The process of ablution having been completed, before the sun reached
its meridian, not only the new arrivals, with resident intention, but
the members of the corps, appeared in the lower fora dressed in
Manatitlan costume, which had been prepared for the occasion by the
Heracleans in commemoration of full adoption. The effect produced by the
change can be comprehensively expressed in the whispered announcement of
Lovieta and Lavoca as they regarded with admiring eyes the improvement
made in the _personnel_ of Don Guillermo when raised in his arms for
affectionate congratulation. “Oh! Don Guillermo, you look, and we feel
so nice and light, we could almost fly back to mamma and papa to make
them glad with happiness.” Then pointing to a group of Heraclean matrons
they asked, “Do they ever fly?”
_Don Guillermo._ “Oh yes, in thought to make others happy, they are
always in flight, and it is that which makes you feel so light and
joyous.”
_Lovieta._ “But shall we always feel so good, and grow to be like them?”
_Don G._ “Yes, we are certain that you will, because you are disposed to
be glad for the happiness of others, and measure your desires with the
wish that you may be useful in contributing to the welfare of others for
the return of their affection.”
_Lavoca_ (thoughtfully). “But will it last, Querido Don Guillermo? At
home we were sometimes so glad, and then [sadly] so very, very
miserable.”
_Don G._ “But you see before you those whose examples never change, but
to grow brighter and happier. When you grow more thoughtfully
considerate, you will feel that what you lack in attainment, others
older and more experienced will impart from their affection. Then in
grateful transfer you can assist those more inexperienced than yourself.
Of one thing you can be certain, there will be no Padre Molineros here
to mar your happiness with bead-prayers, exactions, and penances.”
_Lovieta._ “Of course, we can’t now understand all that you wish to have
us know, but we shall try hard to learn, with thought, how to make
others happy, that their love may teach us more than we know ourselves,
so that you can see when you come to visit us that we have neither been
idle or naughty. But now we can’t make much of ourselves, we do so many
things without thinking, and then are sorry after it can’t be helped.
But look, what are they bringing that table with the queer thing on the
end of it, out here for?”
_Don G._ “The instrument that excites your curiosity, enables us to see
and converse with the Manatitlans; but farther than that I am as much in
the dark as you are. We shall soon see, however.”
After a short pause occupied in arranging the tympano-microscope, the
Dosch from the auricular platform said, “According to our custom,
practiced from time immemorial, the sanction of parents in confirmation
of the marriage unity of their children, has been deemed and proved
sufficient for the affectionate realization of unity in fact. But as
your race of enlightened progressives have substituted shadow for
substance, as an act of conformity, in the lack of anointed priestcraft
I have volunteered to act as an officiating sponsor. If the prætor
sanctions my assumption, he can, with his wife, first bestow their
daughters according to our custom, and then I will duplicate the gift
with formulistic rites, so that there can be no question with regard to
the ‘orthodoxy’ of the union.”
To the glad surprise of M. Hollydorf, the parents bestowed Luocuratia to
his keeping, and Correliana to Captain Greenwood’s, in the same breath.
Then, when the sun had entered upon its meridian radius of ascension,
free from shadow, in the still hour of noontide when all nature was
hushed for repose, without inductive explanation, after the prætor had
placed his children in position, Manito and his choristers, in full
chorus chanted the nuptial ceremony with impressive effect, the
Heracleans joining in response.
“Here beneath the vertical sun,
Without shadow, you are plighted,
And with us now, in love are one,
And forever, ‘soul’ united.
“With Creative sanction, this, we ever pray,
May prove your present joy, and immortal stay.
Hail, glorious noon! these, our notes of love prolong,
And echo back with joy, this our nuptial song.”
Although arranged by the Dosch and prætor as a surprise, known to all
except the espoused, they quickly, with blissful perception discovered
the intention, and joined with thrillful zest Manito’s choristers, who
made the tympanum reverberate with the following hopeful prophecy and
refrain:—
“‘Old Lang Syne,’ in bloody record rules the past;
In the future, love and peace are now forecast.
Blessings have source, and flow from power Supreme,
Goodwill to all, now sounds the glorious theme.
Through the smallest of the human race,
Was delegated this act of ‘grace.’”
At the close of the marriage ceremony, the Dosch with his family quickly
regained the fossæ of Mr. Welson’s ears, the sinuosities of which were
made to resound with the prophetic responses, causing the eyes of the
owner thereof to turn with an instinctive strabism toward the organ
subject to the impression of Manatitlan vocalism. While his eyes were in
their retroverted position they attracted the attention of Lovieta and
Lavoca, who had recalled their wondering gaze for curious inquiry,
causing them to exclaim in a voice: “O Don Guillermo, what makes you
squint so?” Then, without waiting for an answer, they continued,
glancing at the reflected figures of the Manatitlans in the microscopic
field, “How much larger your little folks are than ours, and how
beautifully they sing.”
