CHAPTER XVI.

During the interim of letter writing in readiness for the anticipated opening of courier communication with St. Lucia and Anelcoy, Captain Greenwood had advised Correliana of his wish that the padre and sailors Jack and Bill should meet the steamer at the latter place. His despatch urged haste, as he was about to leave the gold spit, which they were then working; its deposits had become nearly exhausted. When she made the wishes of the captain known, Abdul Nycaster, the son of the mayorong, volunteered to act as courier under the conduct of a party of lower river Indians. These Indians, called by the Mestizoes, Vermojotes, ranked next to those of the upper valleys in trustworthy intelligence, so that no fears were entertained for the safety of those intrusted to their care.

A few mornings after the despatch of the courier and his party, the Dosch resumed the historical thread of his narration.

You can well imagine, the chronicler exclaims, the enthusiastic admiration of the Pr?tor Indegatus’s children for the Manatitlans, when they saw the anxious expression of their parents’ faces give place to an unspeakable joy, which imparted its radiance alike to his former adherents and foes. In evidence of their grateful sincerity they were unremitting in their endeavors to perfect themselves for the duties of censors and teachers, as well as in the more direct returns of material aid to their benefactors’ affections, from their success 183in raising and training falcons, which promised the means for the speedy accomplishment of a reunion with colonistic correlatives. A year and a half had scarcely passed before the volantaphs were able to extend their flights a day and a third’s distance in stretch over the ocean, for their own instruction in the management of the birds free from exhausting irritation, as well as to accustom them to devour their food while sustained with parachute and outstretched wings. The volantaphs, while disengaged from the active duties of their profession, kept the democratic instincts of the Heracleans in mindful dread of harboring thoughts of disaffection, held in legacy from hypocrisy, the progenitorial mother of hatred and misrule, as they had been taught, with lessons of chagrin, that their thoughts were no longer their own. The result of this knowledge enforced sincerity, which begat cheerful confidence in association, an effect that soon became manifest to the besiegers. Elasticity of thought, unprejudiced by suspicion, soon imparted its health-giving impression to the movements of the body, and action of the senses, directing them to the cultivation of useful occupations devoted to the common welfare. This freedom, in surcease from the treacherous enactments of suspicion, produced symptoms of reviving alacrity in the unanimity of action, which the savages detected from their perch on the brink of the falls’ precipice, with puzzled surprise, evinced by the changing increase of numbers, and curious gaze of the watchers. The first practical use made of the falcons had been devoted to watching the Indians to learn their projected intentions, with the purpose of defeating them by anticipation without loss to the Heracleans. The unaccountable improvement in the condition and cordiality of the citizens made the savages more wary and watchful. The river savages, suspicious of the valley Indians, kept a large body of their number constantly before the gates to prevent 184treachery. From couriers, which had been sent to the most distant of the river tribes, it was evident that some new and more energetic scheme was in progress to bring the siege to a close. While the valley harvesting was in progress, the volantaphs had observed long trains of loaded llamas proceeding up the Lepula and Vermejo valleys, and their destination was traced to a cave in the basaltic continuation of the falls’ precipice, about a mile to the north of the city. Giganteo explored the cave, and found that it contained extensive stores of dried fish, squillated meats, (hardened by the combined action of heat, pressure, and smoke), corn and maize parched, ready for grinding, in preparation for their favorite murmiel, also dried fruits in abundance. As the extent of the hoard foreboded large auxiliary accessions he was alarmed, and only thought of adding to the defenses of the city. While in flight around the city to examine if there was in the walls an accessible foothold for the savages, an accidental discovery suggested the idea of appropriating the stores of the cave for the benefit of the Heracleans. Satisfied that the moats and walls were free from adventitious aids of encouragement for savage emprise, his attention was attracted by a jetty of basaltic rock that projected into the northern basin of the falls from the outward shore. Measuring its distance from the terminus of the wall and base of the precipice, he found that the space would admit of the circuit swing of a bridge sufficiently long for secure lodgment against the jetty. His brother, an engineer of ability, had a model of a bridge with the required measurements prepared for the pr?tor with a descriptive statement of its object. Great was the joy of the pr?tor’s family when this projected source of relief was explained with the assurance of its working practicability, which promised to render nugatory the designs of the leaguers, by depriving them of their ready means of subsistence, 185thereby provoking suspicion of treachery, with the probable result of disruption and dispersion. The pr?tor immediately paid a visit to this loophole of promised good fortune, accompanied by the most skillful Heraclean artisans, who declared, after consulting the measurements, that with the floating material the plan was not only feasible, but the bridge could be quickly constructed. The Dosch recommended that the northern crematorial temple should be dismantled, as its timbers were well suited in length and seasoned lightness for the purpose. But this proposed act of desecration created a momentary impression of dismay in the mind of Indegatus, to which was added his fears of reviving the citizens’ superstitious prejudices, as it would be held as an open defiance of the avenging gods. The Dosch appeased his misgivings, with the promise of anticipating religious objections. This was accomplished, but it required skillful substitution of thought, notwithstanding the prospect of plenty offered in the event of success. The labor imposed, in the quick execution of the work, aided in subduing the conjurations of danger, while the veil of mist rising from the spray of the waterfall effectually screened from the eyes of the Indian sentinels the work in progress.

