After the letters of M. Baudois and Don Pedro had been read aloud to the
Prætor’s family, the Dosch remarked that the Animalculan Mouthpats
furnished confirmatory evidence of the provincialism of the Asiatic
Heraclean emigrants, as they were undoubtedly parasitic companions of
the involuntary voyage across the ocean. Their Scythio-Celtic jargonic
idiom corresponds with the Latins’ incursive invasions into the Klappish
and Celtic territories, while in habits and customs they show the marked
impression of instinctive traits peculiar to the old Heracleans in their
irruptive stages of progression. With the classical tendency of history
to transmit evil, the Mouthpats have retained the traditional
impressions of their ancestors’ instinctive association with the Gigas,
in addition to those derived from direct inheritance in kind.
In compliance with Don Pedro’s request for Manatitlan aid and
protection, the Dosch announced his intention of sending two giantescoes
to act as auramental governantes for Lovieta and Lavoca, preparatory to
their entrance into the Heraclean school, which were to be selected from
the reserve maiden fund for the relief of widowers. In answer to Mr.
Welson’s inquiry with regard to their age, the Dosch assured him that
there was no need of anxiety on that score, for the funded maidens were
not of the soured acrimonious kind represented as “old maids” by Giga
bruits, whose passionate instincts of affection had been denied
marriageable reciprocation, but of matured kindly dispositions to whom
the controlling influence of animal passion was unknown. “Yet,” he
continued, “they possess the common inheritance of womankind, which
delights in making the tongue vocalize thoughtful inspirations of
affection; but with our Manatitlan matrons and maidens its use for
detraction is also unknown.”
Correliana’s usually quiet composure had shown evidences of happy
transition to fluttering excitement, after an interview with the padre,
which was heightened when the Dosch, after the preliminaries for
Manatitlan correspondence with the family of Don Pedro had been
arranged, asked her to show the material cause of her gratefully glad
perturbation. Upon this hint she produced from her bosom the
photographic likeness of Captain Greenwood. This he had presented to her
on board of the _Tortuga_; but while engaged in packing, the day before
their departure for Heraclea, it had mysteriously disappeared, and after
thorough search it was supposed to be irretrievably lost. The wind was
charged with its abstraction, and the waters of the river as its
receiver, but Correliana was confident in the belief of their innocence
from the absence of the first party, as the day was perfectly calm, and
she recollected of placing it beneath a book when the Captain required
the aid of her hands. The book, unfortunately, was the “Art of
Confession Made Easy,” by Fray Manuel de Jaen; and belonged to Padre
Simon, who in one of his “fits” of abstraction recovered it, and used
the photograph as a mark, unobserved by Correliana; and as it contained
his polemical stock of knowledge for quotation, he was guarded in
withholding it from others, and immediately placed it in the transom
locker of his stateroom, where it remained lost to his own memory until
found by Antonio on the boat’s passage down the river. As the loss of
the photograph had been the cause of continued anxiety to all, from the
inconsolable regrets of the loser, the Captain determined to summons the
padre to appear with the couriers at Amelcoy, to bear the treasure back
to its owner, in penance for the sorrow he had caused by his
heedlessness. Correliana’s conscious blush of happiness, as the
semblance of her chosen was passed in review, imparted its impression to
the invisible as well as the visible, for the Doschavita with her
coterie of companions were anxious to judge of the selection made by
their favorite.
The Dosch remarked that the odd fancy of the premeditated surroundings,
was in kind characteristic of the jumble of gold, charity, and redeeming
grace, as the barter conditions of salvation in the Giga mythology.
