THE DISCOVERY OF THE SUN
WE arrived at the king’s palace, a description of which will undoubtedly interest the reader, and I only regret my inability to do full justice to this subject.
The palace consisted of an extensive building of white alabaster upon a rose-coloured marble foundation, and with a gilded dome-shaped roof over the main portion of the building, while the adjoining parts were shaped in various ways. The whole represented a mixture of Grecian and Moorish styles; there was a high portal whose columns were of white marble with veins of gold. Entering through the main door we came into a spacious courtyard, filled with works of art, representing antediluvian monstrosities of the various ages of the world. There we saw the Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, and Megatherium, and similar animals unknown in history; enormous snakes, turtles, and crocodiles, in what is supposed to have been their original size and shape, and besides these there were represented such failures of nature as may have existed in the earliest time of the world’s history—women with fish-tails, human bodies with animal heads, and animal bodies with human heads or limbs, fauns, mermaids, satyrs, centaurs, flying snakes, dragons, etc. Curiously enough, the gnomes claimed that these were the representations of their ancestors, and they paid great respect to them. This courtyard extended all around the palace, surrounding it like a ring.
From this court we entered into an entrance hall built of yellow stone, at the door of which were standing two gigantic umbrella-shaped mushrooms of scarlet colour with white filaments, resembling the finest kind of lace.
This hall was exquisitely furnished and ornamented with various mushrooms, all of an edible kind, affording at once comfort and food; for while resting upon a lounge or sitting at a table, if one wanted to eat, all he had to do was to eat a piece of the furniture. There was the Agaricus deliciosus, procerus, campestris, prunulus, Boletus edulis, Polyporus confluens, Hydrum repandum and imbriatum, the Clavaria Botrytis, Morchella esculenta, Helvella crispa, Bovista nigrescens, and many others, whose names I have forgotten, and still others which even Professor Cracker has not yet classified. They were serving either as tables, couches, or chairs; and there was not a single toadstool or poisonous fungus among them. There were no chandeliers, lamps, or candlesticks of any kind, for the gnomes lived in a natural manner and needed no artificial lights. Each gnome was himself a light more or less luminous according to the degree of his or her intelligence. But to me, having no light of my own and no power to illuminate anything, it was a source of continual annoyance that I always needed the company of some gnome to keep me enlightened, as otherwise I would have been left in utter darkness and nothingness. Moreover, the light in which a thing appeared to me always depended on the colour of the light of this or that gnome who happened to be in my presence, which caused me to experience a continual change of opinions regarding the qualities of the objects I saw.
From this hall a flight of seven marble steps led into the main building of the palace. This consisted of eight divisions, each made of a different quality; while the whole was built in a star-shaped form; so that each division with its sub-divisions was connected directly with the central chamber occupied by the king. But what was most curious about it was, that in each division some special invisible genii or spirit seemed to preside; for in each a peculiar influence differing from the rest could be felt by anyone whose nerves were not made of cast-iron or who was not a blockhead.
Thus the hall of the mushrooms on the north side breathed an air of luxury and enjoyment; while the room to the left of it was pervaded by a spirit of anxiety and dissatisfaction, and was visited only by those who by force of habit had become attracted to it, and who, so to say, found satisfaction only in being always dissatisfied; chronic grumblers, misanthropes, people discontented with themselves and with everything. On the other hand, there were two rooms to the east, in which nobody could remain without being overcome by a feeling of awe, reverence, generosity, sublimity, and a deep religious sentiment. They were visited by the brightest of the gnomes, and served as places for contemplation. These rooms seemed to be empty, but they were not empty; because, while they were bare of all objects, they were filled with an overwhelming abundance of that spirit which is the creator or producer of forms.
THE PALACE OF THE KING.