While Gnipho was rehearsing the wonders of his marvelous interview with
the Dosch of Manatitla, to his mother and sisters, as he was about
closing he became suddenly silent, with his eyes drawn attentively to
his right ear. The strabismic impulse startled his mother and sisters,
but a bright smile on Gnipho’s face relieved their fears. In a few
seconds he held out his hand, and presented, with an introduction, the
Dosch and his wife, with their companions. When female curiosity had
subsided the Doschessa intimated her desire to hold an auramental
interview with the eldest daughter! Her compliance was accompanied with
evidences of trepidation, but after a few minutes these subsided giving
place to an expression of vivacious interest, indicating a discussion of
matters pertaining to female economy. The Dosch observing these symptoms
of female confluency, reminded the prætor that the confidence of the sex
was formalistic, and never free in the presence of males! Acting upon
this hint Indegatus with the Dosch, Gnipho, and brother withdrew to the
thalmus auditorium. The renewed interview of the Dosch with Indegatus
and sons was opened by Gnipho, who petitioned his father, “May I
question the Dosch to obtain further knowledge of this power of self
control? It appears so natural and free from the delusions of our
worship, in which we are constantly supplicating for what we neglect to
obtain from our own endowed resources, it must insure happy contentment
in life, and as he says, a pro-realizing foretaste of immortality.
Indeed, father, I have before felt that there was within my control a
peaceful joy that would serve as a shield from self-deception and the
wiles of hypocrisy, which, in grateful thankfulness, I have wished to
impart for others’ benefit.”
_Indegatus._ “My son, I have looked back with reverence upon the
ceremonial forms of worship practiced by our ancestors, relying upon
their efficacy without questioning the authenticity of their divine
origin. Even on the appearance of the Dosch, as a stranger, in a form so
questionable, and in accordance with my preconceived ideas of
disembodied spirits, I did not doubt but that he was a nuncio of some
special admonition, in answer to my supplications for aid in controlling
the disaffected Heracleans, who have so greatly increased the misery of
our position. But since he has convinced us that he is in reality a
diminutive impersonation of our mortality, and has spoken so directly to
our understanding, my eyes have been opened to the profane delusions of
our long practiced ritualistic rites, addressed from and to an
instinctive void, in evasion of our privileged endowment of goodness,
which should direct our grateful thanksgivings to the Supreme Creator.
We are surrounded with sad realities, which require self reliance for
their correction, and from the source of goodness we can alone hope for
directing aid. The discourse of the Dosch harmonizes with a host of new
thoughts, which convict me, from past admonitions, of willful
infatuation and stupidity in avoiding the animus impressions of my
better nature. In the sincerity of truthful surprise, we can now look
forward, my sons, with the confident hope of inaugurating for future
generations a source of happiness that will reflect the current rays of
immortality. But we should address our grateful emotions to the Dosch,
who has interested himself for the redemption of our race from selfish
infatuation.”
_Giganteo._ “I must again express my astonishment for the apt perception
you have shown in discovering the means premised for rendering the
Heracleans amenable to self control, and offer grateful acknowledgments
to ancestral auramentors for the presage they bestowed for the easy
enhancement of my success. The volantaphs will now describe to Gnipho
and his brother the position where the nest mews of the falcons can be
found, and when transferred to those in the house adjoining the one you
occupy, you will receive the necessary instruction for rendering them
serviceable.”
After a few quotations from the old volantaphs with reference to the
treatment and training of eyasses they returned to the apartment where
the Doschessa and her companions were entertained by the family of the
prætor. The mother and daughters were so deeply engaged in curious
inquiries that the return of her husband and sons remained for some time
unnoticed. When listening had become tedious to the Dosch, he requested
Gnipho to congratulate his mother and sisters upon their freedom from
awe in conversing with disembodied spirits, as their hoarseness gave
evidence of a busy, if not a clear, occupation; which, from the sequel
they had been privileged to hear, seemed to be devoted to the worship of
a doubtful divinity. The mother replied, that they had been taught that
appearances were deceptive, and he could have but little reason to
wonder, from his own and people’s extraordinary size, if first
impressions seemed to verify the adage in a most remarkable way.
Especially when they reflected that the whole race of Manatitlans,
consolidated, would but little exceed in size a single Heraclean. “But
the moment we became accustomed to the pipeleo voices of your wives, and
could understand what they said, why bless you, we knew at once they
were mortal women, for every word and accent of their tongues bespoke
the nature of our sex, and we acknowledged without thinking the reality
of their minute personalities. But then, they expressed themselves so
wisely in the unity of their affection, that we again doubted; for it
appeared so far beyond the reach of mortal attainment, in the power and
reciprocation of individual control, that we felt within ourselves the
impossibility of a near approach to their sympathies in genial merit.
