During the interim of letter writing in readiness for the anticipated
opening of courier communication with St. Lucia and Anelcoy, Captain
Greenwood had advised Correliana of his wish that the padre and sailors
Jack and Bill should meet the steamer at the latter place. His despatch
urged haste, as he was about to leave the gold spit, which they were
then working; its deposits had become nearly exhausted. When she made
the wishes of the captain known, Abdul Nycaster, the son of the
mayorong, volunteered to act as courier under the conduct of a party of
lower river Indians. These Indians, called by the Mestizoes, Vermojotes,
ranked next to those of the upper valleys in trustworthy intelligence,
so that no fears were entertained for the safety of those intrusted to
their care.
A few mornings after the despatch of the courier and his party, the
Dosch resumed the historical thread of his narration.
* * * * *
You can well imagine, the chronicler exclaims, the enthusiastic
admiration of the Prætor Indegatus’s children for the Manatitlans, when
they saw the anxious expression of their parents’ faces give place to an
unspeakable joy, which imparted its radiance alike to his former
adherents and foes. In evidence of their grateful sincerity they were
unremitting in their endeavors to perfect themselves for the duties of
censors and teachers, as well as in the more direct returns of material
aid to their benefactors’ affections, from their success in raising and
training falcons, which promised the means for the speedy accomplishment
of a reunion with colonistic correlatives. A year and a half had
scarcely passed before the volantaphs were able to extend their flights
a day and a third’s distance in stretch over the ocean, for their own
instruction in the management of the birds free from exhausting
irritation, as well as to accustom them to devour their food while
sustained with parachute and outstretched wings. The volantaphs, while
disengaged from the active duties of their profession, kept the
democratic instincts of the Heracleans in mindful dread of harboring
thoughts of disaffection, held in legacy from hypocrisy, the
progenitorial mother of hatred and misrule, as they had been taught,
with lessons of chagrin, that their thoughts were no longer their own.
The result of this knowledge enforced sincerity, which begat cheerful
confidence in association, an effect that soon became manifest to the
besiegers. Elasticity of thought, unprejudiced by suspicion, soon
imparted its health-giving impression to the movements of the body, and
action of the senses, directing them to the cultivation of useful
occupations devoted to the common welfare. This freedom, in surcease
from the treacherous enactments of suspicion, produced symptoms of
reviving alacrity in the unanimity of action, which the savages detected
from their perch on the brink of the falls’ precipice, with puzzled
surprise, evinced by the changing increase of numbers, and curious gaze
of the watchers. The first practical use made of the falcons had been
devoted to watching the Indians to learn their projected intentions,
with the purpose of defeating them by anticipation without loss to the
Heracleans. The unaccountable improvement in the condition and
cordiality of the citizens made the savages more wary and watchful. The
river savages, suspicious of the valley Indians, kept a large body of
their number constantly before the gates to prevent treachery. From
couriers, which had been sent to the most distant of the river tribes,
it was evident that some new and more energetic scheme was in progress
to bring the siege to a close. While the valley harvesting was in
progress, the volantaphs had observed long trains of loaded llamas
proceeding up the Lepula and Vermejo valleys, and their destination was
traced to a cave in the basaltic continuation of the falls’ precipice,
about a mile to the north of the city. Giganteo explored the cave, and
found that it contained extensive stores of dried fish, squillated
meats, (hardened by the combined action of heat, pressure, and smoke),
corn and maize parched, ready for grinding, in preparation for their
favorite murmiel, also dried fruits in abundance. As the extent of the
hoard foreboded large auxiliary accessions he was alarmed, and only
thought of adding to the defenses of the city. While in flight around
the city to examine if there was in the walls an accessible foothold for
the savages, an accidental discovery suggested the idea of appropriating
the stores of the cave for the benefit of the Heracleans. Satisfied that
the moats and walls were free from adventitious aids of encouragement
for savage emprise, his attention was attracted by a jetty of basaltic
rock that projected into the northern basin of the falls from the