But Mr. Welson’s attention was too strongly diverted to give more than
an abstracted answer to his pets. At the close of the prophetic jubilee,
the Dosch answered, from the interpretation of Mr. Welson’s thoughts:
“We do certainly feel, from the docility shown by the leading members of
the corps, as if the wedge of rational thought had opened a passage
through the cycled round of folly for the ejection of the many self-
inflicted causes of misery, which have made life with your race a penal
infliction. The educated substitution of thought for impulsive
impression from the senses, which at present holds ruling sway, would
interpose a shield to prevent the emblematic union of head and tail, for
the vortex extinction of material civilization, and degradation for the
reënactment of savage barbarism through a long series of dark ages.
There is certainly a happy forecast inaugurated by this union, which
reminds us of our provincial success in raising human Animalculans to
become in reality Animalcumans; a distinction which our neophytes are
emulous of having conferred from self-approving merit. If it was not for
the selfish fighting disposition of Christian nations and sects, which
inclines them to instinctive patriotism and holy wars, advantage might
be taken of their superstitious reverence for things ancient, to attract
them hitherward as pilgrims, for their own behoof.”
Here the ears of the Dosch caught the subdued tones of familiar voices,
which from their peculiar method of construing terms he quickly
recognized, causing him to expostulate in this wise: “I hear the voices
of your old sailor companions, Jack and Bill; is it fitting that their
honest sincerity should alone be welcomed by their Kyronese admirers? If
their quaint, unsophisticated bluntness has been able to recognize the
truthful simplicity of Heraclean example, it will prove a greater
acquisition for the encouragement of hope than your own; as they
represent a class embalmed with the stupidity of erratic animal
indulgence, which subjects them to the vilest servitude ever imposed by
the arbitrary few upon the unthinking masses of humanity. Indeed, with
the exception of the self-imposed penalties of your Giga women’s vanity,
they suffer more abjectly from the fiat of hereditary usage than the
veriest slave that ever winced under the lash of the taskmaster.”
Mr. Welson and Dow soon added a glow of grateful contentment to the
weather-beaten faces of the two sailors, by extending to them a cordial
welcome, which was increased to manifestations of “weakness,” from the
warmth of the Heracleans’ affectionate reception. There was something so
uniquely attractive in the instinctive attachment of these strange
beings, who had wandered away from their element, that they had enlisted
a strong interest long before the possible existence of a human
Animalcuman had been conjectured; or an idea of the practicability of a
preferred affection had been suggested, in exaltation above the
instinctive type rendered “famous” by the fabled “friendship” of the
legendary Damon and Pythias. Mr. Welson had tested the fealty of their
attachment in a variety of ways on board of the _Tortuga_, with a
constant result in confirmation of its disinterested integrity.
Finding themselves the centre of attraction, which was seasoned with
manifold tokens of affectionate sincerity, they were fain to have
recourse to their “pocket-swabs, to clear the leakage from the run on
scuppers of their eyes,” with an occasional sounding of their nostril
pumps, to divert the emotional overflow from its natural course.
Correliana, in a transparent glow of radiant joy, for the relief of
their “filling condition, that water-logged” the speech of the “honest
tars,” asked Jack in good English, if he did not prefer his present
success in “drawing fire,” to the method he adopted with the Indians?
The question produced a sudden revulsion, which Bill seconded with a
nudge and a whisper, that could have been heard in a gale: “Say, Jack,
her leddyship had you there with the pint of a marlin.”
Taken aback, Jack gave a short, subdued hitch to his waistband and
mouth, and then replied, with the latter reefed into a smile: “You see,
m’rm, your leddyship, w’re now on a peaceful tack, for w’ve come to sign
the articles and enter our name as landsmen, if he cares to ship us at a
venture, and take us in tow for the v’yage of life, and mayhap for t’
other.” Then hesitating, to gather courage, which was gained by an extra
hitch of his waistband, he resumed: “You see, m’rm, if so be your father
would ‘low us to splice, we’d like to port our helm in Heraclea for
life.”