But quickly perceiving our new source of regretful dismay, they
described to us how they had been educated, and what was proposed for
the benefit of our people; so we were consoled that the difference in
attainment was only in the degree of perfection, which we should realize
in progressive ratio from the grateful reciprocation of future
generations. Our children appreciate the advantages, and are determined
to act in consonance with your directions, but we cannot hope for a near
approach to a love as disinterested as your people’s, who have never
known the misery entailed from the ranklings of envious detraction. If
the impression you wish to make on those of our citizens who are
hardened in their conspirations for misrule, prove successful, although,
for the time being, it ministers for good through the superstitious
vagaries of their perverse blindness, we will bless you in their behalf
for the legacy of affection that will return to them through their
children’s dutiful love. Indeed, they will be ignorantly grateful, that
your people made them subserve as bridges for the safe passage of their
children over the slough of accumulations that flow from the sewerage
gratifications of sensuality. Yesterday, we worshiped, with them, gods
of man’s creation, bearing the kindred impress of decay, and, with our
authority, would have punished with death those subject to a defection
like our own of to-day. Yet, we have often been led, from the exampled
enactments of our parents, to question the happiness of a heaven where
the aggravating fluctuations of our earthly associations would be
continued. For, with even less faith than my husband, I could not
realize the wisdom of a divine economy that designed, in defiance of
original intention, to elevate brute mortality, in human shape, to the
privileges of purity self-refused by earthly election. To our great
relief, you have resolved this trying source of perplexity conformably
with our wished-for reverence, sanctioned from an endowment of purity.
Thankful to the source of our enlightened preservation, we can now
clearly discern, through Creative indications, the path to immortality,
purified from the adventurous impositions of superstitious instinct.
Grateful that the realizing perfection, in the increase of attainment,
will be reflected back from generation to generation, in recompense for
the interest of our indebtedness to you, we now proffer it, with the
involving title it confers of reducing past and future to present
embodiment.”
_Giganteo._ (In whispered enthusiasm to Gnipho.) “Your mother is an
oracle of giga understanding, and the wisdom of her responses has proved
an heirloom to her children which should cause you to be ever grateful
with thankful manifestations in songs of praise to the Supreme Source of
all good.”
_Gnipho._ (In enunciated thought) “We are truly grateful, and love her
beyond expression.”
Here Gnipho raised his hand impulsively to his ear, before thought, from
loving engrossment, could check the movement from the impression of
cause.
_Giganteo._ “Pardon me! In my nervous desire to reach the tragus, that I
might witness the expression of your mother’s face as my wife imparted
your testimony for the increase of her joy, I trusted my whole weight,
with the impetus of a catch, to one of the vibbrilæ in a tender portion
of your ear. The twinge of pain I caused was well repaid with the glance
I caught of the radiant joy that suffused her face.”
Gnipho laughingly explained the cause of his sudden grimace, cautioning
his mother to be more guarded in exciting the admiration of her guests
while they were tenants of others’ ears! Before she could reply a number
of the leading conspirators, with others of the disaffected, called with
terror-stricken faces, imploring Gnipho, who received them in the
audience chamber, to intercede with his father for their forgiveness.
Gnipho from auramental dictation replied: “My father will receive your
acknowledgments of treasonable designs against your own happy
preservation in the temple fora when overshadowed in the sun’s decline
from the brink of the falls!” With “repentant” fear and its prompted
“sorrow” they humbled themselves with submissive servility, beseeching
the son to present to his father their humble duty, with the hope that
he would forgive their past transgressions. Gnipho promised that he
would deliver their message to his father, with the assurance of his
forgiveness, if in token of their sincerity they would endeavor to
controvert the injury they had inflicted upon the community by casting a
suspicion upon the integrity of his family, when, as they were well
aware, his family had been devoted to the public welfare. They departed,
upon receiving this admonition, giving voice to those abject terms of
submission, common to democratic expression when detected in acts of
base ingratitude. This interview, with others that followed in quick
succession, gave evidence that the promised leaven of Manatitlan aid was
working, which caused the prætor’s family to express in the warmest
terms their grateful admiration. After a few weeks, employment of
Manatitlan talent in the revived art of auramental thought-substitution,
with the addenda revelation of secrets in embryo, from presumed
miraculous intervention of divine power exercised through the prætor,
the citizens, without exception, were brought into subjection to his
direction.
