Chapter XVIII.
As Taee and myself, on quitting the town, and leaving to the left themain road which led to it, struck into the fields, the strange andsolemn beauty of the landscape, lighted up, by numberless lamps, to theverge of the horizon, fascinated my eyes, and rendered me for some timean inattentive listener to the talk of my companion.
Along our way various operations of agriculture were being carried on bymachinery, the forms of which were new to me, and for the most part verygraceful; for among these people art being so cultivated for the sakeof mere utility, exhibits itself in adorning or refining the shapes ofuseful objects. Precious metals and gems are so profuse among them, thatthey are lavished on things devoted to purposes the most commonplace;and their love of utility leads them to beautify its tools, and quickenstheir imagination in a way unknown to themselves.
In all service, whether in or out of doors, they make great useof automaton figures, which are so ingenious, and so pliant to theoperations of vril, that they actually seem gifted with reason. Itwas scarcely possible to distinguish the figures I beheld, apparentlyguiding or superintending the rapid movements of vast engines, fromhuman forms endowed with thought.
By degrees, as we continued to walk on, my attention became roused bythe lively and acute remarks of my companion. The intelligence of thechildren among this race is marvellously precocious, perhaps from thehabit of having intrusted to them, at so early an age, the toils andresponsibilities of middle age. Indeed, in conversing with Taee, I feltas if talking with some superior and observant man of my own years. Iasked him if he could form any estimate of the number of communitiesinto which the race of the Vril-ya is subdivided.
"Not exactly," he said, "because they multiply, of course, every year asthe surplus of each community is drafted off. But I heard my father saythat, according to the last report, there were a million and a half ofcommunities speaking our language, and adopting our institutions andforms of life and government; but, I believe, with some differences,about which you had better ask Zee. She knows more than most of the Anado. An An cares less for things that do not concern him than a Gy does;the Gy-ei are inquisitive creatures."
"Does each community restrict itself to the same number of families oramount of population that you do?"
"No; some have much smaller populations, some have larger--varyingaccording to the extent of the country they appropriate, or to thedegree of excellence to which they have brought their machinery. Eachcommunity sets its own limit according to circumstances, taking carealways that there shall never arise any class of poor by the pressure ofpopulation upon the productive powers of the domain; and that nostate shall be too large for a government resembling that of asingle well-ordered family. I imagine that no vril community exceedsthirty-thousand households. But, as a general rule, the smallerthe community, provided there be hands enough to do justice to thecapacities of the territory it occupies, the richer each individual is,and the larger the sum contributed to the general treasury,--above all,the happier and the more tranquil is the whole political body, and themore perfect the products of its industry. The state which all tribes ofthe Vril-ya acknowledge to be the highest in civilisation, and whichhas brought the vril force to its fullest development, is perhaps thesmallest. It limits itself to four thousand families; but every inch ofits territory is cultivated to the utmost perfection of garden ground;its machinery excels that of every other tribe, and there is noproduct of its industry in any department which is not sought for, atextraordinary prices, by each community of our race. All our tribes makethis state their model, considering that we should reach the higheststate of civilisation allowed to mortals if we could unite the greatestdegree of happiness with the highest degree of intellectual achievement;and it is clear that the smaller the society the less difficult thatwill be. Ours is too large for it."
This reply set me thinking. I reminded myself of that little state ofAthens, with only twenty thousand free citizens, and which to thisday our mightiest nations regard as the supreme guide and model in alldepartments of intellect. But then Athens permitted fierce rivalry andperpetual change, and was certainly not happy. Rousing myself from thereverie into which these reflections had plunged me, I brought back ourtalk to the subjects connected with emigration.
"But," said I, "when, I suppose yearly, a certain number among you agreeto quit home and found a new community elsewhere, they must necessarilybe very few, and scarcely sufficient, even with the help of the machinesthey take with them, to clear the ground, and build towns, and form acivilised state with the comforts and luxuries in which they had beenreared."
"You mistake. All the tribes of the Vril-ya are in constantcommunication with each other, and settle amongst themselves eachyear what proportion of one community will unite with the emigrants ofanother, so as to form a state of sufficient size; and the place foremigration is agreed upon at least a year before, and pioneers sent fromeach state to level rocks, and embank waters, and construct houses; sothat when the emigrants at last go, they find a city already made, and acountry around it at least partially cleared. Our hardy life as childrenmake us take cheerfully to travel and adventure. I mean to emigratemyself when of age."
