A SECOND TRIP TO THE MOON.
_A second visit (but an accidental one) to the moon--The ship driven by
a whirlwind a thousand leagues above the surface of the water, where a
new atmosphere meets them and carries them into a capacious harbour in
the moon--A description of the inhabitants, and their manner of coming
into the lunarian world--Animals, customs, weapons of war, wine,
vegetables, &c._
I have already informed you of one trip I made to the moon, in search
of my silver hatchet; I afterwards made another in a much pleasanter
manner, and stayed in it long enough to take notice of several things,
which I will endeavour to describe as accurately as my memory will
permit.
I went on a voyage of discovery at the request of a distant relation,
who had a strange notion that there were people to be found equal in
magnitude to those described by Gulliver in the empire of BROBDIGNAG.
For my part I always treated that account as fabulous: however, to
oblige him, for he had made me his heir, I undertook it, and sailed
for the South seas, where we arrived without meeting with anything
remarkable, except some flying men and women who were playing at
leap-frog, and dancing minuets in the air.
On the eighteenth day after we had passed the Island of Otaheite,
mentioned by Captain Cook as the place from whence they brought Omai, a
hurricane blew our ship at least one thousand leagues above the surface
of the water, and kept it at the height till a fresh gale arising filled
the sails in every part, and onwards we travelled at a prodigious rate;
thus we proceeded above the clouds for six weeks. At last we discovered
a great land in the sky, like a shining island, round and bright, where,
coming into a convenient harbour, we went on shore, and soon found it
was inhabited. Below us we saw another earth, containing cities, trees,
mountains, rivers, seas, &c., which we conjectured was this world
which we had left. Here we saw huge figures riding upon vultures of a
prodigious size, and each of them having three heads. To form some idea
of the magnitude of these birds, I must inform you that each of their
wings is as wide and six times the length of the main sheet of our
vessel, which was about six hundred tons burthen. Thus, instead of
riding upon horses, as we do in this world, the inhabitants of the moon
(for we now found we were in Madam Luna) fly about on these birds. The
king, we found, was engaged in a war with the sun, and he offered me
a commission, but I declined the honour his majesty intended me.
Everything in _this_ world is of extraordinary magnitude! a common flea
being much larger than one of our sheep: in making war, their principal
weapons are radishes, which are used as darts: those who are wounded
by them die immediately. Their shields are made of mushrooms, and their
darts (when radishes are out of season) of the tops of asparagus. Some
of the natives of the dog-star are to be seen here; commerce tempts them
to ramble; their faces are like large mastiffs', with their eyes near
the lower end or tip of their noses: they have no eyelids, but cover
their eyes with the end of their tongues when they go to sleep; they are
generally twenty feet high. As to the natives of the moon, none of them
are less in stature than thirty-six feet: they are not called the human
species, but the cooking animals, for they all dress their food by fire,
as we do, but lose not time at their meals, as they open their left
side, and place the whole quantity at once in their stomach, then shut
it again till the same day in the next month; for they never indulge
themselves with food more than twelve times a year, or once a month. All
but gluttons and epicures must prefer this method to ours.
There is but one sex either of the cooking or any other animals in the
moon; they are all produced from trees of various sizes and foliage;
that which produces the cooking animal, or human species, is much more
beautiful than any of the others; it has large straight boughs and
flesh-coloured leaves, and the fruit it produces are nuts or pods, with
hard shells at least two yards long; when they become ripe, which is
known from their changing colour, they are gathered with great care, and
laid by as long as they think proper: when they choose to animate the
seed of these nuts, they throw them into a large cauldron of boiling
water, which opens the shells in a few hours, and out jumps the
creature.
Nature forms their minds for different pursuits before they come
into the world; from one shell comes forth a warrior, from another a
philosopher, from a third a divine, from a fourth a lawyer, from a fifth
a farmer, from a sixth a clown, &c. &c., and each of them immediately
begins to perfect themselves, by practising what they before knew only
in theory.
When they grow old they do not die, but turn into air, and dissolve like
smoke! As for their drink, they need none; the only evacuations they
have are insensible, and by their breath. They have but one finger upon
each hand, with which they perform everything in as perfect a manner
as we do who have four besides the thumb. Their heads are placed under
their right arm, and when are going to travel, or about any violent
exercise, they generally leave them at home, for they can consult them
at any distance; this is a very common practice; and when those of rank
or quality among the Lunarians have an inclination to see what's going
forward among the common people, they stay at home, _i.e._, the body
stays at home, and sends the head only, which is suffered to be present
_incog._, and return at pleasure with an account of what has passed.
The stones of their grapes are exactly like hail; and I am perfectly
satisfied that when a storm or high wind in the moon shakes their vines,
and breaks the grapes from the stalks, the stones fall down and form
our hail showers. I would advise those who are of my opinion to save a
quantity of these stones when it hails next, and make Lunarian wine. It
is a common beverage at St. Luke's. Some material circumstances I had
nearly omitted. They put their bellies to the same use as we do a sack,
and throw whatever they have occasion for into it, for they can shut and
open it again when they please, as they do their stomachs; they are not
troubled with bowels, liver, heart, or any other intestines, neither
are they encumbered with clothes, nor is there any part of their bodies
unseemly or indecent to exhibit.
Their eyes they can take in and out of their places when they please,
and can see as well with them in their hand as in their head! and if
by any accident they lose or damage one, they can borrow or purchase
another, and see as clearly with it as their own. Dealers in eyes are
on that account very numerous in most parts of the moon, and in this
article alone all the inhabitants are whimsical: sometimes green and
sometimes yellow eyes are the fashion. I know these things appear
strange; but if the shadow of a doubt can remain on any person's mind,
I say, let him take a voyage there himself, and then he will know I am a
traveller of veracity.