By the time the valley Indians had gathered and garnered their crops, adding their quota to the stores of the cave, the bridge was launched for trial, and from the buoyancy of the timber was found to be portably light and strong, so that in reversed movement against the current it could be easily managed. Gnipho was its sole occupant in trial essay, guiding with a rope the safe lodgment of its distal extremity against the jetty. When well tested in all of its working movements it was drawn back with comparative ease; but not before the adventurous Gnipho had reached and reconnoitered the entrance 186of the cave. For the pr?tor’s reassurance of the favorable acception of the enterprise by the citizens, the leaders of those who were formerly disaffected made a public acknowledgment of their transgressions, at the same time tendering their full submission to his direction. Although greatly shocked with the atrocity of their meditated treachery he forgave them without reproach.

The river savages, feeling secure against surprise from the watchful care of the guards before the cinctus gates, and sentinels upon the brink of the precipice overlooking the city, left but few of their number to guard the cave. When sufficiently dark to screen their movements, on the night set for the fruition of their enterprise, the men, women, and children of Heraclea were astir, and ready to use the utmost of their strength for the success of their foraging expedition. When the Indian camp before the gates had become quiet the party selected to surprise the keepers of the cave started and without difficulty effected their purpose. The pr?tor leading the surprise party had ordered that the Indian guards should be secured without the loss of life, if it could be effected without endangering the success of the undertaking. But their savage desperation in using their teeth rendered the destruction of life necessary. This was effected by suffocation, advised by the Dosch that marks of violence might be avoided, hoping thereby to involve with mysterious dread the cause of death; as the river savages were known to hold as strong a belief in the agency of evil spirits, as the Heracleans in the vengeful ire of their gods. While the bodies of the savage guards were being placed in imposing attitudes to excite the awe of their companions when discovered, the work of transporting the stores of the cave had already commenced, great care being taken that no vestige should be dropped by the way to indicate the course, or from whence, in identification, the despoilers 187came. The llamas, after the transportation of the stores was accomplished, were stabled in the southern crematorial temple, under the screen of the cloud mist of the falls, which had formerly subserved, under the ritualistic ceremonies of priestcraft, to mystify the superstitious of the Heracleans.

With the first gleam of the sun on the dial brink of the falls, on the succeeding morning, the Heracleans offered their first p?an song of thanksgiving, before the open portals of their houses, in gratitude for the inauguration of an era of plenty; the first in the provisionary record of centuries. After their morning meal they engaged in their usual avocations with wonted composure; at least in as much as the savages could detect from their perch on the brink of the precipice; but to the close observer there was an elation in the expression of their faces that gave sure indication of a recent event of extraordinary import, proclaiming a happy emancipation from anxiety. At the suggestion of the Dosch the volantaphs watched the movements of the different tribes to observe the effect produced by the discovery of their loss. Until after the meridian hour had passed the vicinity of the grotto granary gave no indications of life, then a heavy rain set in, that served to still further delay visits of inquiry prompted by the non-appearance of the store guards. But early on the following morning the wildest commotion prevailed, the tribes in scattered bands were seen hastening from every quarter toward the cave. For the first time panic fear, in attraction, made them forget the objects of their undying vengeance, for the camps were deserted on every side, leaving the city to its own guard. This opportunity offered for a second sally was not neglected. A large amount of forage was collected from the deserted camps; but from the signaled report of a retrograde movement, still more disordered in the haste of fright, the Heracleans were about to 188abandon it to the flames, when they fortunately recollected that they held in possession the arms of the savages, so they easily turned the current aside and garnered their second trove safely within the city gates.

A bee phaeton had been held in requisition by the Dosch to observe the effect of Gnipho’s ghastly array of dead savages, in pantomimic postures, with eyes distended, and outspread hands as if to guard them from a sight of horror, while their backs were half turned as if deprived of life in the act of escaping. When the Dosch arrived the savages were collected around the mouth of the cave, none having the courage to enter, but all, in act, were seemingly desirous of obtaining the intervention of his neighbor’s body as a shield of protection from apprehended danger. But at last the luskols (Indian priests) were forced into the cave, the lesser grades being used as a wall of protection for the higher. The Dosch described the scene as horribly ludicrous when viewed from their interior position. “The fearful contortions of the diviners, as they were pushed forward with their unwilling features half exposed to the light from the mouth of the cave, in contrast with the dead dramatis person?, furnished a study that we had no desire to prolong with the concurrent evidence of fear derived from auramentation. It was a hideous sight to behold these otherwise untamable brutes in human form, so abjectly appalled by the dead bodies of their late companions, simply from an arrangement in posture at variance with their traditional ideas of cadaverous propriety. Bewildered with the first glance, they became, of themselves, immovable with fright, until the reactive alarm from the cavernous sound re?choing the breathing catches and grunts of the struggling mass behind, caused a frantic effort of wild desperation to regain the freedom of the open air. This contagious spasm of fear relaxed the energies 189of those obstructing the entrance so that they were held intact, a helpless mass immovably impacted over which those from the interior made their way in scrambling disregard to the means used in effecting their liberation. Paralyzed in voice utterance, the only sounds heard were shuffling struggles accompanied by a succession of ucks from the by no means gentle action of elbows upon opposing bodies. When at length the blockading mass crawled forth, bruised to the necessity of quadrumanal progression, their luskols had disappeared in flight. After the cave was cleared we took a high bee-line, from which we were able to see at a glance the many curious scenes enacted in their flight from the self pursuit of fear, which in variation kept us constantly convulsed with laughter.” The day was well advanced before all the stragglers regained their despoiled camps; then, without apparent regard for their loss, they commenced a second exodus to a grove under the precipice to the south of the city, with the evident intention of being as far from the reach of the cave’s scroul influence as possible. With the certainty that fear would prevent the savages from trespassing within the prescribed boundaries to the north of the city, Giganteo assured the pr?tor that the citizens need have no fear of using the pasture and arable land, accessible by the basin bridge, in the night time, if they would only take the precaution to dress in white, as that was esteemed by the superstitious of all tribes and nations as the favorite color of spirits blest and damned. The besiegers soon became aware of a marked improvement in the physical condition of the besieged. This they attributed to the unfitness of their luskols, who were deposed and sacrificed upon their own altars.