outward shore. Measuring its distance from the terminus of the wall and
base of the precipice, he found that the space would admit of the
circuit swing of a bridge sufficiently long for secure lodgment against
the jetty. His brother, an engineer of ability, had a model of a bridge
with the required measurements prepared for the prætor with a
descriptive statement of its object. Great was the joy of the prætor’s
family when this projected source of relief was explained with the
assurance of its working practicability, which promised to render
nugatory the designs of the leaguers, by depriving them of their ready
means of subsistence, thereby provoking suspicion of treachery, with the
probable result of disruption and dispersion. The prætor immediately
paid a visit to this loophole of promised good fortune, accompanied by
the most skillful Heraclean artisans, who declared, after consulting the
measurements, that with the floating material the plan was not only
feasible, but the bridge could be quickly constructed. The Dosch
recommended that the northern crematorial temple should be dismantled,
as its timbers were well suited in length and seasoned lightness for the
purpose. But this proposed act of desecration created a momentary
impression of dismay in the mind of Indegatus, to which was added his
fears of reviving the citizens’ superstitious prejudices, as it would be
held as an open defiance of the avenging gods. The Dosch appeased his
misgivings, with the promise of anticipating religious objections. This
was accomplished, but it required skillful substitution of thought,
notwithstanding the prospect of plenty offered in the event of success.
The labor imposed, in the quick execution of the work, aided in subduing
the conjurations of danger, while the veil of mist rising from the spray
of the waterfall effectually screened from the eyes of the Indian
sentinels the work in progress.
By the time the valley Indians had gathered and garnered their crops,
adding their quota to the stores of the cave, the bridge was launched
for trial, and from the buoyancy of the timber was found to be portably
light and strong, so that in reversed movement against the current it
could be easily managed. Gnipho was its sole occupant in trial essay,
guiding with a rope the safe lodgment of its distal extremity against
the jetty. When well tested in all of its working movements it was drawn
back with comparative ease; but not before the adventurous Gnipho had
reached and reconnoitered the entrance of the cave. For the prætor’s
reassurance of the favorable acception of the enterprise by the
citizens, the leaders of those who were formerly disaffected made a
public acknowledgment of their transgressions, at the same time
tendering their full submission to his direction. Although greatly
shocked with the atrocity of their meditated treachery he forgave them
without reproach.
The river savages, feeling secure against surprise from the watchful
care of the guards before the cinctus gates, and sentinels upon the
brink of the precipice overlooking the city, left but few of their
number to guard the cave. When sufficiently dark to screen their
movements, on the night set for the fruition of their enterprise, the
men, women, and children of Heraclea were astir, and ready to use the
utmost of their strength for the success of their foraging expedition.
When the Indian camp before the gates had become quiet the party
selected to surprise the keepers of the cave started and without
difficulty effected their purpose. The prætor leading the surprise party
had ordered that the Indian guards should be secured without the loss of
life, if it could be effected without endangering the success of the
undertaking. But their savage desperation in using their teeth rendered
the destruction of life necessary. This was effected by suffocation,
advised by the Dosch that marks of violence might be avoided, hoping
thereby to involve with mysterious dread the cause of death; as the
river savages were known to hold as strong a belief in the agency of
evil spirits, as the Heracleans in the vengeful ire of their gods. While
the bodies of the savage guards were being placed in imposing attitudes
to excite the awe of their companions when discovered, the work of
transporting the stores of the cave had already commenced, great care
being taken that no vestige should be dropped by the way to indicate the
course, or from whence, in identification, the despoilers came. The
llamas, after the transportation of the stores was accomplished, were
stabled in the southern crematorial temple, under the screen of the
cloud mist of the falls, which had formerly subserved, under the
ritualistic ceremonies of priestcraft, to mystify the superstitious of
the Heracleans.
