A voice accosted me--a very quiet and very musical key of voice--in a
language of which I could not understand a word, but it served to
dispel my fear. I uncovered my face and looked up. The stranger (I could
scarcely bring myself to call him man) surveyed me with an eye that
seemed to read to the very depths of my heart. He then placed his left
hand on my forehead, and with the staff in his right, gently touched my
shoulder. The effect of this double contact was magical. In place of my
former terror there passed into me a sense of contentment, of joy, of
confidence in myself and in the being before me. I rose and spoke in
my own language. He listened to me with apparent attention, but with a
slight surprise in his looks; and shook his head, as if to signify that
I was not understood. He then took me by the hand and led me in silence
to the building. The entrance was open--indeed there was no door to it.
We entered an immense hall, lighted by the same kind of lustre as in the
scene without, but diffusing a fragrant odour. The floor was in large
tesselated blocks of precious metals, and partly covered with a sort of
matlike carpeting. A strain of low music, above and around, undulated as
if from invisible instruments, seeming to belong naturally to the place,
just as the sound of murmuring waters belongs to a rocky landscape, or
the warble of birds to vernal groves.
A figure in a simpler garb than that of my guide, but of similar
fashion, was standing motionless near the threshold. My guide touched
it twice with his staff, and it put itself into a rapid and gliding
movement, skimming noiselessly over the floor. Gazing on it, I then saw
that it was no living form, but a mechanical automaton. It might be two
minutes after it vanished through a doorless opening, half screened by
curtains at the other end of the hall, when through the same opening
advanced a boy of about twelve years old, with features closely
resembling those of my guide, so that they seemed to me evidently son
and father. On seeing me the child uttered a cry, and lifted a staff
like that borne by my guide, as if in menace. At a word from the elder
he dropped it. The two then conversed for some moments, examining me
while they spoke. The child touched my garments, and stroked my face
with evident curiosity, uttering a sound like a laugh, but with an
hilarity more subdued that the mirth of our laughter. Presently the roof
of the hall opened, and a platform descended, seemingly constructed
on the same principle as the ‘lifts’ used in hotels and warehouses for
mounting from one story to another.
The stranger placed himself and the child on the platform, and motioned
to me to do the same, which I did. We ascended quickly and safely, and
alighted in the midst of a corridor with doorways on either side.
Through one of these doorways I was conducted into a chamber fitted up
with an oriental splendour; the walls were tesselated with spars, and
metals, and uncut jewels; cushions and divans abounded; apertures as for
windows but unglazed, were made in the chamber opening to the floor;
and as I passed along I observed that these openings led into spacious
balconies, and commanded views of the illumined landscape without. In
cages suspended from the ceiling there were birds of strange form and
bright plumage, which at our entrance set up a chorus of song, modulated
into tune as is that of our piping bullfinches. A delicious fragrance,
from censers of gold elaborately sculptured, filled the air. Several
automata, like the one I had seen, stood dumb and motionless by the
walls. The stranger placed me beside him on a divan and again spoke
to me, and again I spoke, but without the least advance towards
understanding each other.
But now I began to feel the effects of the blow I had received from the
splinters of the falling rock more acutely that I had done at first.
There came over me a sense of sickly faintness, accompanied with acute,
lancinating pains in the head and neck. I sank back on the seat and
strove in vain to stifle a groan. On this the child, who had hitherto
seemed to eye me with distrust or dislike, knelt by my side to support
me; taking one of my hands in both his own, he approached his lips to
my forehead, breathing on it softly. In a few moments my pain ceased; a
drowsy, heavy calm crept over me; I fell asleep.
