And now for the first time my courage completely failed me. It is
enough to say that I was penniless, and a prisoner in a foreign
country, where I had no friend, nor any knowledge of the customs or
language of the people. I was at the mercy of men with whom I had
little in common. And yet, engrossed as I was with my extremely
difficult and doubtful position, I could not help feeling deeply
interested in the people among whom I had fallen. What was the meaning
of that room full of old machinery which I had just seen, and of the
displeasure with which the magistrate had regarded my watch? The people
had very little machinery now. I had been struck with this over and
over again, though I had not been more than four-and-twenty hours in
the country. They were about as far advanced as Europeans of the
twelfth or thirteenth century; certainly not more so. And yet they must
have had at one time the fullest knowledge of our own most recent
inventions. How could it have happened that having been once so far in
advance they were now as much behind us? It was evident that it was not
from ignorance. They knew my watch as a watch when they saw it; and the
care with which the broken machines were preserved and ticketed, proved
that they had not lost the recollection of their former civilisation.
The more I thought, the less I could understand it; but at last I
concluded that they must have worked out their mines of coal and iron,
till either none were left, or so few, that the use of these metals was
restricted to the very highest nobility. This was the only solution I
could think of; and, though I afterwards found how entirely mistaken it
was, I felt quite sure then that it must be the right one.
I had hardly arrived at this opinion for above four or five minutes,
when the door opened, and a young woman made her appearance with a
tray, and a very appetising smell of dinner. I gazed upon her with
admiration as she laid a cloth and set a savoury-looking dish upon the
table. As I beheld her I felt as though my position was already much
ameliorated, for the very sight of her carried great comfort. She was
not more than twenty, rather above the middle height, active and
strong, but yet most delicately featured; her lips were full and sweet;
her eyes were of a deep hazel, and fringed with long and springing
eyelashes; her hair was neatly braided from off her forehead; her
complexion was simply exquisite; her figure as robust as was consistent
with the most perfect female beauty, yet not more so; her hands and
feet might have served as models to a sculptor. Having set the stew
upon the table, she retired with a glance of pity, whereon (remembering
pity’s kinsman) I decided that she should pity me a little more. She
returned with a bottle and a glass, and found me sitting on the bed
with my hands over my face, looking the very picture of abject misery,
and, like all pictures, rather untruthful. As I watched her, through my
fingers, out of the room again, I felt sure that she was exceedingly
sorry for me. Her back being turned, I set to work and ate my dinner,
which was excellent.
She returned in about an hour to take away; and there came with her a
man who had a great bunch of keys at his waist, and whose manner
convinced me that he was the jailor. I afterwards found that he was
father to the beautiful creature who had brought me my dinner. I am not
a much greater hypocrite than other people, and do what I would, I
could not look so very miserable. I had already recovered from my
dejection, and felt in a most genial humour both with my jailor and his
daughter. I thanked them for their attention towards me; and, though
they could not understand, they looked at one another and laughed and
chattered till the old man said something or other which I suppose was
a joke; for the girl laughed merrily and ran away, leaving her father
to take away the dinner things. Then I had another visitor, who was not
so prepossessing, and who seemed to have a great idea of himself and a
small one of me. He brought a book with him, and pens and paper—all
very English; and yet, neither paper, nor printing, nor binding, nor
pen, nor ink, were quite the same as ours.
He gave me to understand that he was to teach me the language and that
we were to begin at once. This delighted me, both because I should be
more comfortable when I could understand and make myself understood,
and because I supposed that the authorities would hardly teach me the
language if they intended any cruel usage towards me afterwards. We
began at once, and I learnt the names of everything in the room, and
also the numerals and personal pronouns. I found to my sorrow that the
resemblance to European things, which I had so frequently observed
hitherto, did not hold good in the matter of language; for I could
detect no analogy whatever between this and any tongue of which I have
the slightest knowledge,—a thing which made me think it possible that I
might be learning Hebrew.