Professional craftsmen, and mechanical members of societies and orders,
parade their badges and insignia as the vain-glorious emblems of
exclusive selfishness, while they preach a universal heaven free to all
without distinction of persons. Your democratic orators, styled the
“heaven born,” assume attitudes for portraiture suited to their special
assumptions of vanity for self-inflation; but with the evident fear that
the beholder’s perception will fail to engross the reflection of their
eloquent ability, they hold in their hands appropriately labeled books
or manuscripts. The doctor’s idiosyncratic pose is defiant, as if he
recognized death in a successful rival. With his nose scornfully
upturned he consults vacancy with his eyes, in search of prognostic
symptoms for diagnostic antagonism; his left hand advanced, is raised
aloft inclosing a vial wand labeled Nostratic Viaticum, while his right
with feeling expression triumphantly grasps the skull of a patient who
had tested the value of his prescriptive vise. The lawyer, brigand, and
priest, assume attitudes as characteristically expressive of
professional vanity. The vanity of the fashionable “lady,” with the
mythological signification of intention, adverse to her impressions,
rests with her hand, in studied negligence, placed upon a volume of
popular sermons, allowing the gilt label, “Christian Virtues,” to appear
with an array of ringed jewels upon her fingers.
Captain Greenwood in keeping with the advertising disposition of selfish
vanity, in emblematic signification of vocation, but with a humorous
variation, has perched himself upon a pile of bagged paddy (the Siamese
apply the term paddy to everything unclean), while a companion with the
evident design of expressing the gambling tendency of speculation, is
engaged in dealing “hands” from a pack of cards. In the background of
the photograph the religious view exposes a pagoda and mill for cleaning
paddy. The face of the captain expresses an impression of saturnine and
cynical appreciation of the rare combinations entering into the tout
ensemble of the picture. His dress, of Siamese fashion, is also in
alliance with the counterparts of the scene, and his cognomic
designation of Truly Rural Greenwood. The portrait reveals, with all its
incongruous constituents, the “sterling” qualities concealed beneath the
acrid asperities of the outer husk. These were discovered by our waiftly
Heraclean cousin; and her amused study of his germ, divested of the
rough externals imposed by customary habits, attracted his attention to
the cause, which led him to intrust the Kyronese to the care and
direction of Mr. Dow, and the vessel to his subordinates, while he
devoted himself to the removal of his civilized artificials, for the
weft of his thoughts with the proffer of her own. His quick appreciation
of her artless worth and purity directed his thoughts to self
investigation, with a perceptible improvement in all that pertained to
the ruling power of her influence. Notwithstanding the growing strength
of the attraction was open for the observance of all, not a word of
surprise was uttered, or a quizzical manifestation of instinct to
insinuate motives other than those of the purest nature expressed in an
alliance of the sexes. Even the “hands” and sailors’ tongues found no
prompting encouragement for gossip, each rendering homage to her power
with imposed reverence suited to their capabilities of perception, while
in evidence of the controlling influence of her example, there was a
marked change in their habits in all the essentials of purity.
Correliana submitted to the retrospective review of the Dosch, as a
matter of fact relation, in freedom from other emotions than those of
joyful gladness for the recovery of her treasure, and the appreciation
bestowed by the Manatitlan matrons upon the wisdom of her choice. Then
Mr. Dow smilingly offered the Dosch and Doschessa the privilege of
reading the letter of his wife and children; but as it was one of
reproof we will simply state, that in writing home he had been so much
absorbed in the prospective grandeur of his elevation as the precentor
of the discovery, that the remarkable traits of the Heracleans and
Manatitlans had scarcely been noticed, but in a sufficient degree for
the excitement of intense curiosity. This unpardonable oversight had
caused, in the place of congratulations, a letter filled to overflowing
with catechistic questions relating to the habits and customs of the
Animalculans, to the entire exclusion of a remark touching his agency in
the discovery, inasmuch as it would contribute to his personal fame. The
reflex action of Mr. Dow’s omission greatly amused the Dosch and his
wife. After the mirth had subsided, occasioned by the reading of Mr.
Dow’s family letter, which left him as void of home information as he
had left them in his letter communication with regard to the habits and
customs of the Manatitlans, M. Hollydorf proposed to read aloud the
reply of the R. H. B. Society to his letter.