With the first gleam of the sun on the dial brink of the falls, on the
succeeding morning, the Heracleans offered their first pæan song of
thanksgiving, before the open portals of their houses, in gratitude for
the inauguration of an era of plenty; the first in the provisionary
record of centuries. After their morning meal they engaged in their
usual avocations with wonted composure; at least in as much as the
savages could detect from their perch on the brink of the precipice; but
to the close observer there was an elation in the expression of their
faces that gave sure indication of a recent event of extraordinary
import, proclaiming a happy emancipation from anxiety. At the suggestion
of the Dosch the volantaphs watched the movements of the different
tribes to observe the effect produced by the discovery of their loss.
Until after the meridian hour had passed the vicinity of the grotto
granary gave no indications of life, then a heavy rain set in, that
served to still further delay visits of inquiry prompted by the non-
appearance of the store guards. But early on the following morning the
wildest commotion prevailed, the tribes in scattered bands were seen
hastening from every quarter toward the cave. For the first time panic
fear, in attraction, made them forget the objects of their undying
vengeance, for the camps were deserted on every side, leaving the city
to its own guard. This opportunity offered for a second sally was not
neglected. A large amount of forage was collected from the deserted
camps; but from the signaled report of a retrograde movement, still more
disordered in the haste of fright, the Heracleans were about to abandon
it to the flames, when they fortunately recollected that they held in
possession the arms of the savages, so they easily turned the current
aside and garnered their second trove safely within the city gates.
A bee phaeton had been held in requisition by the Dosch to observe the
effect of Gnipho’s ghastly array of dead savages, in pantomimic
postures, with eyes distended, and outspread hands as if to guard them
from a sight of horror, while their backs were half turned as if
deprived of life in the act of escaping. When the Dosch arrived the
savages were collected around the mouth of the cave, none having the
courage to enter, but all, in act, were seemingly desirous of obtaining
the intervention of his neighbor’s body as a shield of protection from
apprehended danger. But at last the luskols (Indian priests) were forced
into the cave, the lesser grades being used as a wall of protection for
the higher. The Dosch described the scene as horribly ludicrous when
viewed from their interior position. “The fearful contortions of the
diviners, as they were pushed forward with their unwilling features half
exposed to the light from the mouth of the cave, in contrast with the
dead dramatis personæ, furnished a study that we had no desire to
prolong with the concurrent evidence of fear derived from auramentation.
It was a hideous sight to behold these otherwise untamable brutes in
human form, so abjectly appalled by the dead bodies of their late
companions, simply from an arrangement in posture at variance with their
traditional ideas of cadaverous propriety. Bewildered with the first
glance, they became, of themselves, immovable with fright, until the
reactive alarm from the cavernous sound reëchoing the breathing catches
and grunts of the struggling mass behind, caused a frantic effort of
wild desperation to regain the freedom of the open air. This contagious
spasm of fear relaxed the energies of those obstructing the entrance so
that they were held intact, a helpless mass immovably impacted over
which those from the interior made their way in scrambling disregard to
the means used in effecting their liberation. Paralyzed in voice
utterance, the only sounds heard were shuffling struggles accompanied by
a succession of ucks from the by no means gentle action of elbows upon
opposing bodies. When at length the blockading mass crawled forth,
bruised to the necessity of quadrumanal progression, their luskols had
disappeared in flight. After the cave was cleared we took a high bee-
line, from which we were able to see at a glance the many curious scenes
enacted in their flight from the self pursuit of fear, which in
variation kept us constantly convulsed with laughter.” The day was well
advanced before all the stragglers regained their despoiled camps; then,
without apparent regard for their loss, they commenced a second exodus
to a grove under the precipice to the south of the city, with the
evident intention of being as far from the reach of the cave’s scroul
influence as possible. With the certainty that fear would prevent the
savages from trespassing within the prescribed boundaries to the north
of the city, Giganteo assured the prætor that the citizens need have no
fear of using the pasture and arable land, accessible by the basin
bridge, in the night time, if they would only take the precaution to
dress in white, as that was esteemed by the superstitious of all tribes
and nations as the favorite color of spirits blest and damned. The
besiegers soon became aware of a marked improvement in the physical
condition of the besieged. This they attributed to the unfitness of
their luskols, who were deposed and sacrificed upon their own altars.
