It may surprise you, my sister, to learn that all the lands of Ento are held in trust by the government, only the improvements of an estate are owned by the proprietors. Later on we will have occasion to further inform you concerning this regulation.
In the Istoira is a sort of genealogical record of this family and De L'Ester suggests that, as our time is limited, it will be well to at once go there.
De L'Ester—We will enter by way of this inner doorway, and for a moment we will pause here. As you may not correctly estimate the dimensions of this Istoira, I will inform you, madame, that its depth, including the sanctuary, is about one hundred and twenty feet; its width about sixty feet. These private Istoiras are attached to the residences of all large country estates and are used, not only for religious purposes, but for placing of memorial records, and as depositories of the ashes of the dead. As you perceive, the seats are placed only along the sides, and facing us is a beautiful altar, back of which falls heavy drapery concealing from view the sanctuary. In this subdued light the white, very ornately sculptured marble altar gleams like masses of snow flowers. In contrast to its whiteness here are some red and yellow blooms so recently laid on it that the atmosphere is laden with their sweet fragrance.
All over the planet at high noon and at the moment of the disappearance of Andûmana̤'s shining abode in the numerous Temples and Istoiras religious observances occur. At high noon, on occasions, animals are sacrificed and offerings of value are laid on altars. At the evening service only grains, fruits and flowers, the sacred red and yellow tsoina and valseta blooms are offered. Soon, we believe, sacrifices involving animal life will be known no more on Ento.
ISOINA
Medium—De L'Ester, pardon me for interrupting you. You have informed me that the Entoans, as a whole, are more highly civilized than are the peoples of our planet. Why, then, do they still practice these superstitious observances?
De L'Ester—Superstition, madame, is a feature of all religions. The Entoans who offer to Andûmana̤, or the Deific Ones, an animal as an atonement for wrong doing, or to perhaps appease an angry God or Goddess, are no more superstitious than the Christian who believes in the vicarious atonement of Jesus of Nazareth, whom he regards as an embodiment of God. In the early ages of man's evolvement (I speak of man of any Planet) he gropes his way with uncomprehending senses until a period arrives when he becomes a spiritualized being. Then he looks about him. Effects present themselves to his wondering, fearful gaze, and more or less clearly he perceives them, but as yet he is too immature to associate effects with causes of which he has no conception. Gradually he becomes conscious that back of effects there appears to be an intelligent cause or causes, and in accordance with the degree of his spiritual unfoldment he invests this cause or causes with beneficent or maleficent qualities, frequently with both. In time his unfolding ideas become more distinctive, and from them he evolves two personalities, one good, the other evil. The former he reverently adores, the latter he regards with fear and disfavor, yet with a certain respectful consideration. The human ages and ever intuitively he seeks after truth. In his uncertainty he looks this way and that, gathering as he goes fancies which, by and by, he formulates into facts, and these fanciful facts keep pace with his growth, and a period arrives when he establishes a religion which is a concretion of inherited tendencies conjoined to such legendary and other myths as may have come his way. Further along his larger unfoldment obliges him to discard beliefs which do not fit into his wider views which are the logical consequences of his wider experiences, and in his unrest he grows desperate or indifferent as to what may or may not be true. You are aware that at this time among Earth's peoples many are in this unhappy state of mind, and that, what is little less deplorable, multitudes are held in the bonds of ecclesiastical legends and dogmas which ever obscure the truth, and superstition ever is where truth is not.
But the God-Man is coming; he will break his bonds asunder,
And go marching through the ages, his gaze turned toward the blue;
Where the Angel hosts, in tones as of reverberating thunder,
Sing hosannahs to The Highest, who alone is true.