How long I remained in this state I know not, but when I woke I felt
perfectly restored. My eyes opened upon a group of silent forms, seated
around me in the gravity and quietude of Orientals--all more or less
like the first stranger; the same mantling wings, the same fashion of
garment, the same sphinx-like faces, with the deep dark eyes and red
man’s colour; above all, the same type of race--race akin to man’s, but
infinitely stronger of form and grandeur of aspect--and inspiring the
same unutterable feeling of dread. Yet each countenance was mild and
tranquil, and even kindly in expression. And, strangely enough, it
seemed to me that in this very calm and benignity consisted the secret
of the dread which the countenances inspired. They seemed as void of the
lines and shadows which care and sorrow, and passion and sin, leave upon
the faces of men, as are the faces of sculptured gods, or as, in the
eyes of Christian mourners, seem the peaceful brows of the dead.
I felt a warm hand on my shoulder; it was the child’s. In his eyes there
was a sort of lofty pity and tenderness, such as that with which we may
gaze on some suffering bird or butterfly. I shrank from that touch--I
shrank from that eye. I was vaguely impressed with a belief that, had he
so pleased, that child could have killed me as easily as a man can kill
a bird or a butterfly. The child seemed pained at my repugnance, quitted
me, and placed himself beside one of the windows. The others continued
to converse with each other in a low tone, and by their glances towards
me I could perceive that I was the object of their conversation. One
in especial seemed to be urging some proposal affecting me on the being
whom I had first met, and this last by his gesture seemed about to
assent to it, when the child suddenly quitted his post by the window,
placed himself between me and the other forms, as if in protection, and
spoke quickly and eagerly. By some intuition or instinct I felt that
the child I had before so dreaded was pleading in my behalf. Ere he had
ceased another stranger entered the room. He appeared older than the
rest, though not old; his countenance less smoothly serene than theirs,
though equally regular in its features, seemed to me to have more the
touch of a humanity akin to my own. He listened quietly to the words
addressed to him, first by my guide, next by two others of the group,
and lastly by the child; then turned towards myself, and addressed
me, not by words, but by signs and gestures. These I fancied that I
perfectly understood, and I was not mistaken. I comprehended that he
inquired whence I came. I extended my arm, and pointed towards the road
which had led me from the chasm in the rock; then an idea seized me.
I drew forth my pocket-book, and sketched on one of its blank leaves a
rough design of the ledge of the rock, the rope, myself clinging to it;
then of the cavernous rock below, the head of the reptile, the lifeless
form of my friend. I gave this primitive kind of hieroglyph to my
interrogator, who, after inspecting it gravely, handed it to his next
neighbour, and it thus passed round the group. The being I had at first
encountered then said a few words, and the child, who approached and
looked at my drawing, nodded as if he comprehended its purport, and,
returning to the window, expanded the wings attached to his form, shook
them once or twice, and then launched himself into space without. I
started up in amaze and hastened to the window. The child was already in
the air, buoyed on his wings, which he did not flap to and fro as a
bird does, but which were elevated over his head, and seemed to bear him
steadily aloft without effort of his own. His flight seemed as swift
as an eagle’s; and I observed that it was towards the rock whence I
had descended, of which the outline loomed visible in the brilliant
atmosphere. In a very few minutes he returned, skimming through the
opening from which he had gone, and dropping on the floor the rope and
grappling-hooks I had left at the descent from the chasm. Some words in
a low tone passed between the being present; one of the group touched an
automaton, which started forward and glided from the room; then the last
comer, who had addressed me by gestures, rose, took me by the hand,
and led me into the corridor. There the platform by which I had mounted
awaited us; we placed ourselves on it and were lowered into the hall
below. My new companion, still holding me by the hand, conducted me from
the building into a street (so to speak) that stretched beyond it, with
buildings on either side, separated from each other by gardens bright
with rich-coloured vegetation and strange flowers. Interspersed amidst
these gardens, which were divided from each other by low walls, or
walking slowly along the road, were many forms similar to those I had
already seen. Some of the passers-by, on observing me, approached my
guide, evidently by their tones, looks, and gestures addressing to him
inquiries about myself. In a few moments a crowd collected around us,
examining me with great interest, as if I were some rare wild animal.
