As Taee and myself, on quitting the town, and leaving to the left the
main road which led to it, struck into the fields, the strange and
solemn beauty of the landscape, lighted up, by numberless lamps, to the
verge of the horizon, fascinated my eyes, and rendered me for some time
an inattentive listener to the talk of my companion.
Along our way various operations of agriculture were being carried on by
machinery, the forms of which were new to me, and for the most part very
graceful; for among these people art being so cultivated for the sake
of mere utility, exhibits itself in adorning or refining the shapes of
useful objects. Precious metals and gems are so profuse among them, that
they are lavished on things devoted to purposes the most commonplace;
and their love of utility leads them to beautify its tools, and quickens
their imagination in a way unknown to themselves.
In all service, whether in or out of doors, they make great use
of automaton figures, which are so ingenious, and so pliant to the
operations of vril, that they actually seem gifted with reason. It
was scarcely possible to distinguish the figures I beheld, apparently
guiding or superintending the rapid movements of vast engines, from
human forms endowed with thought.
By degrees, as we continued to walk on, my attention became roused by
the lively and acute remarks of my companion. The intelligence of the
children among this race is marvellously precocious, perhaps from the
habit of having intrusted to them, at so early an age, the toils and
responsibilities of middle age. Indeed, in conversing with Taee, I felt
as if talking with some superior and observant man of my own years. I
asked him if he could form any estimate of the number of communities
into which the race of the Vril-ya is subdivided.
“Not exactly,” he said, “because they multiply, of course, every year as
the surplus of each community is drafted off. But I heard my father say
that, according to the last report, there were a million and a half of
communities speaking our language, and adopting our institutions and
forms of life and government; but, I believe, with some differences,
about which you had better ask Zee. She knows more than most of the Ana
do. An An cares less for things that do not concern him than a Gy does;
the Gy-ei are inquisitive creatures.”
“Does each community restrict itself to the same number of families or
amount of population that you do?”
“No; some have much smaller populations, some have larger--varying
according to the extent of the country they appropriate, or to the
degree of excellence to which they have brought their machinery. Each
community sets its own limit according to circumstances, taking care
always that there shall never arise any class of poor by the pressure of
population upon the productive powers of the domain; and that no
state shall be too large for a government resembling that of a
single well-ordered family. I imagine that no vril community exceeds
thirty-thousand households. But, as a general rule, the smaller
the community, provided there be hands enough to do justice to the
capacities of the territory it occupies, the richer each individual is,
and the larger the sum contributed to the general treasury,--above all,
the happier and the more tranquil is the whole political body, and the
more perfect the products of its industry. The state which all tribes of
the Vril-ya acknowledge to be the highest in civilisation, and which
has brought the vril force to its fullest development, is perhaps the
smallest. It limits itself to four thousand families; but every inch of
its territory is cultivated to the utmost perfection of garden ground;
its machinery excels that of every other tribe, and there is no
product of its industry in any department which is not sought for, at
extraordinary prices, by each community of our race. All our tribes make
this state their model, considering that we should reach the highest
state of civilisation allowed to mortals if we could unite the greatest
degree of happiness with the highest degree of intellectual achievement;
and it is clear that the smaller the society the less difficult that
will be. Ours is too large for it.”
This reply set me thinking. I reminded myself of that little state of
Athens, with only twenty thousand free citizens, and which to this
day our mightiest nations regard as the supreme guide and model in all
departments of intellect. But then Athens permitted fierce rivalry and
perpetual change, and was certainly not happy. Rousing myself from the
reverie into which these reflections had plunged me, I brought back our
talk to the subjects connected with emigration.
“But,” said I, “when, I suppose yearly, a certain number among you agree
to quit home and found a new community elsewhere, they must necessarily
be very few, and scarcely sufficient, even with the help of the machines
they take with them, to clear the ground, and build towns, and form a
civilised state with the comforts and luxuries in which they had been
reared.”
“You mistake. All the tribes of the Vril-ya are in constant
communication with each other, and settle amongst themselves each
year what proportion of one community will unite with the emigrants of
another, so as to form a state of sufficient size; and the place for
emigration is agreed upon at least a year before, and pioneers sent from
each state to level rocks, and embank waters, and construct houses; so
that when the emigrants at last go, they find a city already made, and a
country around it at least partially cleared. Our hardy life as children
make us take cheerfully to travel and adventure. I mean to emigrate
myself when of age.”
“Do the emigrants always select places hitherto uninhabited and barren?”