I must detail no longer; from this time my days were spent with a
monotony which would have been tedious but for the society of Yram, the
jailor’s daughter, who had taken a great fancy for me and treated me
with the utmost kindness. The man came every day to teach me the
language, but my real dictionary and grammar were Yram; and I consulted
them to such purpose that I made the most extraordinary progress, being
able at the end of a month to understand a great deal of the
conversation which I overheard between Yram and her father. My teacher
professed himself well satisfied, and said he should make a favourable
report of me to the authorities. I then questioned him as to what would
probably be done with me. He told me that my arrival had caused great
excitement throughout the country, and that I was to be detained a
close prisoner until the receipt of advices from the Government. My
having had a watch, he said, was the only damaging feature in the case.
And then, in answer to my asking why this should be so, he gave me a
long story of which with my imperfect knowledge of the language I could
make nothing whatever, except that it was a very heinous offence,
almost as bad (at least, so I thought I understood him) as having
typhus fever. But he said he thought my light hair would save me.
I was allowed to walk in the garden; there was a high wall so that I
managed to play a sort of hand fives, which prevented my feeling the
bad effects of my confinement, though it was stupid work playing alone.
In the course of time people from the town and neighbourhood began to
pester the jailor to be allowed to see me, and on receiving handsome
fees he let them do so. The people were good to me; almost too good,
for they were inclined to make a lion of me, which I hated—at least the
women were; only they had to beware of Yram, who was a young lady of a
jealous temperament, and kept a sharp eye both on me and on my lady
visitors. However, I felt so kindly towards her, and was so entirely
dependent upon her for almost all that made my life a blessing and a
comfort to me, that I took good care not to vex her, and we remained
excellent friends. The men were far less inquisitive, and would not, I
believe, have come near me of their own accord; but the women made them
come as escorts. I was delighted with their handsome mien, and pleasant
genial manners.
My food was plain, but always varied and wholesome, and the good red
wine was admirable. I had found a sort of wort in the garden, which I
sweated in heaps and then dried, obtaining thus a substitute for
tobacco; so that what with Yram, the language, visitors, fives in the
garden, smoking, and bed, my time slipped by more rapidly and
pleasantly than might have been expected. I also made myself a small
flute; and being a tolerable player, amused myself at times with
playing snatches from operas, and airs such as “O where and oh where,”
and “Home, sweet home.” This was of great advantage to me, for the
people of the country were ignorant of the diatonic scale and could
hardly believe their ears on hearing some of our most common melodies.
Often, too, they would make me sing; and I could at any time make
Yram’s eyes swim with tears by singing “Wilkins and his Dinah,” “Billy
Taylor,” “The Ratcatcher’s Daughter,” or as much of them as I could
remember.
I had one or two discussions with them because I never would sing on
Sunday (of which I kept count in my pocket-book), except chants and
hymn tunes; of these I regret to say that I had forgotten the words, so
that I could only sing the tune. They appeared to have little or no
religious feeling, and to have never so much as heard of the divine
institution of the Sabbath, so they ascribed my observance of it to a
fit of sulkiness, which they remarked as coming over me upon every
seventh day. But they were very tolerant, and one of them said to me
quite kindly that she knew how impossible it was to help being sulky at
times, only she thought I ought to see some one if it became more
serious—a piece of advice which I then failed to understand, though I
pretended to take it quite as a matter of course.
Once only did Yram treat me in a way that was unkind and
unreasonable,—at least so I thought it at the time. It happened thus. I
had been playing fives in the garden and got much heated. Although the
day was cold, for autumn was now advancing, and Cold Harbour (as the
name of the town in which my prison was should be translated) stood
fully 3000 feet above the sea, I had played without my coat and
waistcoat, and took a sharp chill on resting myself too long in the
open air without protection. The next day I had a severe cold and felt
really poorly. Being little used even to the lightest ailments, and
thinking that it would be rather nice to be petted and cossetted by
Yram, I certainly did not make myself out to be any better than I was;
in fact, I remember that I made the worst of things, and took it into
my head to consider myself upon the sick list. When Yram brought me my
breakfast I complained somewhat dolefully of my indisposition,
expecting the sympathy and humouring which I should have received from
my mother and sisters at home. Not a bit of it. She fired up in an
instant, and asked me what I meant by it, and how I dared to presume to
mention such a thing, especially when I considered in what place I was.