The Dosch, relator, here remarked that instinctive fear excited from variations in natural cause and effect from accustomed routine was alike common to 190all the grades of animality. The dogs howl in dread from the sun’s eclipse; the cattle of the plain, and swine, the omnivorous congeners of mankind, will pass unheeded the dead of their species when the cadavers are natural in position, but when suspended from the branches of trees they become affected with the impulse of dismay, and like the savages endeavor to escape from the scene without the motive power of direction. The birds of the air are paralyzed with the same impulse of instinctive terror when warned of the earthquake’s shock by the herald hush of preternatural silence. Taking advantage of these controlling fears of instinct, that prey upon themselves in retributive reprisal, “philosophic” and designing mythologists have conjured creed distinctions of imaginary attributes, which in combination are unitized under the style of soul. Upon this mythical assumption of attributive materialization, they have founded a system of compensation for its salvation, in a mazy labyrinthine series with a graceless cordon of conditional graces under the signs manual of saving, efficacious, sufficient, and redeeming privilege. In contradistinction to this undefinable process of instinctive soul elaboration in the scale of rewards, follows the retributive punishments, but so inextricably intermixed in chaotic confusion that ritualistic words of lunatic designation are used in substitution for the intelligent expression of thought. The priesthood of the sects, or herds, that become adherents to the formalistic use of words and material rites administered for instinctive regeneration, talk in public discourse to distract attention from the peaceful meditation of goodness. Notwithstanding the multiplication of these most daring and glaring inconsistencies, which have banished with truth, sincerity, and confiding affection, the masses of humanity are still held in blind subserviency to the fantastic rules and rulers of instinct in kind. You will scarcely wonder at the 191slight impression that we have made with auramental thought substitution, while the instincts of your race are constantly distracted with the bellowing exhortations of sectarian recruiting preachers, in combination with inebriate oaths of the passers-by in derisive profanation of the worshiper’s selfish deity. Perversion and prostitution have so degraded the legitimate powers of perception, that the pleasures of instinct have become a source of misery from nauseating excess in over-indulgence. Indeed, from sheer disgust, we have been inclined to discontinue auramentation altogether; for your pretentious civilization, and enlightened progression, is in fact nothing more than savagery refined with art inventions for the morbid gratification of instinctive sensuality; which in recurring product have given birth to toil and turmoil, greedy vexations, strife, hatred, and kindred passionate distempers cultivated in infatuated expectation that they will yield in reversion, after death, instinctive soul purification and a heaven of peaceful rest.

The Betongese, although accounted savages, would disdain to acknowledge ancestors who had tried in ecclesiastical courts of luskol diviners, dogs and swine for murder and witchcraft, with the farcical appointment of civil pleaders of the legal fraternity for their defense! notwithstanding the special qualifications of the latter for clearing the defendants. From your ready appreciation of the higher dispensations of purity and goodness, in exampled enactment, the Heracleans can scarcely realize that you ever participated in the ruling delusions of your race. Your physical comfort, and freedom from insect plagues, in Heraclea, are derived in legacy bestowal from ancestral purity, devised in healthy enactment by the Heracleans to fulfill present attainment. By following these corrective indications your race would forefend their kind from the imposed penalties of curative professional plagues, who flourish from maladies bred in the flesh from over 192indulgence, in reckless regard of the certain recurrence of like from like. Our falcons in their three days passage across the ocean emit the osprey’s fishy odor; and with assimilation the English, French, and Germans exhibit in national crudities the instinctive effects of diet. These are inevitable facts that admit of no palliative variation in deterioration in the process of hereditary transmission; this an observer of a single generation cannot fail to discover if possessed with ordinary powers for comparative discernment. With this deviation from our historical path, designed for Mr. Welson’s analytical aid in the classification of evidences pertaining to the gradation developments of instinct, we will now continue our relation by quoting from the chronicler Titview’s record of the 2d Falcon Era.