CHAPTER III.
STIFF FROM MY LONG AND IRKSOME POSITION in the cylinder, it was for some time before I fully recovered the use of my limbs. But after a great deal of exertion, I succeeded in descending the rugged sides of the mountain. The place seemed entirely uninhabited; butt while rambling in search of a better path, it was my good fortune to discover a broad road, and judging that it would lead me to an inhabited portion of the planet, I followed it. The road was broad, and paved with a pure white,. semitransparent stone.
I followed this road for some distance, and, at length, saw smoke arising. I hurried my footsteps, in the hopes that I would find some of the inhabitants. I was right in my conjecture. It was a house. It appeared to be built of iron or steel, highly polished; for it shone in the sun with great brightness. Before the door was an individual, whom, from her clothing, I correctly judged to be a woman. She was clothed in purple raiments that fell around her in graceful folds, seemingly to have no fastenings such as hook-and-eyes or pins; and I knew she never wore those most abominable instruments of torture known among us, citizens of the world, as corsets; for her form, as it was developed by the fold of her raiment, was almost perfect—one, at the sight of whom, our earthly painters would have gone into ecstasies. But the face was a drawback, although it would have been pretty, had she but have left it alone; but art, that defiler of the human face divine, had done its worst. The poor girl had thrust through her nostrils a long white cord, that hung down on either side, and was ornamented with such a great quantity of jewels, that it had completely drawn her nose over her mouth. Feeling very thirsty, I advanced closer to her, and addressing her in English, asked for water. She gazed at me, with astonishment depicted upon her countenance; then answered me with such rapidity of utterance, that it sounded like the quick ringing of a tea bell. But finding that I could not understand her, she, with the true hospitality and frankness that I afterwards discovered characterized this people, put her arm through mine, and conducted me into the house. The first thing that attracted my attention, was their method of warming the house; for although it seemed summer-like to me, still the good people kept a good fire. In the centre of the room was the chimney, which rose from the floor and through the roof, helping to support the rafters. At the bottom of the chimney was a grate that extended quite around it, thus giving the advantage of throwing heat out upon all sides; which, I think, is a great deal better than our fire-places, where the most part of the heat is expended upon the back of the chimney.
Sitting near the fire was an old man, who raised his head for a moment when I entered, and then resumed his original position of laying his head upon his knees, and swaying his body backward and forward. I had scarcely time to make these discoveries, when the sun, which, when I left the mountain, was shining with the heat of noonday, suddenly went down, leaving us in darkness. The young woman that I had first seen, went to a cupboard, and taking from it several small bugs, placed them upon the table. Instantly they opened their eyes, and a stream of light issued from them of sufficient brightness to illuminate the room.
She then placed some bread and a bottle of light wine upon the table, and being almost famished from my long fast, I hastened to satisfy my appetite, and was surprised to discover, when I had finished, that they had all fallen asleep; for I could not have been more than five minutes in eating. Feeling much fatigued, I stretched myself upon the floor, and was soon fast asleep. I had not slept long when I was awakened by the movements of the family, and rising from my recumbent position, I discovered the sun had. arisen, and the family were preparing for breakfast. The young lady I had first seen, presented me to a gentleman whom I afterwards discovered to be her husband. After breakfast, he made manifest that he wished me to follow him. Placing his arm within mine, he walked with such rapidity that I was forced to run to keep up with him. In a very few minutes we arrived at a small village, or cluster of houses, which proved to be the suburbs of a city; for we had not proceeded much farther before I could distinctly see the walls and high towers of a great city.
As we neared the city, vehicles. drawn by horses of the most beautiful form, passed by us with inconceivable rapidity. My conductor, perceiving that I was much fatigued by my exertions, called out to one of the drivers:
“Kal-marell-nek!”
