CHAPTER XV.

While Gnipho was rehearsing the wonders of his marvelous interview with the Dosch of Manatitla, to his mother and sisters, as he was about closing he became suddenly silent, with his eyes drawn attentively to his right ear. The strabismic impulse startled his mother and sisters, but a bright smile on Gnipho’s face relieved their fears. In a few seconds he held out his hand, and presented, with an introduction, the Dosch and his wife, with their companions. When female curiosity had subsided the Doschessa intimated her desire to hold an auramental interview with the eldest daughter! Her compliance was accompanied with evidences of trepidation, but after a few minutes these subsided giving place to an expression of vivacious interest, indicating a discussion of matters pertaining to female economy. The Dosch observing these symptoms of female confluency, reminded the pr?tor that the confidence of the sex was formalistic, and never free in the presence of males! Acting upon this hint Indegatus with the Dosch, Gnipho, and brother withdrew to the thalmus auditorium. The renewed interview of the Dosch with Indegatus and sons was opened by Gnipho, who petitioned his father, “May I question the Dosch to obtain further knowledge of this power of self control? It appears so natural and free from the delusions of our worship, in which we are constantly supplicating for what we neglect to obtain from our own endowed resources, it must insure happy contentment in life, and as he says, a pro-realizing 174foretaste of immortality. Indeed, father, I have before felt that there was within my control a peaceful joy that would serve as a shield from self-deception and the wiles of hypocrisy, which, in grateful thankfulness, I have wished to impart for others’ benefit.”

Indegatus. “My son, I have looked back with reverence upon the ceremonial forms of worship practiced by our ancestors, relying upon their efficacy without questioning the authenticity of their divine origin. Even on the appearance of the Dosch, as a stranger, in a form so questionable, and in accordance with my preconceived ideas of disembodied spirits, I did not doubt but that he was a nuncio of some special admonition, in answer to my supplications for aid in controlling the disaffected Heracleans, who have so greatly increased the misery of our position. But since he has convinced us that he is in reality a diminutive impersonation of our mortality, and has spoken so directly to our understanding, my eyes have been opened to the profane delusions of our long practiced ritualistic rites, addressed from and to an instinctive void, in evasion of our privileged endowment of goodness, which should direct our grateful thanksgivings to the Supreme Creator. We are surrounded with sad realities, which require self reliance for their correction, and from the source of goodness we can alone hope for directing aid. The discourse of the Dosch harmonizes with a host of new thoughts, which convict me, from past admonitions, of willful infatuation and stupidity in avoiding the animus impressions of my better nature. In the sincerity of truthful surprise, we can now look forward, my sons, with the confident hope of inaugurating for future generations a source of happiness that will reflect the current rays of immortality. But we should address our grateful emotions to the Dosch, who has interested himself for the redemption of our race from selfish infatuation.”

175Giganteo. “I must again express my astonishment for the apt perception you have shown in discovering the means premised for rendering the Heracleans amenable to self control, and offer grateful acknowledgments to ancestral auramentors for the presage they bestowed for the easy enhancement of my success. The volantaphs will now describe to Gnipho and his brother the position where the nest mews of the falcons can be found, and when transferred to those in the house adjoining the one you occupy, you will receive the necessary instruction for rendering them serviceable.”