The Dosch, relator, here remarked that instinctive fear excited from
variations in natural cause and effect from accustomed routine was alike
common to all the grades of animality. The dogs howl in dread from the
sun’s eclipse; the cattle of the plain, and swine, the omnivorous
congeners of mankind, will pass unheeded the dead of their species when
the cadavers are natural in position, but when suspended from the
branches of trees they become affected with the impulse of dismay, and
like the savages endeavor to escape from the scene without the motive
power of direction. The birds of the air are paralyzed with the same
impulse of instinctive terror when warned of the earthquake’s shock by
the herald hush of preternatural silence. Taking advantage of these
controlling fears of instinct, that prey upon themselves in retributive
reprisal, “philosophic” and designing mythologists have conjured creed
distinctions of imaginary attributes, which in combination are unitized
under the style of soul. Upon this mythical assumption of attributive
materialization, they have founded a system of compensation for its
salvation, in a mazy labyrinthine series with a graceless cordon of
conditional graces under the signs manual of saving, efficacious,
sufficient, and redeeming privilege. In contradistinction to this
undefinable process of instinctive soul elaboration in the scale of
rewards, follows the retributive punishments, but so inextricably
intermixed in chaotic confusion that ritualistic words of lunatic
designation are used in substitution for the intelligent expression of
thought. The priesthood of the sects, or herds, that become adherents to
the formalistic use of words and material rites administered for
instinctive regeneration, talk in public discourse to distract attention
from the peaceful meditation of goodness. Notwithstanding the
multiplication of these most daring and glaring inconsistencies, which
have banished with truth, sincerity, and confiding affection, the masses
of humanity are still held in blind subserviency to the fantastic rules
and rulers of instinct in kind. You will scarcely wonder at the slight
impression that we have made with auramental thought substitution, while
the instincts of your race are constantly distracted with the bellowing
exhortations of sectarian recruiting preachers, in combination with
inebriate oaths of the passers-by in derisive profanation of the
worshiper’s selfish deity. Perversion and prostitution have so degraded
the legitimate powers of perception, that the pleasures of instinct have
become a source of misery from nauseating excess in over-indulgence.
Indeed, from sheer disgust, we have been inclined to discontinue
auramentation altogether; for your pretentious civilization, and
enlightened progression, is in fact nothing more than savagery refined
with art inventions for the morbid gratification of instinctive
sensuality; which in recurring product have given birth to toil and
turmoil, greedy vexations, strife, hatred, and kindred passionate
distempers cultivated in infatuated expectation that they will yield in
reversion, after death, instinctive soul purification and a heaven of
peaceful rest.
The Betongese, although accounted savages, would disdain to acknowledge
ancestors who had tried in ecclesiastical courts of luskol diviners,
dogs and swine for murder and witchcraft, with the farcical appointment
of civil pleaders of the legal fraternity for their defense!
notwithstanding the special qualifications of the latter for clearing
the defendants. From your ready appreciation of the higher dispensations
of purity and goodness, in exampled enactment, the Heracleans can
scarcely realize that you ever participated in the ruling delusions of
your race. Your physical comfort, and freedom from insect plagues, in
Heraclea, are derived in legacy bestowal from ancestral purity, devised
in healthy enactment by the Heracleans to fulfill present attainment. By
following these corrective indications your race would forefend their
kind from the imposed penalties of curative professional plagues, who
flourish from maladies bred in the flesh from over indulgence, in
reckless regard of the certain recurrence of like from like. Our falcons
in their three days passage across the ocean emit the osprey’s fishy
odor; and with assimilation the English, French, and Germans exhibit in
national crudities the instinctive effects of diet. These are inevitable
facts that admit of no palliative variation in deterioration in the
process of hereditary transmission; this an observer of a single
generation cannot fail to discover if possessed with ordinary powers for
comparative discernment. With this deviation from our historical path,
designed for Mr. Welson’s analytical aid in the classification of
evidences pertaining to the gradation developments of instinct, we will
now continue our relation by quoting from the chronicler Titview’s
record of the 2d Falcon Era.