“But this day of water, cleanliness, and soap,
I shall carry to the Catacombs of Hope,
Photographically lined
On the tablets of my mind,
When a yesterday seems to me remote.”
And to crown all we were given the tunic and trousers of Radiumopolis with the belt and enigmatically engraved buckle—of lead, to Goritz’s ill-suppressed mortification. And then we were taken back into the Capitol, and alloted four rooms facing the east, each provided with a window, from which we would now surely be able to watch the pageant of the returning worshippers, priests or celebrants. These rooms deserve a passing consideration. They were low ceilinged, moderate spaced, their floors carpeted with a rude figured matting (again the conventional Crocodilo-Python) their walls hung with rugs far less artistic than the Navajo blanket, low couches upholstered with matting and rugs or carpets, and across the doorway a surprisingly artistic tapestry of gold threads, figuring the Crocodilo-Python in a maze of interlacing and sinuous outlines, something like the convoluted sea dragon on the jade screens of China. One of these curtains hung at the entrance of almost every room in the Capitol, and they were very numerous and capable of accommodating a remarkable number of people.
There were on the ground floor—where our own rooms had auspiciously been reserved—large assembly rooms, or audience and council chambers, and, as the sequel shows, one of these was the Throne Room. There was no glass covering to the windows; perhaps in a few instance screens of leather, which were inserted in the openings of the rooms, helped to exclude the cold, such as it was. Rain was kept out by board frames. We found out that there was seldom a cold exceeding 0° Centigrade, and that radium stoves or our clothing itself, mitigated any severity of weather the denizens of these houses experienced. Everything reinforced our first impressions, that the culture of the Radiumopolites was simple, unostentatious, a little grotesque and savage, but that their proximity to some source of radium had evolved a mysterious power among their wise men, which had overlaid the supellex of their culture with this resplendent glory of GOLD. Was it, as the Professor more and more confidently believed—was it transmutation?
In our rooms we were supplied with the radium lamps and were made to understand that too long exposure to their influence was dangerous. Once in possession of this marvel we surrendered almost all curiosity to the inspection of the transcendent material. Facts connected with its properties and its power are considered in another place; our immediate history in our new surroundings claims precedence now. We were permitted the liberty of the courtyard around the Capitol, but were not allowed to descend the hill, nor to investigate the surrounding city. Of course we saw the occupants of the Capitol, who evidently formed a restricted and semi-imperial class, and the many messengers, tradespeople or supplicants who every day came out of the city.
The small people were immensely the more interesting of the two types. They varied much among themselves, and exhibited individualities of temperament, behavior and feature, that were most absorbing. One defect amongst them was the imperfect and incomplete teeth, especially in the men, the apparently thin-shanked (platynemic) legs, and the somewhat constricted chests, indications, taken in connection with their large heads, that the Professor interpreted as evidence of great racial age. The women were often sharply contrasted with the men, being larger, more shapely, and often boasting really extraordinary beauty. This was most marked in the residents in the Capitol, and one of these ladies of the Capitol whom we later encountered promenading the courtyard quite enthralled us. Her own appreciation of the Yankee was on her side equally enthusiastic.
We had our meals served to us in a separate room, attended by servants of the larger race. We sat at a table covered with a yellow cloth, with designs woven upon it of the ubiquitous Crocodilo-Python, and we ate from square dishes of pottery, also yellow and bordered by blue traceries of interwoven serpents, which revolted both Hopkins and myself. Our cuisine was not much varied, and the most pleasing element was the delicious wine. The flat meal cakes, nuts, fruit and dishes of goat and sheep meat, with some vegetables, were offered relentlessly day after day, and it occurred to Hopkins that if he could have had an assorted shipment from Park and Tilford’s, and been allowed to make a few simple experiments in the kitchen he could easily have raised the standard of living immensely.