History of a World of Immortals without a God / Translated from an unpublished manuscript in the library of a continental university

by Unknown

Presently, hearing a slight noise behind me, I looked back, and saw a vehicle on its way to the city approaching us. It was running swiftly, although there were no horses attached, nor any visible motive power; the wheels ran on two steel rods which I had before noticed lying parallel to each other on the road. As soon as the vehicle reached the spot where we were standing it stopped at once, and the man and the girl making signs to me to get into it, I did so. In the vehicle were about a dozen people, of various adult ages, the youngest seemingly about twenty years old, the eldest about sixty. They were of both sexes, and, with one consent, they all, old and young, male and female alike, received me with the same intense, and, as it seemed to me, needless amazement as the first man and girl had shown.

The vehicle resumed its course and ran on swiftly and with exceeding smoothness into the city. It was easy to see that I was the exclusive theme of the eager and excited discourse of the passengers. Their manner was very friendly, but their astonishment showed no signs of abating. A few minutes sufficed to bring us to the end of our journey. The car ran through a long and wide street, bordered on each side with rows of splendid trees. Through their foliage the houses were visible. Each house was separated from its neighbour by an interval of several yards; was but one story in height; and, so far as I was able to judge from a hasty glance in rapid passage, was very elaborately and tastefully ornamented. It was plain that land was abundant, and ground rents, if any, were trifling.

We soon reached our destination—a large open space in the middle of the town. This great square was surrounded by stately public buildings, some of them being of considerable elevation. One of these was especially striking on account of its gorgeous magnificence. It had all the look of a vast cathedral, and the roll of deep-toned music, much resembling the tones of a powerful and curiously sweet organ, issuing from the open portals, served to heighten the illusion. Though still early morning, many people were about in the square, and, as soon as we alighted from the car, I saw the faces of all the bystanders assume the same look of bewildered astonishment which all who had yet seen me so needlessly put on.

From all sides the people came running together; but there was no crowding or pressure; the multitude were most orderly, and seemed quite friendly in their demeanour; but it was plain that, for some mysterious reason, my arrival indicated a crisis in the history of the city. At last a young man, who appeared to be in a position of authority, mounted a low flight of steps which led up to the building before which the vehicle had stopped, and addressed a short speech to the assembled people. The crowd at once dispersed, and three persons came forward and took me in charge.

Two of these were men, one of them elderly, the other of middle age; the third of these custodians, as I had to consider them, was a very beautiful girl, seemingly about twenty years old. The countenances of all three were characterized by marks of extreme intelligence; and each of them had a peculiar look which is common to all the Hesperians I have seen, and which I can no otherwise describe than as a look indicative of immense and profound knowledge. These three persons, as I afterwards learned, were appointed by the man in authority as a sort of commission to take charge of me, and endeavour to ascertain what I was, whence I came, and whither I was going. The real cause of the intensity of the wonder which I excited everywhere will be explained farther on.

The elder man made signs to me to walk up the steps, and enter the large building beside us, which I did, the others following. The steps led up to a spacious hall, from which long corridors branched out in various directions. One of the men inquired by gesture-language if I wished for food. As I was by this time exceedingly hungry, I replied, in the same way, that I was quite ready for my breakfast. Whereupon they brought me to a room which opened into one of the corridors, where, on turning a handle in the wall, a sliding panel opened, and a table on rollers passed through. Various kinds of meats and drinks were on the table, and of these they invited me to partake. I made a hearty meal. I noticed, in particular, respecting some of the dishes, that they greatly resembled in taste various kinds of flesh-meat, very delicately cooked, but they were totally different in appearance from anything of the sort ever served up on earth.

I observed also that my three keepers did everything in their power to induce me to give the names, in my language, of every object in sight. The girl had a sort of small memorandum book, in which, with a fine pencil, she constantly wrote, in what seemed a system of shorthand, the words and sentences I uttered; and she and the two men repeated them articulately several times. They gave me the idea that they were much more anxious to learn my language than to teach me theirs. In fact, I afterwards learned that this was part of the instructions they had received respecting me.

As soon as I had finished my breakfast they took me into a large room, which opened into another corridor, and was hung round with all sorts of charts. Among these I saw, to my intense astonishment, a large circular map, about sixteen feet in diameter, on which, depicted with singular accuracy, were the well-known outlines of the continents and larger islands of the eastern hemisphere of the earth. The immense white masses at the poles, the blue colour of the southern and Indian oceans, the yellow tinge of the Great Sahara and Asiatic deserts were especially prominent objects. The process by which this wonderful map was made was afterwards fully explained to me. It was what they called a sun-picture taken by the help of an enormous telescope in one of the national mountain observatories, of which I learned much more afterwards.

They showed me several other equally excellent charts of the earth, exhibiting different portions of her surface. All of these were taken when she was in opposition, and therefore were all on the same scale. The committee showed great delight when I intimated my acquaintance with the details of the charts; inasmuch as this was a sufficiently clear proof of the place from which I came. I pronounced, as distinctly as I could, the names of the continents, seas, and principal islands, indicating, at the same time, by pointing them out, the localities named. All of these words they repeated as before; and the girl took them down in her rapid shorthand.

The extraordinary quickness with which these three Hesperians acquired the language of Holland would not be easily credited by an inhabitant of the earth. Still it is a fact that, by the simple process of constantly conversing with me, and recording every word I spoke to them, in little more than a week all the three could speak our language with great fluency; while I, who had a great facility for learning foreign tongues, had acquired only a few words and elementary sentences of the Hesperian speech. This training in our language was by no means confined to the three members of the committee. Each morning the results of the day’s conversation were faithfully reported in the Hesperian journals from the girl’s memoranda; and the whole population of the city engaged with heart and soul in the study of Hollandish—plainly with the intention of putting themselves as quickly as possible in the way of getting an explanation of my astounding appearance among them.