"Do the emigrants always select places hitherto uninhabited and barren?"
"As yet generally, because it is our rule never to destroy exceptwhen necessary to our well-being. Of course, we cannot settle in landsalready occupied by the Vril-ya; and if we take the cultivated landsof the other races of Ana, we must utterly destroy the previousinhabitants. Sometimes, as it is, we take waste spots, and find thata troublesome, quarrelsome race of Ana, especially if under theadministration of Koom-Posh or Glek-Nas, resents our vicinity, and picksa quarrel with us; then, of course, as menacing our welfare, we destroyit: there is no coming to terms of peace with a race so idiotic thatit is always changing the form of government which represents it.Koom-Posh," said the child, emphatically, "is bad enough, still it hasbrains, though at the back of its head, and is not without a heart; butin Glek-Nas the brain and heart of the creatures disappear, and theybecome all jaws, claws, and belly." "You express yourself strongly.Allow me to inform you that I myself, and I am proud to say it, am thecitizen of a Koom-Posh."
"I no longer," answered Taee, "wonder to see you here so far from yourhome. What was the condition of your native community before it became aKoom-Posh?"
"A settlement of emigrants--like those settlements which your tribesends forth--but so far unlike your settlements, that it was dependenton the state from which it came. It shook off that yoke, and, crownedwith eternal glory, became a Koom-Posh."
"Eternal glory! How long has the Koom-Posh lasted?"
"About 100 years."
"The length of an An's life--a very young community. In much less thananother 100 years your Koom-Posh will be a Glek-Nas."
"Nay, the oldest states in the world I come from, have such faith in itsduration, that they are all gradually shaping their institutions soas to melt into ours, and their most thoughtful politicians say that,whether they like it or not, the inevitable tendency of these old statesis towards Koom-Posh-erie."
"The old states?"
"Yes, the old states."
"With populations very small in proportion to the area of productiveland?"
"On the contrary, with populations very large in proportion to thatarea."
"I see! old states indeed!--so old as to become drivelling if they don'tpack off that surplus population as we do ours--very old states!--very,very old! Pray, Tish, do you think it wise for very old men to try toturn head-over-heels as very young children do? And if you ask them whythey attempted such antics, should you not laugh if they answered thatby imitating very young children they could become very young childrenthemselves? Ancient history abounds with instances of this sort a greatmany thousand years ago--and in every instance a very old state thatplayed at Koom-Posh soon tumbled into Glek-Nas. Then, in horror of itsown self, it cried out for a master, as an old man in his dotage cries
out for a nurse; and after a succession of masters or nurses, more orless long, that very old state died out of history. A very old stateattempting Koom-Posh-erie is like a very old man who pulls down thehouse to which he has been accustomed, but he has so exhausted hisvigour in pulling down, that all he can do in the way of rebuilding isto run up a crazy hut, in which himself and his successors whine out,'How the wind blows! How the walls shake!'"
"My dear Taee, I make all excuse for your unenlightened prejudices,which every schoolboy educated in a Koom-Posh could easily controvert,though he might not be so precociously learned in ancient history as youappear to be."
"I learned! not a bit of it. But would a schoolboy, educated in yourKoom-Posh, ask his great-great-grandfather or great-great-grandmotherto stand on his or her head with the feet uppermost? And if the poor oldfolks hesitated--say, 'What do you fear?--see how I do it!'"
"Taee, I disdain to argue with a child of your age. I repeat, I makeallowances for your want of that culture which a Koom-Posh alone canbestow."
"I, in my turn," answered Taee, with an air of the suave but lofty goodbreeding which characterises his race, "not only make allowances foryou as not educated among the Vril-ya, but I entreat you to vouchsafe meyour pardon for the insufficient respect to the habits and opinions ofso amiable a Tish!"
I ought before to have observed that I was commonly called Tish by myhost and his family, as being a polite and indeed a pet name, literallysignifying a small barbarian; the children apply it endearingly to thetame species of Frog which they keep in their gardens.