“As yet generally, because it is our rule never to destroy except
when necessary to our well-being. Of course, we cannot settle in lands
already occupied by the Vril-ya; and if we take the cultivated lands
of the other races of Ana, we must utterly destroy the previous
inhabitants. Sometimes, as it is, we take waste spots, and find that
a troublesome, quarrelsome race of Ana, especially if under the
administration of Koom-Posh or Glek-Nas, resents our vicinity, and picks
a quarrel with us; then, of course, as menacing our welfare, we destroy
it: there is no coming to terms of peace with a race so idiotic that
it is always changing the form of government which represents it.
Koom-Posh,” said the child, emphatically, “is bad enough, still it has
brains, though at the back of its head, and is not without a heart; but
in Glek-Nas the brain and heart of the creatures disappear, and they
become all jaws, claws, and belly.” “You express yourself strongly.
Allow me to inform you that I myself, and I am proud to say it, am the
citizen of a Koom-Posh.”
“I no longer,” answered Taee, “wonder to see you here so far from your
home. What was the condition of your native community before it became a
Koom-Posh?”
“A settlement of emigrants--like those settlements which your tribe
sends forth--but so far unlike your settlements, that it was dependent
on the state from which it came. It shook off that yoke, and, crowned
with eternal glory, became a Koom-Posh.”
“Eternal glory! How long has the Koom-Posh lasted?”
“About 100 years.”
“The length of an An’s life--a very young community. In much less than
another 100 years your Koom-Posh will be a Glek-Nas.”
“Nay, the oldest states in the world I come from, have such faith in its
duration, that they are all gradually shaping their institutions so
as to melt into ours, and their most thoughtful politicians say that,
whether they like it or not, the inevitable tendency of these old states
is towards Koom-Posh-erie.”
“The old states?”
“Yes, the old states.”
“With populations very small in proportion to the area of productive
land?”
“On the contrary, with populations very large in proportion to that
area.”
“I see! old states indeed!--so old as to become drivelling if they don’t
pack off that surplus population as we do ours--very old states!--very,
very old! Pray, Tish, do you think it wise for very old men to try to
turn head-over-heels as very young children do? And if you ask them why
they attempted such antics, should you not laugh if they answered that
by imitating very young children they could become very young children
themselves? Ancient history abounds with instances of this sort a great
many thousand years ago--and in every instance a very old state that
played at Koom-Posh soon tumbled into Glek-Nas. Then, in horror of its
own self, it cried out for a master, as an old man in his dotage cries
out for a nurse; and after a succession of masters or nurses, more or
less long, that very old state died out of history. A very old state
attempting Koom-Posh-erie is like a very old man who pulls down the
house to which he has been accustomed, but he has so exhausted his
vigour in pulling down, that all he can do in the way of rebuilding is
to run up a crazy hut, in which himself and his successors whine out,
‘How the wind blows! How the walls shake!’”
“My dear Taee, I make all excuse for your unenlightened prejudices,
which every schoolboy educated in a Koom-Posh could easily controvert,
though he might not be so precociously learned in ancient history as you
appear to be.”
“I learned! not a bit of it. But would a schoolboy, educated in your
Koom-Posh, ask his great-great-grandfather or great-great-grandmother
to stand on his or her head with the feet uppermost? And if the poor old
folks hesitated--say, ‘What do you fear?--see how I do it!’”
“Taee, I disdain to argue with a child of your age. I repeat, I make
allowances for your want of that culture which a Koom-Posh alone can
bestow.”
“I, in my turn,” answered Taee, with an air of the suave but lofty good
breeding which characterises his race, “not only make allowances for
you as not educated among the Vril-ya, but I entreat you to vouchsafe me
your pardon for the insufficient respect to the habits and opinions of
so amiable a Tish!”
I ought before to have observed that I was commonly called Tish by my
host and his family, as being a polite and indeed a pet name, literally
signifying a small barbarian; the children apply it endearingly to the
tame species of Frog which they keep in their gardens.
We had now reached the banks of a lake, and Taee here paused to point
out to me the ravages made in fields skirting it. “The enemy certainly
lies within these waters,” said Taee. “Observe what shoals of fish are
crowded together at the margin. Even the great fishes with the small
ones, who are their habitual prey and who generally shun them, all
forget their instincts in the presence of a common destroyer. This
reptile certainly must belong to the class of Krek-a, which are more
devouring than any other, and are said to be among the few surviving
species of the world’s dreadest inhabitants before the Ana were created.
