Also to
render him other efficient aid in a small way!’”
_Indegatus._ “Ask him, with grateful thanks, his name, and from whence
he came?”
_Gnipho._ (Laughing.) “He says his name is Giganteo, the Dosch or
patriarch of the Manatitlans, a race of animalculans whose country lies
six hundred stadia to the southeast of the deserted city of Heraclea.”
_Indegatus._ “Ask him how he proposes to help us?”
_Gnipho._ “He says by adding to your knowledge, in a privileged way that
enables the small to help the great! He expresses a wish for us to
retire with him to the parapet steps of the northern wall, where we
shall be comparatively free from the shrill vibrations of the cicada’s
winged notes.”
_Indegatus._ “We will move as he directs.”
_Gnipho._ “Now that we have complied with his request, he charges me to
listen, and treasure all that I hear, that I may repeat it to you.”
_Indegatus._ “We will keep silence that your attention may not be
distracted.”
After an hour’s close attention, Gnipho rehearsed to his father and
brother, The Admonitory Request of Giganteo, Dosch of Manatitla. “Your
ancestors of old Heraclea trained falcons for hunting, and through their
borrowed use the Manatitlans obtained a knowledge of giga and
animalculan nations beyond the ocean. We wished to recompense the
service by imparting the source of our happiness to the people of
Heraclea in return. But tyrannous ingratitude had so blunted
affectionate sympathy, that your immediate ancestors alone listened to
our warnings. But even they would have shared the common fate, if we had
not found among the slaves those capable of judging between the good and
evil. The majority of the enslaved were as relentless, as the doomed
were blind to their impending fate. They had determined that none of
their hated oppressors of either city should be spared; but the
Manatitlans through the same means that I propose to offer for your aid,
foiled the deadly intention of the slaves. While the old Heracleans were
reveling in the height of their prosperity, falconry, as with all the
pontine races coeval with their transatlantic progenitors, was their
favorite pastime. Aeriolus, a worthy successor of Buzzee, visited the
mews of old Heraclea, and with equally well devised skill in
preparation, conceived the idea of utilizing the swift flight of the
falcons and powers of abstinent endurance for crossing the ocean, the
shores of which he had visited with the limited powers of the bee
volant. Adventuring, with associate volantaphs, trials for their control
in hunting, he soon perfected guiding attachments as efficient for
directing their movements in flight as those devised for the bee.
Selecting the swiftest and strongest he gradually accustomed them to
long sustained flights over the ocean, insuring their welcome back to
the mews by increased docility—under direction—to the will and lures of
the falconer, when in the field. The anticipated difficulties from
opposing wind currents, and means of obtaining food sustenance, and
disposing of it while in flight, had been successfully overcome by
prolonged observations verified with tests. Food was obtained by
directing the falcons’ attention to flying fish as objects of prey,
which, with parachute aid, they were able, after a little practice under
the stimulus of hunger, to devour in mid air.
“In memorial of his success Aeriolus gives in testimony the transcribed
after observation. ‘The transition from meat to fish, for a “fasting”
flight of instinct, was adopted with far greater avidity than in human
acts of ritualistic conformity to mythical injunctions, which we have
seen practiced by the sectarian devotees to creeds, as negative
compensations for over indulgence of the carnal affections.’
“When the arrangements of Aeriolus were fully perfected, he and thirty
associates, with their wives, bade a hopeful farewell to the people of
Manatitla, and started from the lochia (plaza) of Maniculæ upon their
adventurous air voyage of discovery, with a leading falcon and three
followers. Studying to aid the falcons by every possible means they, to
their joyful surprise, discovered land on the morning of the fourth day
from the start, and, at an early hour thereafter, alighted upon the
lofty peak of an island mountain, since known as the Corcovado, a
mountain summit of Corvo, one of the Azorean Isles. After regaling the
falcons in relief from their lenten diet, they, of their own accord,
continued their flight to the mainland. Our joy was much depressed,
while passing over the beautiful land scenes, by the fierce cries of
giga hosts engaged in battle encounter. In our course eastward, to a
country of colored races resembling the aboriginals of our own, not a
day passed without our forced observation of a battle scene, with fields
and smoking ruins that bespoke the devastation of warful rage.
“Sick and despairing from the constant recurrence of murderous acts of
despoliation, we at last reached, in returning, a cluster of islands in
the western ocean to the northward of our point of arrival. On the
largest island we found a hardy species of falcon, and, with the lure of
our own, obtained four. After a few days’ training of our transport
addition we returned to the island where we first landed. Anxious to
return to our people, and the cheering welcome of loving affection, we
only tarried upon the island a sufficient time to accustom our newly
acquired birds to devour their food while sustained by the parachute and
their wings in mid-rest. Starting, homeward bound, on the morning of the
sixtieth sun from the date of our departure from Maniculæ, we reached it
again on the third day with the first notes of the evening anthem of
thanksgiving, in which we gratefully joined in our descent to perch.