This led to the immediate inauguration of the Manatitlan system of
education. The transformation of the temples of the foræ, for the
reception of the children, inspired a feeling of instinctive awe from
the audacity of the undertaking, which was heightened by the humorous
devisements of auramentation practiced by the volantaphs engaged in
directing the education of the brothers and sisters in the art of
falconry. With the completion of the temples for the reception of the
children, the families of the prætor’s nearest relatives and adherents
supplied the schools with teachers and censors, and in a few years all
the citizens became warm supporters of the new system, fully impressed
with its manifold benefactions from an increase in affectionate
confidence. The children of Indegatus soon became proficients in the
successful training of falcons, and were then able to place a large
fleet of birds at the disposal of their benefactors. Since the time of
Indegatus, the daughters of the prætors have assumed the charge of the
mews as an hereditary heirloom.
* * * * *
At this stage of the historical relation M. Hollydorf, with the
suggestive aid of the Dosch, completed his summary of the events that
had transpired from the commencement of their river explorations to
date, which was addressed to the secretary of the R. H. B. Society.
Afterwards, Mr. Welson, with the same aid, directed letters of inquiry
to his “friend” M. Baudois, a French scientific gentleman, resident
correspondent of the R. H. B. A. of Paris, at Montevideo, who employed
his time in fishing, for the classification of the inhabitants of the La
Plata estuary, with the intention of comparing them with the fishes of
the Mediterranean Sea, to determine the migratory tendencies effected by
variations in the current monsoon, to and from the Strait of Gibraltar.
He had also traced the glacial indications of the neighborhood, in
search of transition tracks of rocks in the diluvial currents of the
prehistoric periods of the earth’s immersion, before its surface
extension regulated with its axis movements, the winds, and tides. He
wrote a second letter, of like import, to Don Pedro Garcia of Buenos
Ayres, an antiquarian of note, expressing a desire for his coöperation
with M. Baudois for elucidating the probable origin of the Kyronese; and
in the collection of all available collateral evidence for
substantiating the approximate period of the Heracleans’ advent upon the
Mauna Luna shore (American); urging him to separate and classify his
proofs so that there might be no Mandevillian interweaving of facts with
traditions and conjecture, as they were intended for Mr. Dow’s use in
his elaboration of Heraclean history. With the desire expressed for
their aid in behalf of Mr. Dow’s undertaking, he did not forget to
advise them of the essential advantages he had derived from the
discovery of the representative remnants of humanity descended from
castaway exiles of the eastern continent. In illustration of the effect
produced he described, for the benefit of Don Pedro’s family, the
impression of Correliana Adinope’s presence upon the wife of one the
Vermejo chiefs, who was of Spanish birth, having been kidnapped in
girlhood from the settlement of Amelcoy.
“You, and yours, will become more perfectly impressed with the
comparative effect produced upon me from intercourse with the
Heracleans, under Manatitlan direction, by repeating, in your own
language, the testimony of a mother of your own race who has been
subjected to the wifely use of a savage chief of the Vermejo tribe since
her abduction at the age of twelve years. ‘Ay moi!’ she exclaimed, after
a visit from the Heraclean maiden we rescued. ‘When Correliana comes
there is something new and good in my body that comes forth to meet her,
for I feel no longer like myself, I am so happy. Then I talk to her in a
way quite unknown to myself; ay me, how placid my heart grows with the
light of her presence, and love, which makes me feel and forget how much
I have lost. But when she goes away the darkness returns, and I am a
beast again; then my children ask wonderingly. “Mamma what makes you so
good when she comes, and then scold so badly when the men come back?” I
try to tell them of the light that comes with her, and the darkness that
my people bring to put out the light of my love; for when the hombres
talk the good leaves me, and feel that I am lodo again. If she could
always be with me, what a source of joy I could be for my children. Yet,
she says, that my children, who are nurslings, will be permitted, by
their fathers, to attend the Heraclean schools, to learn how to comfort
me when I am old, with a love like hers. If this should come to pass,
what love there will be in store for me? But we are not like you!’
“With my comforting assurance, that her children, if intrusted to the
charge of the Heracleans before they became accustomed to the ways of
her people, would be taught by exampled association the same soothing
sympathy that had proved so grateful from its influence imparted by
Correliana, she anxiously asked, after a few moments of thoughtful
meditation, whether her children would not love their teachers better
than their mother, for their goodness was constant in its brightness,
and prefer to live with them to her neglect? When I was able to make her
understand that the object of the school was to encourage an undying
love in children for all that was good in their parents, so that its
brightness would extend with increased strength beyond the present life,
her mind became enraptured with the thought of increasing her own worth
to merit the fulfillment of my promise.”