Understanding the tenor of the sailor’s petition, by the fond glances
exchanged by himself and mate, with the two Kyronese maidens, who had
attended upon them while acting as guards or gate-keepers, she addressed
the Dosch in Latin, asking if it was agreeable to his judgment to have
their request complied with; pleading her own assurance of their
constancy from the disinterested affection they had shown toward each
other. The Dosch not only expressed his full approbation, but desire
that they should be immediately united. This decision receiving the
prætor’s sanction, and willing approval of the maiden’s parents, and,
above all, the blushing self-bestowal of the affiants, whose
inclinations were consulted by Cleorita and Oviata, it was resolved to
consummate the union at once, if the sun had not declined in its arc
sufficient for the casting of a shadow. Placing them in position as
quickly as possible, it was found that, with haste, the emblematic
ceremony could be accomplished in a union without shadow. But when the
sailors were asked for their family names, it was found that from long
habit in using only their “Christian” names in addressing each other,
they were at a loss in deciding to which of the surnames, Smith or
Jones, they were personally entitled from parental endowment, although
aware that one or the other had been inherited as a nominal adjunct to
Jack and Bill. As they could not recollect to which they were separately
entitled, the Dosch, from the urgency of the emergency, was fain to
accept the only alternative of the dilemma, and in the formulistic
style, peculiar to Giga understanding, consummated the ties by
propounding: “You, Bill Smith or Jones, in mutual troth do plight your
vows in constancy for life to Anonymosimia Doycymba, and you, Jack Jones
or Smith, yours to Meerisia Abdosia?”
The hearty “aye, aye, sir” of the male respondents, and the softer
modulated, but firmly expressed “ai toi” of dames Jones or Smith, closed
the involved nomenclature of the ceremony. The Dosch remarked, after
regaining the ear of Mr. Welson, that although the courtship had been
conducted in the entire absence of an understanding speech
communication, their auramentors were fully assured that there existed a
stronger instinctive attachment, in nearer approach to an independence
from bodily influence, than is usually attained by civilized
reciprocants from the advantage of a common language, inasmuch as it
restrained the tongue from its “yarned” propensity for exaggeration,
peculiar to its use with sailors, and the more decided truthful negation
by the votaries of fashionable society. The assembly, at the conclusion
of the second improvised marriage scene, joined in the recitative
invocation and song of thanksgiving sub-transcribed:—
“In gladness we to our Creator raise
This grateful song, in everlasting praise,
That through Manatitla’s atomic life
He has ope’d a way to end human strife,
That in ‘wedlock,’ domestic joy
Shall brighter glow and never cloy.”
At the close of the hymn of invocation the Dosch dictated the advisory
sanction adopted by the Manatitlans, which we give as rendered by the
prætor: “In the full belief of your loving sincerity, we joyfully
confirm this union with that of our children, hopefully believing that
your affection will increase in fervor until death relieves you of your
bodies’ encumbrance for the full consummation of a joyous immortality.”
The buzz and genealogical curators of sound were highly delighted with
the harmony of the musical composition, declaring that its peculiar
adaptation attested to the affectionate talent of a master spirit. The
former, in enthusiastic approval, offered his warmest commendations to
Manito, the Maniculan prætor; at the same time congratulating the
Manatitlans in having possession of a musician of such eminent ability.
Great was his chagrin and surprise, when Manito not only disclaimed the
authorship, but stated that the merit of the poetical composition and
musical adaptation belonged solely to his pupil, Mistress Correliana, of
whose advancement and talent he was justly proud. The perturbed
expression of Pettynose bespoke the revived memory of his former
criticism, causing the padre to chuckle audibly from the recollection of
the dogmatic snap he had received, when his suggested variation had
abruptly closed the dulcetina improvisation. The blushing attention of
Correliana was too much absorbed with the admiring surprise of her
husband to heed the professor’s confusion. In explanation to him, she
whispered that Manito had taught her how to use the dulcetina with the
aid of the tympano-microscope, unbeknown to the members of the corps,
and had also instructed her in the art of composition. Captain Greenwood
had a strong passion for music, without vocal capacity for its
expression. To compensate for his own deficiency, it had been his
abiding desire to possess a wife with the talent he lacked, that she
might impart its sympathetic solace for the relief of anxious care. This
desire Correliana had intuitively discovered, which added a strong
incentive for application, with the purpose of imparting her improvement
to her people.
After the marriage confirmation by the prætor, Manito, through Mr.
Welson, proposed to adjourn from the fora to the auriculum. On the way
the Dosch passed to the ear of Captain Greenwood; his salutation caused
a sudden start, with the motion of raising his hand, which Correliana
detained; aware of the cause from the divergence of his eyes, she asked:
“Do you recognize the voice of an old familiar?”
Her husband’s puzzled expression declared the nature of the
communication, aside from his voiced expression as if in repetition,
“Annette, harp, violin, dulcetina!” Correliana added to the sum of his
perplexity by asking if the young woman having Don Pedro’s children in
charge was the sole survivor of the unfortunates who received his
assisting sympathy while in the extremity of their distress in Rio?