“Some days were occupied in the public rehearsal of the events and
discoveries transpiring in the progress of our voyage; the resulting
issue proving a source of congratulation, nathless, our disappointment
from the unfavorable prospect afforded for an affectionate reception by
the animalculan residents of the many countries over which we passed,
from the effect of giga example. After many repetitions of the voyage,
it was decided that colonization in the chief cities of Europe and Asia
offered the only means for the effectual regeneration of the animalculan
races for a happy appreciation of our exampled resources of loving
affection. When the proposition for colonistic volunteers was proclaimed
it received such a general sympathetic prompting of affectionate
obligation, that every Manatitlan held himself and family in readiness
for the service. As it was necessary, for self-defense, to have a
majority of giantescoes and mediums, to overawe treacherous designs, the
required number for colonizing Rome, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, were
obtained by lot. When, on the eve of departure, the Dosch advised them
to live apart from the natives of the cities, and in self dependence
upon their own exertions for support; but to receive all healthy
children of the required age, placed at their disposal for the
Manatitlan term of education. The emigrants numbered among their
volunteers representatives of all the mechanical branches of artisan
labor, and especially those well instructed in the departments of
indestructible house building and defensible vestments. So that little
fear was entertained for their safety, as they could with ease repel the
largest armies of tits that could be mustered. But their chief reliance
was upon a sturdy adherence to their native habits and customs, yet ever
open for the reciprocation of affectionate goodness. They were also
admonished to make all possible application for the speedy acquisition
of lingual idioms spoken in the different countries of their sojourn for
future availment. Also, whenever favorable opportunity offered for the
cultivation of giga goodness, to use their privilege of auramentation
and thought substitution for encouragement and fruition. These general
directions were improvised more for encouragement than from actual
knowledge of the process best adapted for the controversion of habits
and customs opposed to affectionate association and self-government.
“The first appearance of the Manatitlans in the cities of their
destination attracted universal awe and curiosity on the part of the
resident animalculan tits; for but few of the natives reached in stature
the medium size. Their sudden and mysterious advent, gigantic size,
quiet demeanor, and the great affection that they manifested towards
each other, and in all the relations of life, proved a source of emulous
wonder and admiration with the good, and a rankling, envious source of
disdain to the evil minded.
“Selecting their sites for residence from the advantages of
inaccessibility to giga approach, arable soil, and capabilities for
irrigation, their habitations were quickly constructed, with a cleanly
elegance of adornment that added a new element of wonder to the lazy
imaginations of instinct, in the superstitious belief that they were
visitors under the patronage of divine agency. With these introductory
advantages, which the colonists disclaimed to be other than those within
the reach of all grades of mortality, which their appearance and
vocation were intended to impart, the schools were organized, and
flooded to overflowing with applications for admission. The monthly
visitations of the children’s parents confirmed the belief that mission
was under the special direction of the Godhead.
“The unselfish warmth of their children’s affection opened to their view
a source of realized happiness that truly bespoke the impressions of
immortality, from the continued joy imparted in anticipation of renewal.
The reputation of our advent, from the representative example of our
neophytes, soon extended our influence to remote animalculan
dependencies, so that the extension of our colonistic schools well nigh
drained Manatitla of its effective resources of vitality. In the course
of a few centuries, dating from the Manatitlan colonistic advent in the
countries of the eastern continent, the system of education introduced
had been generally adopted, under our supervision, by the animalculan
races; notwithstanding the instinctive opposition of the chivalric
portion, who followed the ancestral prestige derived from the preferred
imitation of giga military school organizations, designed for the
classical attraction of the senses with tinsel display, and ‘glorious’
din of martial music.
“Meanwhile your Heraclean ancestors had completed their third wall of
circumvallation, and had extended their predatory excursions to the
nether ocean beyond the dominions of the Yunka Machicas (Alta Peruvians)
into those under the rule of Mauna Chusoes (children of the sun), whose
women were esteemed very beautiful, being compared by a Heraclean
chronicler of the period, ‘to all that was lovely in person, with a
complexion that blended upon a surface of white, the reflected rays of
burnished copper and gold.’ This comparison conveys the rich expression
of metallic voluptuousness so much coveted by your Roman ancestry. These
ravishing toys of passion heralded the end. Your immediate ancestors had
obtained an asylum in your present City of the Falls. ‘The end came and
with it our hopes of communication with our colonies beyond the ocean.’
“Although aware of the approaching catastrophe, we had supposed the
falcons would be spared, but the Indians included everything living in
the sum of their hatred that had contributed in any way to the
oppressive pleasures of their taskmasters, unfortunately including all
but eight of the falcons in the massacre, sacrificing with them some of
our best volantaphs. The eight were employed in transporting our
Mouthpat neighbors to Rome, Gaul, and Iberian Asturias; but it was hard
to keep in advance of their reproductive tendencies with so small a
fleet.