Yet even in gratifying their curiosity they preserved a grave and
courteous demeanour; and after a few words from my guide, who seemed to
me to deprecate obstruction in our road, they fell back with a
stately inclination of head, and resumed their own way with tranquil
indifference. Midway in this thoroughfare we stopped at a building that
differed from those we had hitherto passed, inasmuch as it formed three
sides of a vast court, at the angles of which were lofty pyramidal
towers; in the open space between the sides was a circular fountain of
colossal dimensions, and throwing up a dazzling spray of what seemed to
me fire. We entered the building through an open doorway and came
into an enormous hall, in which were several groups of children, all
apparently employed in work as at some great factory. There was a huge
engine in the wall which was in full play, with wheels and cylinders
resembling our own steam-engines, except that it was richly ornamented
with precious stones and metals, and appeared to emanate a pale
phosphorescent atmosphere of shifting light. Many of the children were
at some mysterious work on this machinery, others were seated before
tables. I was not allowed to linger long enough to examine into the
nature of their employment. Not one young voice was heard--not one young
face turned to gaze on us. They were all still and indifferent as may
be ghosts, through the midst of which pass unnoticed the forms of the
living.
Quitting this hall, my guide led me through a gallery richly painted
in compartments, with a barbaric mixture of gold in the colours,
like pictures by Louis Cranach. The subjects described on these walls
appeared to my glance as intended to illustrate events in the history of
the race amidst which I was admitted. In all there were figures, most
of them like the manlike creatures I had seen, but not all in the same
fashion of garb, nor all with wings. There were also the effigies
of various animals and birds, wholly strange to me, with backgrounds
depicting landscapes or buildings. So far as my imperfect knowledge of
the pictorial art would allow me to form an opinion, these paintings
seemed very accurate in design and very rich in colouring, showing
a perfect knowledge of perspective, but their details not
arranged according to the rules of composition acknowledged by our
artists--wanting, as it were, a centre; so that the effect was vague,
scattered, confused, bewildering--they were like heterogeneous fragments
of a dream of art.
We now came into a room of moderate size, in which was assembled what I
afterwards knew to be the family of my guide, seated at a table spread
as for repast. The forms thus grouped were those of my guide’s wife, his
daughter, and two sons. I recognised at once the difference between
the two sexes, though the two females were of taller stature and ampler
proportions than the males; and their countenances, if still more
symmetrical in outline and contour, were devoid of the softness and
timidity of expression which give charm to the face of woman as seen on
the earth above. The wife wore no wings, the daughter wore wings longer
than those of the males.
My guide uttered a few words, on which all the persons seated rose,
and with that peculiar mildness of look and manner which I have before
noticed, and which is, in truth, the common attribute of this formidable
race, they saluted me according to their fashion, which consists in
laying the right hand very gently on the head and uttering a soft
sibilant monosyllable--S.Si, equivalent to “Welcome.”
The mistress of the house then seated me beside her, and heaped a golden
platter before me from one of the dishes.