She had the best mind to tell her father, only that she was afraid the
consequences would be so very serious for me. Her manner was so injured
and decided, and her anger so evidently unfeigned, that I forgot my
cold upon the spot, begging her by all means to tell her father if she
wished to do so, and telling her that I had no idea of being shielded
by her from anything whatever; presently mollifying, after having said
as many biting things as I could, I asked her what it was that I had
done amiss, and promised amendment as soon as ever I became aware of
it. She saw that I was really ignorant, and had had no intention of
being rude to her; whereon it came out that illness of any sort was
considered in Erewhon to be highly criminal and immoral; and that I was
liable, even for catching cold, to be had up before the magistrates and
imprisoned for a considerable period—an announcement which struck me
dumb with astonishment.
I followed up the conversation as well as my imperfect knowledge of the
language would allow, and caught a glimmering of her position with
regard to ill-health; but I did not even then fully comprehend it, nor
had I as yet any idea of the other extraordinary perversions of thought
which existed among the Erewhonians, but with which I was soon to
become familiar. I propose, therefore, to make no mention of what
passed between us on this occasion, save that we were reconciled, and
that she brought me surreptitiously a hot glass of spirits and water
before I went to bed, as also a pile of extra blankets, and that next
morning I was quite well. I never remember to have lost a cold so
rapidly.
This little affair explained much which had hitherto puzzled me. It
seemed that the two men who were examined before the magistrates on the
day of my arrival in the country, had been given in charge on account
of ill health, and were both condemned to a long term of imprisonment
with hard labour; they were now expiating their offence in this very
prison, and their exercise ground was a yard separated by my fives wall
from the garden in which I walked. This accounted for the sounds of
coughing and groaning which I had often noticed as coming from the
other side of the wall: it was high, and I had not dared to climb it
for fear the jailor should see me and think that I was trying to
escape; but I had often wondered what sort of people they could be on
the other side, and had resolved on asking the jailor; but I seldom saw
him, and Yram and I generally found other things to talk about.
Another month flew by, during which I made such progress in the
language that I could understand all that was said to me, and express
myself with tolerable fluency. My instructor professed to be astonished
with the progress I had made; I was careful to attribute it to the
pains he had taken with me and to his admirable method of explaining my
difficulties, so we became excellent friends.
My visitors became more and more frequent. Among them there were some,
both men and women, who delighted me entirely by their simplicity,
unconsciousness of self, kindly genial manners, and last, but not
least, by their exquisite beauty; there came others less well-bred, but
still comely and agreeable people, while some were snobs pure and
simple.
At the end of the third month the jailor and my instructor came
together to visit me and told me that communications had been received
from the Government to the effect that if I had behaved well and seemed
generally reasonable, and if there could be no suspicion at all about
my bodily health and vigour, and if my hair was really light, and my
eyes blue and complexion fresh, I was to be sent up at once to the
metropolis in order that the King and Queen might see me and converse
with me; but that when I arrived there I should be set at liberty, and
a suitable allowance would be made me. My teacher also told me that one
of the leading merchants had sent me an invitation to repair to his
house and to consider myself his guest for as long a time as I chose.
“He is a delightful man,” continued the interpreter, “but has suffered
terribly from” (here there came a long word which I could not quite
catch, only it was much longer than kleptomania), “and has but lately
recovered from embezzling a large sum of money under singularly
distressing circumstances; but he has quite got over it, and the
straighteners say that he has made a really wonderful recovery; you are
sure to like him.”