The word Ana (pronounced broadly ‘Arna’) corresponds with our plural
‘men;’ An (pronounced ‘Arn’), the singular, with ‘man.’ The word for
woman is Gy (pronounced hard, as in Guy); it forms itself into Gy-ei for
the plural, but the G becomes soft in the plural like Jy-ei. They have
a proverb to the effect that this difference in pronunciation is
symbolical, for that the female sex is soft in the concrete, but hard to
deal with in the individual. The Gy-ei are in the fullest enjoyment of
all the rights of equality with males, for which certain philosophers
above ground contend.
In childhood they perform the offices of work and labour impartially
with the boys, and, indeed, in the earlier age appropriated to the
destruction of animals irreclaimably hostile, the girls are frequently
preferred, as being by constitution more ruthless under the influence of
fear or hate. In the interval between infancy and the marriageable age
familiar intercourse between the sexes is suspended. At the marriageable
age it is renewed, never with worse consequences than those which attend
upon marriage. All arts and vocations allotted to the one sex are open
to the other, and the Gy-ei arrogate to themselves a superiority in all
those abstruse and mystical branches of reasoning, for which they say
the Ana are unfitted by a duller sobriety of understanding, or the
routine of their matter-of-fact occupations, just as young ladies in our
own world constitute themselves authorities in the subtlest points of
theological doctrine, for which few men, actively engaged in worldly
business have sufficient learning or refinement of intellect.
Whether owing to early training in gymnastic exercises, or to their
constitutional organisation, the Gy-ei are usually superior to the Ana
in physical strength (an important element in the consideration and
maintenance of female rights). They attain to loftier stature, and amid
their rounder proportions are imbedded sinews and muscles as hardy
as those of the other sex. Indeed they assert that, according to the
original laws of nature, females were intended to be larger than males,
and maintain this dogma by reference to the earliest formations of life
in insects, and in the most ancient family of the vertebrata--viz.,
fishes--in both of which the females are generally large enough to make
a meal of their consorts if they so desire. Above all, the Gy-ei have a
readier and more concentred power over that mysterious fluid or agency
which contains the element of destruction, with a larger portion of that
sagacity which comprehends dissimulation. Thus they cannot only defend
themselves against all aggressions from the males, but could, at any
moment when he least expected his danger, terminate the existence of an
offending spouse. To the credit of the Gy-ei no instance of their abuse
of this awful superiority in the art of destruction is on record for
several ages. The last that occurred in the community I speak of appears
(according to their chronology) to have been about two thousand years
ago. A Gy, then, in a fit of jealousy, slew her husband; and this
abominable act inspired such terror among the males that they emigrated
in a body and left all the Gy-ei to themselves. The history runs that
the widowed Gy-ei, thus reduced to despair, fell upon the murderess when
in her sleep (and therefore unarmed), and killed her, and then entered
into a solemn obligation amongst themselves to abrogate forever the
exercise of their extreme conjugal powers, and to inculcate the
same obligation for ever and ever on their female children. By this
conciliatory process, a deputation despatched to the fugitive consorts
succeeded in persuading many to return, but those who did return were
mostly the elder ones. The younger, either from too craven a doubt of
their consorts, or too high an estimate of their own merits, rejected
all overtures, and, remaining in other communities, were caught up there
by other mates, with whom perhaps they were no better off. But the loss
of so large a portion of the male youth operated as a salutary warning
on the Gy-ei, and confirmed them in the pious resolution to which they
pledged themselves. Indeed it is now popularly considered that, by long
hereditary disuse, the Gy-ei have lost both the aggressive and defensive
superiority over the Ana which they once possessed, just as in the
inferior animals above the earth many peculiarities in their original
formation, intended by nature for their protection, gradually fade or
become inoperative when not needed under altered circumstances. I should
be sorry, however, for any An who induced a Gy to make the experiment
whether he or she were the stronger.
From the incident I have narrated, the Ana date certain alterations in
the marriage customs, tending, perhaps, somewhat to the advantage of the
male. They now bind themselves in wedlock only for three years; at the
end of each third year either male or female can divorce the other and
is free to marry again. At the end of ten years the An has the privilege
of taking a second wife, allowing the first to retire if she so please.
These regulations are for the most part a dead letter; divorces and
polygamy are extremely rare, and the marriage state now seems
singularly happy and serene among this astonishing people;--the Gy-ei,
notwithstanding their boastful superiority in physical strength and
intellectual abilities, being much curbed into gentle manners by the
dread of separation or of a second wife, and the Ana being very much the
creatures of custom, and not, except under great aggravation, likely
to exchange for hazardous novelties faces and manners to which they
are reconciled by habit. But there is one privilege the Gy-ei carefully
retain, and the desire for which perhaps forms the secret motive of most
lady asserters of woman rights above ground. They claim the privilege,
here usurped by men, of proclaiming their love and urging their suit;
in other words, of being the wooing party rather than the wooed. Such a
phenomenon as an old maid does not exist among the Gy-ei. Indeed it
is very seldom that a Gy does not secure any An upon whom she sets her
heart, if his affections be not strongly engaged elsewhere. However coy,
reluctant, and prudish, the male she courts may prove at first, yet her
perseverance, her ardour, her persuasive powers, her command over the
mystic agencies of vril, are pretty sure to run down his neck into
what we call “the fatal noose.” Their argument for the reversal of that
relationship of the sexes which the blind tyranny of man has established
on the surface of the earth, appears cogent, and is advanced with a
frankness which might well be commended to impartial consideration.
They say, that of the two the female is by nature of a more loving
disposition than the male--that love occupies a larger space in her
thoughts, and is more essential to her happiness, and that therefore
she ought to be the wooing party; that otherwise the male is a shy and
dubitant creature--that he has often a selfish predilection for the
single state--that he often pretends to misunderstand tender glances
and delicate hints--that, in short, he must be resolutely pursued and
captured. They add, moreover, that unless the Gy can secure the An of
her choice, and one whom she would not select out of the whole world
becomes her mate, she is not only less happy than she otherwise would
be, but she is not so good a being, that her qualities of heart are not
sufficiently developed; whereas the An is a creature that less lastingly
concentrates his affections on one object; that if he cannot get the
Gy whom he prefers he easily reconciles himself to another Gy; and,
finally, that at the worst, if he is loved and taken care of, it is less
necessary to the welfare of his existence that he should love as well
as be loved; he grows contented with his creature comforts, and the many
occupations of thought which he creates for himself.
Whatever may be said as to this reasoning, the system works well for the
male; for being thus sure that he is truly and ardently loved, and that
the more coy and reluctant he shows himself, the more determination
to secure him increases, he generally contrives to make his consent
dependent on such conditions as he thinks the best calculated to insure,
if not a blissful, at least a peaceful life. Each individual An has his
own hobbies, his own ways, his own predilections, and, whatever they may
be, he demands a promise of full and unrestrained concession to them.
This, in the pursuit of her object, the Gy readily promises; and as the
characteristic of this extraordinary people is an implicit veneration
for truth, and her word once given is never broken even by the giddiest
Gy, the conditions stipulated for are religiously observed. In fact,
notwithstanding all their abstract rights and powers, the Gy-ei are the
most amiable, conciliatory, and submissive wives I have ever seen even
in the happiest households above ground. It is an aphorism among them,
that “where a Gy loves it is her pleasure to obey.” It will be observed
that in the relationship of the sexes I have spoken only of marriage,
for such is the moral perfection to which this community has attained,
that any illicit connection is as little possible amongst them as it
would be to a couple of linnets during the time they agree to live in
pairs.