Or, at least, that is the only way I can spell the sound. The driver sputtered forth a reply, and stopped his animals. My companion shoved me into the carriage, and then gave the driver some direction in the (to me) unknown tongue, whereupon that worthy chirruped to his horses, and away we went with the swiftness of the fastest locomotive. He stopped an instant at the gates of the city, where my companion paid a coin to the gatekeeper; then driving into the main avenue of the city, where there were many other vehicles, darting with such velocity that should a collision occur, the carriages would be dashed in pieces. Suddenly the driver pulled up llis beasts in front of a large mansion, which was built of semitransparent stones, of different colors. The roof was supported in front by twelve massive pillars, made of stone as clear as the purest crystal. Springing out of the carriage, we quickly ascended a broad, brazen staircase, and was shown, without ceremony, into a large apartment, which was thickly crowded with people, apparently of every grade of society, whose only business seemed to be that of violently shaking hands with a portly, pompous individual, who was standing in the centre of the room, and underwent the operation with the utmost nonchalance. He was, as I was afterwards informed, an officer of high rank in the country, as well as being chief magistrate of the city in which I then was. My conductor hurried me up to this important personage, first shaking him by the hand, and then presenting me; whereupon I went through the same interesting performance. The chief officer looked at me with surprise, and then addressed me; but I shook my head, saying, “No! no! no!” very violently, giving him to understand that his language was unintelligible to me. My conductor now held a long (for him) conversation with the official, which resulted in my being placed in the charge of another gentleman, who seemed highly delighted with the honor conferred upon him; and after repeated bows to the officer, took my arm under his, and hastened from the apartment. His carriage was waiting his arrival at the door, in which we seated ourselves, and were driven rapidly in the direction of my new guide’s house. Arriving there, to my great amazement he requested me to accompany him to dinner, when I had breakfasted certainly not more than half an hour previous; but wishing not to offend him, I accompanied him to the dinner table, and sat down, and had just commenced my dinner when my entertainer ceased eating having gulped down his food with such velocity that I ceased eating, and looked at him in fear that he would choke himself in his eager haste. In fact, I was completely bewildered with the hurry and confusion that characterized the actions of this most singular people.
Immediately after dinner, the gentleman, with very impressive gestures, made known to me that he was to have the honor of being my instructor; and then conducted me into a large apartment, fitted up with shelves, upon which were placed a great number of pondrous volumes. Seating ourselves by the side of a table, he opened one of the books, and placed it upon the table before me. It was a pictorial history of the country, as I afterwards discovered when I had attained a knowledge of the language, bearing, for its title, “KAILOO—Its Past History and Future Destiny.” It was filled with miniature fac-similes of various objects, which served the purpose of engravings; thus, for a table, there was a ismall table that fitted a cavity made for that purpose in ‘the book. A single character beneath the cavity told what it was. These miniature objects were made of a substance much resembling “papier mache,” so much used in these times in the formation of those pretty and useful articles that grace almost every parlor in our own country. As there were a great many illustrations of this kind, the book was necessarily very large.
My instructor then took a small pen or pencil from his pocket, and procuring a piece of parchment, drew a list of characters upon it, pronouncing the name very forcibly as he made each letter, I, by his instruction, repeating them after him. This he did until I was able to repeat each one as he pointed it out to me, which I learned to do in a .very short time-at least I thought so, although my instructor manifested many signs of impatience at my slow progress. Scarcely had I finished learning the characters, than supper was announced. I wondered at this; for, upon looking at my watch, I discovered that but one hour had elapsed since I left the cottage I first visited, and that my lesson had occupied but half an hour. I will not describe the tedious forms through which I passed before I was able to speak or read; but by the aid of my invaluable “pictorial,” I at last acquired the art, and could speak and read their language without difficulty. It was composed of single syllables, which, instead of conveying one idea, each syllable expressed several. Thus, if I were to ask a person, “How does the sun shine on you to-day?” which was the familiar greeting of one friend to another, I would say, “Karh?” sounding somewhat as this is written, “Kar-r-h.” It is a difficult matter for me to write the sound of their language, as our language will not admit of it. Their alphabet consists of seventeen letters proper, although there are so many different methods of writing these characters, that the alphabet, in point of fact, consists of nearly a hundred different signs. To learn to read and write the language properly, requires a great amount of study; and my instructor informed me, that there were very few indeed, that were capable of writing or pronouncing their own language correctly.
I will now account, as far as I am able, for the shortness of their days and nights, which was, at first, the occasion of much inconvenience to me; but by the aid of my watch I was enabled to divide my time in such a manner that I did not experience any evil effects from the irregularity (to me) of their time. The planet revolves around the sun twenty-four times faster than does our earth. This may be accounted for by its being twenty-four times the circumference of the earth nearer the sun. I will shortly give a table of their division of time, as prepared by Honnolumeek, my instructor—a pretty long name for such fast-talking individuals, but it was a general practice among the Kailooites. Although terse in their conversation, still they gave their children the longest and highest sounding cognomens they could invent.