After a few quotations from the old volantaphs with reference to the treatment and training of eyasses they returned to the apartment where the Doschessa and her companions were entertained by the family of the pr?tor. The mother and daughters were so deeply engaged in curious inquiries that the return of her husband and sons remained for some time unnoticed. When listening had become tedious to the Dosch, he requested Gnipho to congratulate his mother and sisters upon their freedom from awe in conversing with disembodied spirits, as their hoarseness gave evidence of a busy, if not a clear, occupation; which, from the sequel they had been privileged to hear, seemed to be devoted to the worship of a doubtful divinity. The mother replied, that they had been taught that appearances were deceptive, and he could have but little reason to wonder, from his own and people’s extraordinary size, if first impressions seemed to verify the adage in a most remarkable way. Especially when they reflected that the whole race of Manatitlans, consolidated, would but little exceed in size a single Heraclean. “But the moment we became accustomed to the pipeleo voices of your wives, and could understand what they said, why bless you, we knew at once they were mortal women, for every word and accent of their tongues bespoke the nature of our sex, and we acknowledged 176without thinking the reality of their minute personalities. But then, they expressed themselves so wisely in the unity of their affection, that we again doubted; for it appeared so far beyond the reach of mortal attainment, in the power and reciprocation of individual control, that we felt within ourselves the impossibility of a near approach to their sympathies in genial merit. But quickly perceiving our new source of regretful dismay, they described to us how they had been educated, and what was proposed for the benefit of our people; so we were consoled that the difference in attainment was only in the degree of perfection, which we should realize in progressive ratio from the grateful reciprocation of future generations. Our children appreciate the advantages, and are determined to act in consonance with your directions, but we cannot hope for a near approach to a love as disinterested as your people’s, who have never known the misery entailed from the ranklings of envious detraction. If the impression you wish to make on those of our citizens who are hardened in their conspirations for misrule, prove successful, although, for the time being, it ministers for good through the superstitious vagaries of their perverse blindness, we will bless you in their behalf for the legacy of affection that will return to them through their children’s dutiful love. Indeed, they will be ignorantly grateful, that your people made them subserve as bridges for the safe passage of their children over the slough of accumulations that flow from the sewerage gratifications of sensuality. Yesterday, we worshiped, with them, gods of man’s creation, bearing the kindred impress of decay, and, with our authority, would have punished with death those subject to a defection like our own of to-day. Yet, we have often been led, from the exampled enactments of our parents, to question the happiness of a heaven where the aggravating fluctuations of our earthly associations would be continued. 177For, with even less faith than my husband, I could not realize the wisdom of a divine economy that designed, in defiance of original intention, to elevate brute mortality, in human shape, to the privileges of purity self-refused by earthly election. To our great relief, you have resolved this trying source of perplexity conformably with our wished-for reverence, sanctioned from an endowment of purity. Thankful to the source of our enlightened preservation, we can now clearly discern, through Creative indications, the path to immortality, purified from the adventurous impositions of superstitious instinct. Grateful that the realizing perfection, in the increase of attainment, will be reflected back from generation to generation, in recompense for the interest of our indebtedness to you, we now proffer it, with the involving title it confers of reducing past and future to present embodiment.”

Giganteo. (In whispered enthusiasm to Gnipho.) “Your mother is an oracle of giga understanding, and the wisdom of her responses has proved an heirloom to her children which should cause you to be ever grateful with thankful manifestations in songs of praise to the Supreme Source of all good.”

Gnipho. (In enunciated thought) “We are truly grateful, and love her beyond expression.”

Here Gnipho raised his hand impulsively to his ear, before thought, from loving engrossment, could check the movement from the impression of cause.

Giganteo. “Pardon me! In my nervous desire to reach the tragus, that I might witness the expression of your mother’s face as my wife imparted your testimony for the increase of her joy, I trusted my whole weight, with the impetus of a catch, to one of the vibbril? in a tender portion of your ear. The twinge of pain I caused was well repaid with the glance I caught of the radiant joy that suffused her face.”

Gnipho laughingly explained the cause of his sudden 178grimace, cautioning his mother to be more guarded in exciting the admiration of her guests while they were tenants of others’ ears! Before she could reply a number of the leading conspirators, with others of the disaffected, called with terror-stricken faces, imploring Gnipho, who received them in the audience chamber, to intercede with his father for their forgiveness. Gnipho from auramental dictation replied: “My father will receive your acknowledgments of treasonable designs against your own happy preservation in the temple fora when overshadowed in the sun’s decline from the brink of the falls!” With “repentant” fear and its prompted “sorrow” they humbled themselves with submissive servility, beseeching the son to present to his father their humble duty, with the hope that he would forgive their past transgressions. Gnipho promised that he would deliver their message to his father, with the assurance of his forgiveness, if in token of their sincerity they would endeavor to controvert the injury they had inflicted upon the community by casting a suspicion upon the integrity of his family, when, as they were well aware, his family had been devoted to the public welfare. They departed, upon receiving this admonition, giving voice to those abject terms of submission, common to democratic expression when detected in acts of base ingratitude. This interview, with others that followed in quick succession, gave evidence that the promised leaven of Manatitlan aid was working, which caused the pr?tor’s family to express in the warmest terms their grateful admiration. After a few weeks, employment of Manatitlan talent in the revived art of auramental thought-substitution, with the addenda revelation of secrets in embryo, from presumed miraculous intervention of divine power exercised through the pr?tor, the citizens, without exception, were brought into subjection to his direction.

