If you wish that you alone should inherit the earth, you must never
allow any language but God's language to pass your lips, and take care
that your own language remains free from outlandish sounds. If you
wish that some of Lyda's children and some of Finda's children remain,
you must do the same. The language of the East Schoonlanders has been
perverted by the vile Magyars, and the language of the followers
of Kaltana has been spoiled by the dirty Gauls. Now, we have been
weak enough to admit among us the returned followers of Hellenia,
but I anxiously fear that they will reward our weakness by debasing
our pure language.
Many things have happened to us, but among all the citadels that have
been disturbed and destroyed in the bad time, Irtha has preserved
Fryasburgt uninjured; and I may remark that Frya's or God's language
has always remained here untainted.
Here in Texland, therefore, schools should be established; and from all
the states that have kept to the old customs the young people should
be sent here, and afterwards those whose education is complete can
help those who remain at home. If foreigners come to buy ironwares
from you, and want to talk and bargain, they must come back to God's
language. If they learn God's language, then the words, "to be free"
and "to have justice," will come to them, and glimmer and glitter in
their brains to a perfect light, and that flame will destroy all bad
princes and hypocritical dirty priests.
The native and foreign messengers were pleased with that writing, but
no schools came from it. Then Adel established schools himself. Every
year Adel and Ifkja went to inspect the schools. If they found a
friendly feeling existing between the natives and foreigners, they
were extremely pleased. If there were any who had sworn friendship
together, they assembled the people, and with great ceremony let them
inscribe their names in a book which was called the Book of Friendship,
and afterwards a festival was held. All these customs were kept up
in order to bring together the separate branches of Frya's race;
but the maidens who were opposed to Adel and Ifkja said that they
did it for no other reason than to make a name for themselves, and
to bring all the other states under their subjection.
Among my father's papers I found a letter from Liudgert the
Geertman. Omitting some passages which only concern my father,
I proceed to relate the rest.
Punjab, that is five rivers, and by which we travel, is a river of
extraordinary beauty, and is called Five Rivers, because four other
streams flow into the sea by its mouth. Far away to the eastward is
another large river, the Holy or Sacred Ganges. Between these two
rivers is the land of the Hindoos. Both rivers run from the high
mountains to the plains. The mountains in which their sources lie
are so high that they reach the heavens (laia), and therefore these
mountains are called Himmellaia. Among the Hindoos and others out of
these countries there are people who meet together secretly. They
believe that they are pure children of Finda, and that Finda was
born in the Himmellaia mountains, whence she went with her children
to the lowlands. Some of them believe that she, with her children,
floated down upon the foam of the Ganges, and that that is the reason
why the river is called the Sacred Ganges. But the priests, who came
from another country, traced out these people and had them burnt, so
that they do not dare to declare openly their creed. In this country
all the priests are fat and rich. In their churches there are all
kinds of monstrous images, many of them of gold. To the west of the
Punjab are the Yren (Iraniers), or morose (Drangianen), the Gedrosten
(Gedrosiers), or runaways, and the Urgetten, or forgotten. These
names are given by the priests out of spite, because they fled
from their customs and religion. On their arrival our forefathers
likewise established themselves to the east of the Punjab, but on
account of the priests they likewise went to the west. In that way we
learned to know the Yren and other people. The Yren are not savages,
but good people, who neither pray to nor tolerate images; neither
will they suffer priests or churches; but as we adhere to the light
of Fasta, so they everywhere maintain fire in their houses. Coming
still further westward, we arrive at the Gedrosten. Regarding the
Gedrosten: They have been mixed with other people, and speak a variety
of languages. These people are really savage murderers, who always
wander about the country on horseback hunting and robbing, and hire
themselves as soldiers to the surrounding princes, at whose command
they destroy whatever they can reach.
The country between the Punjab and the Ganges is as flat as Friesland
near the sea, and consists of forests and fields, fertile in every
part, but this does not prevent the people from dying by thousands
of hunger. The famines, however, must not be attributed to Wr-alda
or Irtha, but to the princes and priests. The Hindoos are timid and
submissive before their princes, like hinds before wolves. Therefore
the Yren and others have called them Hindoos, which means hinds. But
their timidity is frightfully abused. If strangers come to purchase
corn, everything is turned into money, and this is not prevented by
the priests, because they, being more crafty and rapacious than all
the princes put together, know very well that all the money will come
into their pockets. Besides what the people suffer from their princes,
they suffer a great deal from poisonous and wild beasts. There are
great elephants that sometimes go about in whole flocks and trample
down corn-fields and whole villages. There are great black and white
cats which are called tigers. They are as large as calves, and they
devour both men and beasts. Besides other creeping animals there are
snakes from the size of a worm to the size of a tree. The largest
can swallow a cow, but the smallest are the most deadly. They conceal
themselves among the fruits and flowers, and surprise the people who
come to gather them. Any one who is bitten by them is sure to die,
as Irtha has given no antidote to their poison, because the people
have so given themselves up to idolatry. There are, besides, all
sorts of lizards, tortoises, and crocodiles. All these reptiles,
like the snakes, vary from the size of a worm to the trunk of a
tree. According to their size and fierceness, they have names which I
cannot recollect, but the largest are called alligators, because they
eat as greedily the putrid cattle that float down the stream as they
do living animals that they seize. On the west of the Punjab where we
come from, and where I was born, the same fruits and crops grow as on
the east side. Formerly there existed also the same crawling animals,
but our forefathers burnt all the underwood, and so diligently hunted
all the wild animals, that there are scarcely any left. To the extreme
west of the Punjab there is found rich clay land as well as barren
heaths, which seem endless, occasionally varied lovely spots on which
the eye rests enchanted. Among the fruits there are many that I have
not found here. Among the various kinds of corn some is as yellow
as gold. There are also golden apples, of which some are as sweet as
honey and others as sour as vinegar. In our country there are nuts as
large as a child's head. They contain cheese and milk. When they are
old oil is made from them. Of the husks ropes are made, and of the
shells cups and other household utensils are made. I have found in
the woods here bramble and holly berries. In my country we have trees
bearing berries, as large as your lime-trees, the berries of which
are much sweeter and three times as large as your gooseberries. When
the days are at the longest, and the sun is in the zenith, a man's
body has no shadow. If you sail very far to the south and look to
the east at midday, the sun shines on your left side as it does in
other countries on the right side. With this I will finish. It will
be easy for you, by means of what I have written, to distinguish
between false accounts and true descriptions.--Your Luidgert.