The appetite of a Krek is insatiable--it feeds alike upon vegetable and
animal life; but for the swift-footed creatures of the elk species it
is too slow in its movements. Its favourite dainty is an An when it can
catch him unawares; and hence the Ana destroy it relentlessly whenever
it enters their dominion. I have heard that when our forefathers first
cleared this country, these monsters, and others like them, abounded,
and, vril being then undiscovered, many of our race were devoured. It
was impossible to exterminate them wholly till that discovery which
constitutes the power and sustains the civilisation of our race. But
after the uses of vril became familiar to us, all creatures inimical
to us were soon annihilated. Still, once a-year or so, one of these
enormous creatures wanders from the unreclaimed and savage districts
beyond, and within my memory one has seized upon a young Gy who was
bathing in this very lake. Had she been on land and armed with her
staff, it would not have dared even to show itself; for, like all savage
creatures, the reptile has a marvellous instinct, which warns it against
the bearer of the vril wand. How they teach their young to avoid him,
though seen for the first time, is one of those mysteries which you may
ask Zee to explain, for I cannot. The reptile in this instinct does but
resemble our wild birds and animals, which will not come in reach of a
man armed with a gun. When the electric wires were first put up,
partridges struck against them in their flight, and fell down wounded.
No younger generations of partridges meet with a similar accident. So
long as I stand here, the monster will not stir from its lurking-place;
but we must now decoy it forth.”
“Will that not be difficult?”
“Not at all. Seat yourself yonder on that crag (about one hundred
yards from the bank), while I retire to a distance. In a short time the
reptile will catch sight or scent of you, and perceiving that you are no
vril-bearer, will come forth to devour you. As soon as it is fairly out
of the water, it becomes my prey.”
“Do you mean to tell me that I am to be the decoy to that horrible
monster which could engulf me within its jaws in a second! I beg to
decline.”
The child laughed. “Fear nothing,” said he; “only sit still.”
Instead of obeying the command, I made a bound, and was about to take
fairly to my heels, when Taee touched me slightly on the shoulder, and,
fixing his eyes steadily on mine, I was rooted to the spot. All power of
volition left me. Submissive to the infant’s gesture, I followed him
to the crag he had indicated, and seated myself there in silence. Most
readers have seen something of the effects of electro-biology, whether
genuine or spurious. No professor of that doubtful craft had ever been
able to influence a thought or a movement of mine, but I was a mere
machine at the will of this terrible child. Meanwhile he expanded his
wings, soared aloft, and alighted amidst a copse at the brow of a hill
at some distance.
I was alone; and turning my eyes with an indescribable sensation of
horror towards the lake, I kept them fixed on its water, spell-bound. It
might be ten or fifteen minutes, to me it seemed ages, before the still
surface, gleaming under the lamplight, began to be agitated towards
the centre. At the same time the shoals of fish near the margin evinced
their sense of the enemy’s approach by splash and leap and bubbling
circle. I could detect their hurried flight hither and thither, some
even casting themselves ashore. A long, dark, undulous furrow came
moving along the waters, nearer and nearer, till the vast head of the
reptile emerged--its jaws bristling with fangs, and its dull eyes fixing
themselves hungrily on the spot where I sat motionless. And now its fore
feet were on the strand--now its enormous breast, scaled on either
side as in armour, in the centre showing its corrugated skin of a dull
venomous yellow; and now its whole length was on the land, a hundred
feet or more from the jaw to the tail. Another stride of those ghastly
feet would have brought it to the spot where I sat. There was but a
moment between me and this grim form of death, when what seemed a flash
of lightning shot through the air, smote, and, for a space of time
briefer than that in which a man can draw his breath, enveloped
the monster; and then, as the flash vanished, there lay before me a
blackened, charred, smouldering mass, a something gigantic, but of which
even the outlines of form were burned away, and rapidly crumbling into
dust and ashes. I remained still seated, still speechless, ice-cold with
a new sensation of dread; what had been horror was now awe.
I felt the child’s hand on my head--fear left me--the spell was
broken--I rose up. “You see with what ease the Vril-ya destroy their
enemies,” said Taee; and then, moving towards the bank, he contemplated
the smouldering relics of the monster, and said quietly, “I have
destroyed larger creatures, but none with so much pleasure. Yes, it IS
a Krek; what suffering it must have inflicted while it lived!” Then he
took up the poor fishes that had flung themselves ashore, and restored
them mercifully to their native element.