179This led to the immediate inauguration of the Manatitlan system of education. The transformation of the temples of the for?, for the reception of the children, inspired a feeling of instinctive awe from the audacity of the undertaking, which was heightened by the humorous devisements of auramentation practiced by the volantaphs engaged in directing the education of the brothers and sisters in the art of falconry. With the completion of the temples for the reception of the children, the families of the pr?tor’s nearest relatives and adherents supplied the schools with teachers and censors, and in a few years all the citizens became warm supporters of the new system, fully impressed with its manifold benefactions from an increase in affectionate confidence. The children of Indegatus soon became proficients in the successful training of falcons, and were then able to place a large fleet of birds at the disposal of their benefactors. Since the time of Indegatus, the daughters of the pr?tors have assumed the charge of the mews as an hereditary heirloom.

At this stage of the historical relation M. Hollydorf, with the suggestive aid of the Dosch, completed his summary of the events that had transpired from the commencement of their river explorations to date, which was addressed to the secretary of the R. H. B. Society. Afterwards, Mr. Welson, with the same aid, directed letters of inquiry to his “friend” M. Baudois, a French scientific gentleman, resident correspondent of the R. H. B. A. of Paris, at Montevideo, who employed his time in fishing, for the classification of the inhabitants of the La Plata estuary, with the intention of comparing them with the fishes of the Mediterranean Sea, to determine the migratory tendencies effected by variations in the current monsoon, to and from the Strait of Gibraltar. He had also traced the glacial indications of the 180neighborhood, in search of transition tracks of rocks in the diluvial currents of the prehistoric periods of the earth’s immersion, before its surface extension regulated with its axis movements, the winds, and tides. He wrote a second letter, of like import, to Don Pedro Garcia of Buenos Ayres, an antiquarian of note, expressing a desire for his co?peration with M. Baudois for elucidating the probable origin of the Kyronese; and in the collection of all available collateral evidence for substantiating the approximate period of the Heracleans’ advent upon the Mauna Luna shore (American); urging him to separate and classify his proofs so that there might be no Mandevillian interweaving of facts with traditions and conjecture, as they were intended for Mr. Dow’s use in his elaboration of Heraclean history. With the desire expressed for their aid in behalf of Mr. Dow’s undertaking, he did not forget to advise them of the essential advantages he had derived from the discovery of the representative remnants of humanity descended from castaway exiles of the eastern continent. In illustration of the effect produced he described, for the benefit of Don Pedro’s family, the impression of Correliana Adinope’s presence upon the wife of one the Vermejo chiefs, who was of Spanish birth, having been kidnapped in girlhood from the settlement of Amelcoy.

“You, and yours, will become more perfectly impressed with the comparative effect produced upon me from intercourse with the Heracleans, under Manatitlan direction, by repeating, in your own language, the testimony of a mother of your own race who has been subjected to the wifely use of a savage chief of the Vermejo tribe since her abduction at the age of twelve years. ‘Ay moi!’ she exclaimed, after a visit from the Heraclean maiden we rescued. ‘When Correliana comes there is something new and good in my body that comes forth to meet her, for I feel no 181longer like myself, I am so happy. Then I talk to her in a way quite unknown to myself; ay me, how placid my heart grows with the light of her presence, and love, which makes me feel and forget how much I have lost. But when she goes away the darkness returns, and I am a beast again; then my children ask wonderingly. “Mamma what makes you so good when she comes, and then scold so badly when the men come back?” I try to tell them of the light that comes with her, and the darkness that my people bring to put out the light of my love; for when the hombres talk the good leaves me, and feel that I am lodo again. If she could always be with me, what a source of joy I could be for my children. Yet, she says, that my children, who are nurslings, will be permitted, by their fathers, to attend the Heraclean schools, to learn how to comfort me when I am old, with a love like hers. If this should come to pass, what love there will be in store for me? But we are not like you!’

“With my comforting assurance, that her children, if intrusted to the charge of the Heracleans before they became accustomed to the ways of her people, would be taught by exampled association the same soothing sympathy that had proved so grateful from its influence imparted by Correliana, she anxiously asked, after a few moments of thoughtful meditation, whether her children would not love their teachers better than their mother, for their goodness was constant in its brightness, and prefer to live with them to her neglect? When I was able to make her understand that the object of the school was to encourage an undying love in children for all that was good in their parents, so that its brightness would extend with increased strength beyond the present life, her mind became enraptured with the thought of increasing her own worth to merit the fulfillment of my promise.”