On the further bank of the river, embowered amid great palmlike trees and other greenery is a group of imposing buildings, their white walls and domed summits presenting a very picturesque and handsome appearance. George, we will approach them more nearly. Gentola̤, in those commodious structures are housed all the homeless infirm and homeless aged persons of this province, and truly in the fullest sense possible it is a home, for the care of the inmates is regarded as a Sacred trust, and they receive every attention that love and a high sense of duty can suggest. You have been told that the Entoans regard life as the most precious of all possessions, and that it may be prolonged to the utmost is their chiefest desire. Those who live to an unusual age are regarded as being specially favored by the God Phra (death), and they receive tenderest care and marked consideration. This and like beneficent institutions are known as Roûva̤ nû Vastimo Odallissa̤a̤. Translated into your language this would mean home for the fortunate. Zenesta̤ says that my translation is not quite correct. I should have said favored, not fortunate, ones.
Yes, I am aware that on our Planet, particularly among so termed civilized peoples, there is small sympathy for such unfortunates as fill insane asylums. In such institutions we often witness fiendish cruelties perpetrated by semi-savage attendants upon helpless unfortunates. Cruelty in all its manifestations is the unerring indication of savagery, hence individuals or peoples who entertain low views as to their duties toward the aged, the helpless and unfortunate are still in an unevolved state and of necessity upon entering the Spirit World will find themselves on a low plane of Being. As there is no escape from the consequences of one's acts, the fate of undutiful children, of unfaithful friends, of cruel and selfish guardians of the poor and helpless is not an enviable one, for on the Spirit side, to their lasting regret they must learn the full meaning of personal atonement.
In every province are Roûva̤ nû Vastimo Odallissa̤a̤, and nowhere on Ento is one man, woman or child homeless or without ample care and kindliest protection.
What a glorious day this is. The atmosphere is vibrant with life giving forces and how grand it is to be conscious of one's existence and of the ever unfolding capabilities inherent in the ego. At thought of it my exultation is beyond expression.
Gentola̤, is not the view wonderfully fine? The engineering skill which has so perfected the vast Irrigating and Waterways System in itself is marvellous, all the more so when one considers the peculiar difficulties encountered and surmounted. See that huge vessel coming so swiftly from the northeast. Consider the enormous energy of the motive power impelling it through the quiet Waterway at a rate of speed unattained by the swiftest ocean steamers of our Planet.
Gentola—Certainly such results of applied electricity and of vibratory force are amazing, and while observing vessels great and small rushing along at what to me appears dangerous speed, continually I anticipate accidents, which thus far have not occurred. Transports, too, traverse the air apparently as secure as birds on wing, and great trains of Tuzamos, at a speed that to me is appalling, come and go without exciting more than passing attention.
De L'Ester—Naturally these features must impress you, but at this time I cannot more than repeat that the speed and movements of all vessels and other conveyances are carefully regulated, and that the Entoans regard it as a supreme duty to guard from injury themselves and others.
George, that we may afford our travellers a view of Wa̤na̤ Vinostû yarû (expiatory fire fountain) we will move toward the northeast. We are nearing the phenomenal marvel from which clouds of steam are rising and violently swirling as they are dissipated in the atmosphere. Sunbeams falling athwart the vaporous clouds tint them with rainbow hues, and like those of a kaleidoscope, ever the shapes are changing into new forms of loveliness. Now we perceive a boiling, bubbling lake, at intervals pulsing upward, upward to the rim of the massive stone wall inclosing it, and now slowly it subsides to again and again repeat the singular movement. Once the basin of the lake was an active volcano, but through a seismic convulsion an underground channel was opened between it and a large spring fed lake whose volume of water poured into the crater, whose ever lessening diameter is little more than a mile, but whose depth is so incredible that I hesitate to state it. Von Humboldt, will you further inform us concerning this expression of nature's ever surpassing handiwork?
Von Humboldt—Soon after entering the Spirit World I became acquainted with Lief Bjornson, a learned Norwegian, who informed me that frequently he had visited this Planet, and that with some ancient Ento Spirits he had thoroughly explored it. Also, he informed me that among other interesting features of Ento, near the northern boundary of the Irrigating and Waterways System, there was a hot water lake which periodically overflowed, occasioning engineers and laborers much annoyance and destroying all adjacent vegetation. Later on he again visited the locality and found the lake inclosed within a substantial wall of masonry. Through these ancient Spirits he learned that the convulsion which converted an active volcano into a hot water lake occurred long previous to the centralization of Ento's Government and the Establishment of the National Religion. My natural tendencies augmenting my curiosity I took advantage of a recent visit to the Planet to investigate the phenomenon. The diameter of the nearly circular lake is, as De L'Ester has said, a little over one mile, its depth varying with the flow and ebb of its volume of boiling water, which at regular intervals sinks downward, downward, until to mortal vision it becomes imperceptible. During the day the pulsating lake is at flood, but with the decline of the Sun it ebbs downward, and twilight falls over an abyss whose depth more than equals its diameter. As I with my Ento friends hovered over the emptied crater, listening to the strangely uncanny noises far down in its depths we felt no sense of surprise that in ancient as in modern times the Entoans have shunned the lake, believing it tenanted by offending Gods, condemned by Andûmana̤ to dwell there as an expiation of some misdemeanor. Will our friend Hugh Miller, who has examined the geological formation of this locality, give to us the result of his observations?
Hugh Miller—We are aware that on Ento, as on other Planets volcanic activities afford a vent for the surplusage of interior energies, which ever are more or less phenomenal, but as I must confine myself to our present subject, I only shall say that a personal examination of this locality assured me and those accompanying me, that in a remote age in this and the adjacent region a volcanic group existed, which as Ento's interior heat lessened, became inactive and at length this, the greatest of the group, alone remained intermittently active, and at the time of the seismic convulsion this was its condition. To explain its present phenomenal features would consume more time than we can afford, but on some other occasion, if desirable, I may do so. I, however, may say that the energies which have levelled the once elevated cone of this crater have obliterated all surface traces of its lesser neighbors, whose location only Spirit vision perceives. Where was the spring fed lake? At no great distance northward, and its extent was from north to south about thirty miles, from east to west quite twenty miles.