We had now reached the banks of a lake, and Taee here paused to pointout to me the ravages made in fields skirting it. "The enemy certainlylies within these waters," said Taee. "Observe what shoals of fish arecrowded together at the margin. Even the great fishes with the smallones, who are their habitual prey and who generally shun them, allforget their instincts in the presence of a common destroyer. Thisreptile certainly must belong to the class of Krek-a, which are moredevouring than any other, and are said to be among the few survivingspecies of the world's dreadest inhabitants before the Ana were created.The appetite of a Krek is insatiable--it feeds alike upon vegetable andanimal life; but for the swift-footed creatures of the elk species itis too slow in its movements. Its favourite dainty is an An when it cancatch him unawares; and hence the Ana destroy it relentlessly wheneverit enters their dominion. I have heard that when our forefathers firstcleared this country, these monsters, and others like them, abounded,and, vril being then undiscovered, many of our race were devoured. Itwas impossible to exterminate them wholly till that discovery whichconstitutes the power and sustains the civilisation of our race. Butafter the uses of vril became familiar to us, all creatures inimicalto us were soon annihilated. Still, once a-year or so, one of theseenormous creatures wanders from the unreclaimed and savage districtsbeyond, and within my memory one has seized upon a young Gy who wasbathing in this very lake. Had she been on land and armed with herstaff, it would not have dared even to show itself; for, like all savagecreatures, the reptile has a marvellous instinct, which warns it againstthe bearer of the vril wand. How they teach their young to avoid him,though seen for the first time, is one of those mysteries which you mayask Zee to explain, for I cannot. The reptile in this instinct does butresemble our wild birds and animals, which will not come in reach of aman armed with a gun. When the electric wires were first put up,partridges struck against them in their flight, and fell down wounded.No younger generations of partridges meet with a similar accident. Solong as I stand here, the monster will not stir from its lurking-place;but we must now decoy it forth."
"Will that not be difficult?"
"Not at all. Seat yourself yonder on that crag (about one hundredyards from the bank), while I retire to a distance. In a short time thereptile will catch sight or scent of you, and perceiving that you are novril-bearer, will come forth to devour you. As soon as it is fairly outof the water, it becomes my prey."
"Do you mean to tell me that I am to be the decoy to that horriblemonster which could engulf me within its jaws in a second! I beg todecline."
The child laughed. "Fear nothing," said he; "only sit still."
Instead of obeying the command, I made a bound, and was about to takefairly to my heels, when Taee touched me slightly on the shoulder, and,fixing his eyes steadily on mine, I was rooted to the spot. All power ofvolition left me. Submissive to the infant's gesture, I followed himto the crag he had indicated, and seated myself there in silence. Mostreaders have seen something of the effects of electro-biology, whethergenuine or spurious. No professor of that doubtful craft had ever beenable to influence a thought or a movement of mine, but I was a meremachine at the will of this terrible child. Meanwhile he expanded hiswings, soared aloft, and alighted amidst a copse at the brow of a hillat some distance.
I was alone; and turning my eyes with an indescribable sensation ofhorror towards the lake, I kept them fixed on its water, spell-bound. Itmight be ten or fifteen minutes, to me it seemed ages, before the stillsurface, gleaming under the lamplight, began to be agitated towardsthe centre. At the same time the shoals of fish near the margin evincedtheir sense of the enemy's approach by splash and leap and bubblingcircle. I could detect their hurried flight hither and thither, someeven casting themselves ashore. A long, dark, undulous furrow camemoving along the waters, nearer and nearer, till the vast head of thereptile emerged--its jaws bristling with fangs, and its dull eyes fixingthemselves hungrily on the spot where I sat motionless. And now its forefeet were on the strand--now its enormous breast, scaled on eitherside as in armour, in the centre showing its corrugated skin of a dullvenomous yellow; and now its whole length was on the land, a hundredfeet or more from the jaw to the tail. Another stride of those ghastlyfeet would have brought it to the spot where I sat. There was but amoment between me and this grim form of death, when what seemed a flashof lightning shot through the air, smote, and, for a space of timebriefer than that in which a man can draw his breath, envelopedthe monster; and then, as the flash vanished, there lay before me ablackened, charred, smouldering mass, a something gigantic, but of whicheven the outlines of form were burned away, and rapidly crumbling intodust and ashes. I remained still seated, still speechless, ice-cold witha new sensation of dread; what had been horror was now awe.
I felt the child's hand on my head--fear left me--the spell wasbroken--I rose up. "You see with what ease the Vril-ya destroy theirenemies," said Taee; and then, moving towards the bank, he contemplatedthe smouldering relics of the monster, and said quietly, "I havedestroyed larger creatures, but none with so much pleasure. Yes, it ISa Krek; what suffering it must have inflicted while it lived!" Then hetook up the poor fishes that had flung themselves ashore, and restoredthem mercifully to their native element.