“There was, however, a slight improvement in getting rid of the old
stock, but the Dosch little thought of the possible injurious effect the
Mouthpats were likely to exert in retarding the progressive prosperity
of our colonists. But when, in the course of a few years they were
deprived of their last falcon, the Manatitlans were led by the
troublesome dispositions of their neighbors to reflect upon the evil
ingraft they had imposed upon the labors of their people abroad. This
source of anxiety has been so greatly magnified in the course of
centuries which have passed since the loss of our last falcon, that, in
our distress, we now appeal to your suffering sympathies for aid in
reclaiming those of the descendants of our carrier breed who have, from
ancestral habits of association with your race, made their eryemews
within the circuit of your cinctus walls. In like return, when your sons
and daughters have redeemed for us the means of more safe and long
sustained flight, we shall be better able to render you service against
your enemies.”
_Indegatus._ “I have listened to my son’s transmission of your request,
and we will thankfully comply with your desire!”
_Giganteo._ “That you may be enabled to effect the good I contemplate,
it will be necessary for you to restrict your confidence to those of
your family who have arrived at the understanding age of discretion. For
with your people’s knowledge of our existence and communication with
you, our efforts would be rendered void.”
_Indegatus._ “We can readily understand the many ways in which its
publicity would compromise your endeavors to render us aid, and you can
rely upon our watchful discretion and submission to your direction. But
I would wish to be resolved upon a subject all important for the
fulfillment of our higher responsibility? Your discursive narration of
events in your locomotive attainments, has implied a reliance upon a
higher source of aid than our gods. It would appear that you claim for
creation a sole Creator, who has bestowed upon mankind a duality,
compounded of instinct for the support and prompting of material
manifestations of the body, with an affectionate guide in readiness for
an alliance to perfect individuality for a happy earthly initiation of
the animus into the blissful current of immortality? This has reflected
through the darkness of our customary usages a path of light, most
cheering in prospect of immortality! Do you deny the existence of Gods
whose favors are to be propitiated with acceptable prayers and
sacrifices?”
_Giganteo._ “We have within ourselves all sufficient evidence of a
supreme Creator, who has created mankind with a privileged superiority
from an alliance with affectionate purity and goodness. A knowledge of
this optional endowment we have derived from its practical observance in
exampled association, founded upon an educated preference above, and for
the affectionate direction of our bodies self-sustaining instincts. Of
our method of education, which adapts the body’s instincts for the
allied entertainment of animus purity and goodness for affectionate
anticipations of immortality, we will practically instruct you in season
for adoption.”
_Indegatus._ “Then you not only deny the existence of our Gods, but
erect an altar within the body for the sacrifice of animal passions, in
purification for the reception of a proffered alliance with affectionate
goodness?”
_Giganteo._ “Your quick comprehension surprises me! It will, however,
lead you to a ready appreciation of our system of education for insuring
allied reciprocation.”
_Indegatus._ “The cause of my augur sight is that my parents offered
with example a happy impression of attainments in kind with those you
describe. But as the hour of reflection approaches I will ask you to
join us, that you may be refreshed, for the continuation of your
suggestive history, with its application to our needs under the
direction of your people!”
_Giganteo._ “Gratias, for your kind proffer! But I must not allow my
appetite to act the parasite in your famishing need. My wife occupies
the howdah of the phaeton, and has brought at least a month’s provision,
so that in our plenty we are better able to share with you, and I
should, at least in the form of courtesy, have asked you to test
Leoptilea’s skill in the culinary art; for I can assure you, she has an
excellent reputation in the art of appetizing food combinations.”
Gnipho and his brother, with all their restraining efforts, could not
refrain from a hearty outburst of merriment at this courteous sally of
the Dosch, whose commissary stores for a month’s supply for himself,
wife, companions, and volantaphs, were the scarcely perceptible burden
of a bee. Indegatus catching the infection, the trio startled the
hereditary silence of the latifundium with the unusual echoes of jocund
laughter, causing the distant laborers to suspend their occupations in
wondering surprise at the vent of emotions which had been so long
suppressed with the rule of discontent and anxiety. The cause of this
ebullition lent his mitey chirrup to swell the chorus, and incite its
continuance with Gnipho. Changing to the ear of Indegatus after the more
urgent emotions had subsided, the Dosch complimented him for his well
preserved sympathetic mirthful tones of voice, expressing in
commendation his surprise that the long disuse of mirth provocatives had
not caused the resonance of his intonations to become dry and wheezy.
Then, in continuation, he said, “Now that I have gained your kindly
appreciation seasoned with the genial sympathy of a hearty laugh, I will
rejoin my family while you are absent with yours during the heat of
noontide.”