Startled by a question that implied her knowledge of a secret which he
supposed was only known to Annette and himself, he answered,
inquiringly, “Yes?” Receiving from his wife a fond kiss of benediction,
she asked: “Do you wonder that I discovered the source that gained you
Manatitlan approval, with an affection so fearless in its sympathy while
imparting its succoring rays of goodness? You wonder at my ready
acquisition of your language and the source of my information? Do you
suppose, with an innate perception of the unselfish sympathy which
prompted you to solace the sufferings of those forlorn beings, who had
afforded me protection at the cost of their kinsfolk’s lives, that I
could remain content without perfecting myself for the full enjoyment of
a languaged communion with your thoughts? The voice that startled your
memory, was the prompting familiar’s, who attended you in Rio through
the sad scenes, that in termination bequeathed the harp, violin, and
dulcetina, as mementos to stimulate your unselfish affection for the
devisement of means for the future relief of your race from the cause of
such calamitous hereditaments.”
Tears glistened in the eyes of her husband as her loving sympathy
brought back with graphic effect the scenes indelibly impressed upon his
memory. Recovering from his emotions, he beckoned to Annette, who,
attended by Mr. Welson, had held herself aloof from the newly wedded;
quickly answering to his signal, she was introduced to his wife, who
bestowed upon her a warm embrace as a prelude to more affectionate
communion. Then in answer to his desire to listen in judgment of her
proficiency, Cleorita and Oviata volunteered their service with Kyronese
aids to bring the dulcetina, harp, and violin from the hospidoræ. When
the harp was attuned to the dulcetina, Annette, with ready ear and touch
improvised an accompaniment to the simple air of an anthem of
Correliana’s composition, at the same time watching her supposed self-
taught success in the management of her father’s instrumental
conception. From the first Annette’s pleasure became manifest, for
Correliana retained the tenor of her composition independent of the
harp. At the close of the instrumental duo, Annette highly commended her
proficiency, giving her the desired assurance of capability for the
attainment of unusual skill, both in vocal and instrumental music.
Annette’s skillful instrumentation and melodious vocalization caused Dr.
Baāhar to observe, naturalistically, that there was a sensible
diminution in the length of the buzz and genealogical curators of
sound’s musical horns. The prætor Manito was in ecstasies with the
successful rendition of his pupil, and declared to his wife his
intention of extending to Annette a kiss of welcome, out of his
abounding love for her musical talent. Disappearing from our Giga eyes
on the instant, but not from those of his wife, whose face mantled with
a blush when she saw him in the very act of imprinting a kiss upon her
lips, the recipient, with a vague impression, raised her hand and
brushed it away. The Dosch remarking the effect produced upon Manito’s
wife, said, that it was an apt illustration of jealousy, for it never
considered the relative disproportion of the exciting objects. Manito’s
next appearance upon the stage was under the lead of his wife’s thumb
and forefinger, attached to his ear, while with assumed tartness, in
strong Giga accent, she upbraided him for the impudent infidelity of the
act. But her curiosity getting the better of her assumed indifference,
she tauntingly exclaimed, “I suppose you found the unreciprocated stolen
kiss from a single Giga lip more than equal in sweetness to two of ours
prompted by conscious affection?” Slipping from her finger’s hold, he
gave the flying answer: “Yes, truly, I found her lip as full in volume
as the tones of her voice!”
Lovieta and Lavoca, who had witnessed this playful episode, whisperingly
asked Mr. Welson: “Are these large ones related to the ear Manatitlans,
and will they grow larger when they grow older?” But as his answer
failed to satisfy their comprehension, they asked him, if they looked as
pretty as the Manatitlans now that they were dressed like them? A
caressing hand upon their heads proving a satisfactory reply, they
declared it a _moda linda, facil, y agradable a la vista_, and in the
Heraclean school, so nicely clothed, they felt sure that they should
become good, graciosa, and would try to be as affectionate as the
brides! In benediction, for the success of their good intentions, Mr.
Welson bestowed commendatory kisses, and again placed them in charge of
Cleorita and Oviata.
Anxious to read his letters, he, with the Dosch, retired to the quarters
of the corps. After glancing at his formulistic letters of “friendship”
and business,—which were closely interwoven,—under the supervision of
the Dosch, who kept up a running commentary, in which he pointed out the
prospective selfishness of each correspondent, in a manner so legible,
their insincerity became so disgusting to the receiver that he laid them
aside, wondering how he had allowed himself to be beguiled for a
lifetime with such shadowy pretexts. The letter of Don Pedro Garcia,
which he had reserved for the last, revived his hopeful trust in the
latent goodness of humanity. We offer its chapter transcript for the
benefit of the reader.