While I ate (and though the viands were new to me, I marvelled more
at the delicacy than the strangeness of their flavour), my companions
conversed quietly, and, so far as I could detect, with polite avoidance
of any direct reference to myself, or any obtrusive scrutiny of my
appearance. Yet I was the first creature of that variety of the human
race to which I belong that they had ever beheld, and was consequently
regarded by them as a most curious and abnormal phenomenon. But all
rudeness is unknown to this people, and the youngest child is taught to
despise any vehement emotional demonstration. When the meal was ended,
my guide again took me by the hand, and, re-entering the gallery,
touched a metallic plate inscribed with strange figures, and which I
rightly conjectured to be of the nature of our telegraphs. A platform
descended, but this time we mounted to a much greater height than in the
former building, and found ourselves in a room of moderate dimensions,
and which in its general character had much that might be familiar to
the associations of a visitor from the upper world. There were shelves
on the wall containing what appeared to be books, and indeed were so;
mostly very small, like our diamond duodecimos, shaped in the fashion
of our volumes, and bound in sheets of fine metal. There were several
curious-looking pieces of mechanism scattered about, apparently models,
such as might be seen in the study of any professional mechanician. Four
automata (mechanical contrivances which, with these people, answer the
ordinary purposes of domestic service) stood phantom-like at each angle
in the wall. In a recess was a low couch, or bed with pillows. A window,
with curtains of some fibrous material drawn aside, opened upon a large
balcony. My host stepped out into the balcony; I followed him. We were
on the uppermost story of one of the angular pyramids; the view beyond
was of a wild and solemn beauty impossible to describe:--the vast
ranges of precipitous rock which formed the distant background, the
intermediate valleys of mystic many-coloured herbiage, the flash of
waters, many of them like streams of roseate flame, the serene lustre
diffused over all by myriads of lamps, combined to form a whole of which
no words of mine can convey adequate description; so splendid was it,
yet so sombre; so lovely, yet so awful.
But my attention was soon diverted from these nether landscapes.
Suddenly there arose, as from the streets below, a burst of joyous
music; then a winged form soared into the space; another as if in chase
of the first, another and another; others after others, till the crowd
grew thick and the number countless. But how describe the fantastic
grace of these forms in their undulating movements! They appeared
engaged in some sport or amusement; now forming into opposite squadrons;
now scattering; now each group threading the other, soaring, descending,
interweaving, severing; all in measured time to the music below, as if
in the dance of the fabled Peri.
I turned my gaze on my host in a feverish wonder. I ventured to place my
hand on the large wings that lay folded on his breast, and in doing so a
slight shock as of electricity passed through me. I recoiled in fear;
my host smiled, and as if courteously to gratify my curiosity, slowly
expanded his pinions. I observed that his garment beneath them became
dilated as a bladder that fills with air. The arms seemed to slide
into the wings, and in another moment he had launched himself into the
luminous atmosphere, and hovered there, still, and with outspread wings,
as an eagle that basks in the sun. Then, rapidly as an eagle swoops, he
rushed downwards into the midst of one of the groups, skimming through
the midst, and as suddenly again soaring aloft. Thereon, three forms,
in one of which I thought to recognise my host’s daughter, detached
themselves from the rest, and followed him as a bird sportively follows
a bird. My eyes, dazzled with the lights and bewildered by the throngs,
ceased to distinguish the gyrations and evolutions of these winged
playmates, till presently my host re-emerged from the crowd and alighted
at my side.
The strangeness of all I had seen began now to operate fast on my
senses; my mind itself began to wander. Though not inclined to be
superstitious, nor hitherto believing that man could be brought into
bodily communication with demons, I felt the terror and the wild
excitement with which, in the Gothic ages, a traveller might have
persuaded himself that he witnessed a ‘sabbat’ of fiends and witches.
I have a vague recollection of having attempted with vehement
gesticulation, and forms of exorcism, and loud incoherent words, to
repel my courteous and indulgent host; of his mild endeavors to calm and
soothe me; of his intelligent conjecture that my fright and bewilderment
were occasioned by the difference of form and movement between us which
the wings that had excited my marvelling curiosity had, in exercise,
made still more strongly perceptible; of the gentle smile with which he
had sought to dispel my alarm by dropping the wings to the ground and
endeavouring to show me that they were but a mechanical contrivance.
That sudden transformation did but increase my horror, and as extreme
fright often shows itself by extreme daring, I sprang at his throat like
a wild beast. On an instant I was felled to the ground as by an electric
shock, and the last confused images floating before my sight ere I
became wholly insensible, were the form of my host kneeling beside
me with one hand on my forehead, and the beautiful calm face of his
daughter, with large, deep, inscrutable eyes intently fixed upon my own.