The children return to their play. Giant reclines on the couch, Giantess busies herself with household affairs, and Fenēta has retreated to his lair, from whence he suspiciously but rather drowsily watches our movements. We now will go out under the trees to await the coming of our friends.
The Souvanallos occupy a position midway between Ento's most advanced races and several isolated communities of people who are little more than semi-civilized, yet who are far from a condition of barbarism. They, like nearly all the Entoans, through a reverential regard for life, abstain from eating the flesh of animals, yet, rather illogically, all eat fishes of various kinds. The Souvanallos alone raise herds of angossa for food and for their wool, which they exchange for such commodities as they require, in this manner procuring textile fabrics, household furniture and utensils, agricultural implements, ornaments for personal adornment and so on. In no sense are they artisans. Their dwellings and other structures are erected by men of other lands, and such materials as are not procurable at home are brought by air or other transportation from elsewhere. Their priests are of their own race, they having been from early youth trained and educated for the office. They instruct the people in religion, in government, and in educational branches, officiate at marriages, at funerals, and adjust any differences between neighbors. Being a truthful, virtuous, generous and loving people, differences seldom occur to mar the serenity of their lives.
Again the family go toward the forest, and yonder are our Ento spirit friends, Inidora̤ and Genessano, who are calling to us a greeting.
Genessano—Loha̤û, Loha̤û, ēmanos. Itsu fon ipsoien?
De L'Ester—We impatiently have awaited your coming and truly you are welcome. But while we exchange greetings we must remember that one whom you never have met is with us. Gentola̤, as these Ento spirits do not understand your language, or you theirs, it will be both my duty and pleasure to interpret for you and them. Inidora̤, Genessano, this is our missionary, Gentola̤, of whom you have heard and of whom we all expect so much.
Genessano—My brother Inidora̤ and I gratefully appreciate your efforts on behalf of our people and we pray you accept our homage and the earnest desire of our hearts that we may come to be numbered among your friends. Strangely do we come together, Gentola̤ ēmana̤, you from a distant planet, we from our spirit realms. Appropriate indeed is your new name, for well beloved are you by your dearest ones and your many friends on the spirit side who also give to my brother and me a place in their affection. Drawn by varied duties and inclinations, we have visited other planets and their spirit realms, and, although we have visited Earth's spirit realms, we as yet have not visited your planet, and only twice, since passing hence, have we returned to our beloved Ento. On this, our third return, we find ourselves amid scenes once familiar but now so changed that we are as strangers in a strange land. Through tender ties or weighty interests, often spirits are drawn to their former abodes, but Inidora̤ and I, being, save for some distant kindred, the last of our race, have felt no attraction on Ento strong enough to draw us away from dearer ties. You, perhaps, are aware that we now return for a special purpose, and may the Supreme One aid us all in our loving endeavor. This my brother Inidora̤ will speak for himself.
Inidora—I am happy in being a member of this group of earnest, loving spirits. Gentola̤ ēmana̤, you are devoting yourself to a grander, a loftier mission than you have yet been made to understand. Myriad spirits of many planetary spirit realms eagerly, anxiously, hopefully watch its progress. From star to star a message has been heralded, summoning angel hosts to unite with us in a mighty effort to tear asunder the dense veil of materialism which so long has blinded the eyes of Ento's despairing ones. To come in the might of their love and wisdom, that they may strengthen our hands and make firm our footsteps, while we strive to bring to the children of Ento a knowledge of continuous existence. In answer to this message, angel hosts are combining their forces to aid us in the momentous hour which swiftly approaches. In that hour your spirit senses will be so unfolded that then you will comprehend what now you but dimly perceive. And may divinest influences aid us in this, as in all righteous undertakings.
Gentola—I well know that I do not understand the supreme aim of what you and these friends are pleased to term our mission. It is my nature to trust all, or not at all, so, implicitly, I trust you and them, believing that whatever information may, for the time, be withheld from me, will be for a kind and wise purpose. At present I am more interested in what you may tell me of yourself and brother than in what may be the special object of bringing me to Ento.
