In accordance with a prearranged plan I shall undertake a relation of some events which may serve to illustrate certain points. To do so will oblige me to be more prominently personal than I could wish, but you and our friends will excuse my using such means as may seem best fitted for the accomplishment of a desired end. At the time of my birth my father, Ha̤-Moûfih Ada̤ssi, was governor of the Province of Ondû. I being the first born of my parents was given the name of my father. You may not have been informed that on Ento nearly always the first born son takes the name of the father as the first born daughter takes the name of the mother. I am aware that with much of Ento's history of the past four centuries you are acquainted, so for the most part I shall confine myself to a relation of events occurring within the years of my mortal existence, and of those following my departure into Ento's Spirit World, where quickly I learned the law of return into mortal conditions, and thus through observation and association with recently freed spirits I have kept myself informed as to many things relating to Ento's peoples and affairs to which I may find it expedient to refer. During my youth I attended several Institutions of learning, but the greater part of my education I received in this Galarēsa̤ of Camarissa̤, and when my parents considered me sufficiently advanced in age and in my studies, I, with other youths under the care of a guardian, were permitted to travel through foreign countries, observing the peoples, their customs and attainments with such other features as might afford us a general knowledge of Ento.
An exhaustive investigation of natural history possessing for me an absorbing interest, on my return home I besought and obtained permission of my parents to, in my own way, pursue the engrossing study which during the remainder of my mortal existence largely occupied my time and attention.
At this moment it occurs to me that to avoid confusion of mind it may be well for me to use your standard of time. Also to state that I date my birth at a time corresponding to about the middle of your seventeenth century, hence am an Entoan of a comparatively modern time. Ere I began my journeyings a quarter of a century of my youth had elapsed, and the close of another twenty-five years found me still a wanderer over the lands of Ento. During all these years my restless mind and untiring investigations led me to an exploration not only of easily accessible climes, but also of the planet's frozen extremities. Doubtless you have become informed that air transports traverse the entire planet, and that wherever necessary or desirable, stations for the convenience of travel and commerce long have been established. Thus favored I pursued my travels until, save for one extensive equatorial region far westward of Indoloisa̤, of which presently I shall speak, I had traversed the entire surface of Ento.
My absences from Camarissa̤ were of longer or shorter duration, but the love of my pursuit so grew upon me that only affection for my aging parents drew me to the arms ever ready to welcome me. Early in my fifty-second year my mother passed to our Spirit World. My father, grief stricken and aged beyond a century, quickly followed her, as, I then believed, into endless silence, but as I how know, into realms inconceivably glorious. Thus I became hereditary governor of Ondû.
Much against the wishes of my parents I had not married, my pursuit affording me little time or inclination for the society of women. Then, too, early in my youth I had observed that the most poignant sorrows had their roots in human affection; that those who loved least, sorrowed least. With pitying eyes and a pained heart I had often had occasion to sympathize with those whose light of life went out, when death tore from their clinging arms their dearest ones, and I fully realized that should I allow myself the ecstasy of loving an adorable woman I should only be courting for her or for myself eventual despair. So I did not marry.
On becoming governor of Ondû I learned that the duties of my office and other affairs left me insufficient leisure to care for the valuable collections of many years, and I resolved to add them to the already priceless treasures of the Syffondû (museum) of the Acclinum (zoölogical department) and the Rinvoh (aquarium). During my wanderings I had from time to time become possessed of strange creatures, some living, some dead. The water serpent, which I learn you already have seen, was captured in Tsoivan Cryfimo, which is one of a series of salt lakes, or, as De L'Ester terms them, inland salt seas, nearly on the opposite side of Ento. At the time of his capture Gandûlana̤ was about one-third his present size and I had been governor of Ondû for quite forty years. Three years later I passed to our Spirit World, and my paternal uncle, Unda̤ Gamonda̤, became my successor, but only for a period of twelve years, when he followed me, and his son, Unda̤ Gamonda̤, became and at this time is governor of the Province of Ondû. Thus you may perceive that Gandûlana̤ is not in his early youth. How long he may yet survive as the last of his species no one can say.
Unda̤ Gamonda̤ is a learned and most admirable man, under whose administration this Province is most prosperous. Under his fostering care manufactures, arts, sciences and industries are afforded every possible opportunity for favorable progress, and those engaged in the cultivation of the wonderfully productive irrigated lands which occupy the entire Province of Ondû ever find him more than willing to further their interests. He is an artist, too, of excellent ability, and on yonder ornate pedestal symbolizing Commerce and Agriculture is a statue, the work of his dexterous mind and hands, which is admirable enough to command attention and high praise. In the poise of the noble head, in the expression of the intellectual and extremely handsome face and in the majestic pose of the stately form, true genius has found fine expression. Unda̤ Gamonda̤, artist and kinsman in saluting this symbolic marble I salute thee, and in the world of spirits one day I shall meet thee face to face.
You are aware that the Entoans have no knowledge or even hope of a continuity of life, so you may believe that when in our Spirit World I became conscious of the stupendous, the glorious, fact that I still existed, and that my dearly beloved ones who had preceded me were embracing and greeting me, I was overwhelmed with amazement and a joy so profound that for a time I found no utterance. Oh, the wondrous delight of finding myself young and strong, with all my faculties enlarged, and yet the greater delight of realizing the presence of those over whose ashes I had shed many bitter tears. I was as one intoxicated. I rushed hither and thither, eager to behold the strange, beautiful World of Spirits. I took no thought of the past or of Ento. I lived, I lived, and the unlooked for joy of it for a time rendered me oblivious of the memories of mortal existence, but ere long they revived, enkindling a desire to visit scenes which were still dear to me. Under instruction of friends soon I learned to accomplish my desire, and since then it has been my duty as well as my pleasure to frequently revisit Ento. Thus I have kept in touch with such events and conditions as concern its peoples.
I shall now speak of a past which also in a measure will involve mention of more recent times.
About ten years prior to my demise a party of adventurous hunters journeyed to a far northern region known as Tsomana̤. It lies well within the Arctic Circle, where in certain localities, are great mining interests and a dense population. Well equipped for their purpose these hunters journeyed by air transport to one of the mining centres, thence by other means they sought the habitat of a species of animals of a very fierce and courageous nature. De L'Ester and others have informed me that on your planet there is no weapon even remotely resembling our yarû-testo, which is an electric instrument of deadly power. With it some of the animals were slain and several of their young captured and brought to this Acclinum, where, in apartments sufficiently cooled, they grew to maturity, and since then largely the Acclinums of other countries have been supplied from their increase. Perhaps you may not have been told that through various natural causes animal life on Ento is not very abundant, more especially domestic animal life. The animals of whom I have spoken are known as gowhya̤, and if it may please you to enter their abode you now may do so.