Inidora—Our friends approving, it will afford me pleasure to make Genessano and myself better known to you. I regret that I do not know your language or you mine but, through our kind interpreter, De L'Ester, we may arrive at a mutual understanding. We are sons of Genessano Allis Immo, a former governor of the province of Ondû, and of Camarissa̤, his wife. My brother, Genessano, is but two years younger than myself, and since his birth seldom have we been separated. Since passing to our spirit world, at times certain duties have sent us far apart, but ever our mutual affection hastens our return to each other's presence. How long have we been on the spirit side? Nearly four centuries of our time. I passed from my physical body first and almost suddenly, and the memory of that hour saddens me even now. As the nearness of approaching death grew into dread certainty, my brother and I frantically clung to each other, our despair that we were about to part to meet no more, finding expression in grievous sobs and moans. Even while Genessano held me in his arms, our voices blending in entreaties that Andûmana̤ might stay the coming of Phra (death) the cruel messenger, my spirit departed from the physical body and I was received by our dear parents and friends to be borne into our spirit realms and to my own place. I find no words to express my overwhelming surprise and joy when I at last realized that I still lived, that my adored parents held me to their hearts in rapture unspeakable; that dreaded death was but a birth into a higher life. Aye, life, life, life forevermore. Then very soon we joyfully realized that ere long our beloved one, our Genessano, would be with us. Yes, surely he would be with us, who would watch and wait for him. Often the memory of that wondrous time comes to me and so fills me with ecstatic exultation, that had I at my command the combined voices of all the angelic hosts I would strive to fill the universe with the amazing, the priceless message, life is continuous, life is continuous, for spirit is indestructible and unchanging, as is God, who is spirit, and all that is is an expression of the One Divine Being. We waited and watched for the release of this dear brother, our Genessano, for we were aware that his despair that he was left alone and that never again would he behold the forms and faces of his beloved ones was fast sapping his vital force and that soon his breaking heart would be stilled and he would be with us. I was not yet strong enough to go to him, but our beloved parents ministered to him, and when he was freed they bore him to his beautiful spirit home, where I awaited him. Oh, the rapture of that moment, when again I gazed upon the dear, familiar face and form of my brother, and the still greater rapture, when his slowly unclosing eyes rested upon our adored parents, then, in indescribable bewilderment upon me. Not yet could he realize the wonder that had occurred. As though he were dreaming, he murmured: "I—ah—I thought I—was dying, I thought—Inidora̤, my brother Inidora̤—leaned over me, and my—But I dream—I only—dream. I shall see him no more—no more." I stooped and kissed his lips, and he smiled, again murmuring, "I dream—I dream." Again I kissed him, crying to him our old time greeting, "Lohaû, lohaû, Genessano." In extreme amazement and perturbation, and with widely-opened, affrighted eyes, he gazed into the faces of our parents, and then into mine, and as he gazed his wonder grew, but not his comprehension of the marvellous change which had come to him. Tremblingly, incoherently, he cried, "Father, mother, Inidora̤—oh, pitiful Gods, deceive me not. Do I yet live? Have not I died? Phra, Phra, come quickly and end this dream, which bewilders me with its alluring unreality, which"—— Again, in joyous tones I cried, "Lohaû, Genassano, lohaû," and into his dear eyes grew an expression of recognition and of joy so unspeakable that, as he reached toward us his trembling hands, no words fell from his lips, but on his radiant face was the smile of one arisen from the depths of despair to the very heights of supremest bliss. Then came to him the full realization that we his dearest ones were embracing him, that our tears and laughter, our endearing words, were a joyous, a blessed reality. Ah, Gentola̤, you who have ever known that life is continuous, can little comprehend the depth of the unutterable despair of a people ardent in their loving, constant in their affection, but without even a thought that life may not end with death of the body. But the hour is coming, quickly coming, when, through a knowledge of the glorious truth of a conscious continuity of existence, the shadows ever brooding over the lives of our people shall forever flee away.