Iter et adventures baronis Trump et canis mirandus Bulger—IV

Caput V

Nunc me animo et animo conieci in munus praeparandi ad primam navigationem.

Bulger non segnis erat ad intelligendum quid omnia properantia significarent.

Iter in ultimas terras prospectu delectabatur, ubi minus vitae similitudo de eo erat. Per horam sessurus et observaturus me ad labores meos, et subinde ei placendum, demonstravi articulos hic et illic circa cubiculum, et jussit eos adduci, quod semper faciebat, multis apparitionibus voluptatis. Permisso domino suo filiolo subvenire.

Namque omnibus manum humanissimam praebuisti, ut, mihi magnae laetitiae, tempus vacandi navigandi studio relinquerem.

Mater paupercula, benigna baronissa, nulli permitteret notare vestem meam. Suis gracilibus, albis digitis cristas et initiales meae vestiariae operata est.

Res erat quam in cogitationem meam per aliquot dies versatus sum, scilicet: Qualem nationis habitum adoptarem.

Post longam et maturam deliberationem me in Orientali habitu degere decrevi. Id ego pluribus de causis. Gratus habitus meus fuerat.

Gratia eius ornatior ad amorem pulchri provocavit, cum ex altera parte, facilitas et levitas, uni membri et elasticitati gradus extremae suppletionis valde gratam fecit. Dum vetus domus manerium proprie versabatur perversitas et omnes, a coco ad cubiculariam, auribus constitutus, senior baro haudquaquam otiosus erat. Ille inter alia satis cautus sum, me salubri re lectu instructus, et plures mihi libros sententiarum, praeceptorum, cogitationum, cogitationum et studiorum attulit, quos a me postulavit ut in vacua pectorum meorum angulos detruderem. Nam,’ inquit, ‘idque praeclaro rationis genere’, ‘multas otiosas horas habebis in tranquillitate tua. Mentem tuam pascere oportet, ne ejus mirabilis progressio reprimatur, et fias vulgaris puer, nullis cogitationibus supra ludos et libros picturis. Mater paupercula, benignissima baronissa, huic bonarum literarum prosapia accessit, exhibens mihi parvo volumine inscripto: « Via recta ad Salutem bonam; vel, Doctorem suum omnes. Quod ad medicinam cistam meam pertinet, hanc meam vigilantiam dedi, nam semper in omni genere symptomatum et in arte legendi peritus fui, et rara facultate cognoscendi prope insita, quid remedium ad aliquod aegritudinem daret, nisi prius experirentur. Haud ex alio temptando, sicuti plerisque moris est, qui mederi aegritudinem fingunt.

Omnia nunc bene gerebam, et eram in animo optimo, cum seniorem Baronem ad me venit cum rogatione, quae aliqua de causa, vix scire possum, cur mihi displiceat, tametsi videatur habere debuisse; oppositum effectum. Proposuit me praecedere per hebdomadam vel decem dies ad Mare Septentrionalem, in cuius portu aliquo celeri, firmo vasculo empto et instructo, ipsum navigium empturus, operam suam, ut eam aptaret, darem. Naviculas delectorum turba.

Quid facerem?

Quod si recusarem, quantum esset ad confessionem diffidentiae meae.

Potestne in animo habere aliquod consilium quod technam meam repugnet?

O cogitatio!

Sed fateor me oblatum eius officia non sine gravi haesitatione suscepisse.

Haec subita anxietas majoris baronis, ad profectionem meam festinandam, cum tam diu et tam fortiter restitisset, me aliquantulum turbat in animo meo.

Priusquam proficisceretur ad Mare Septentrionale ad emendum mihi navem, senior baro prior cameram meam ingressus est, et sic locutus est.

Ignosce, parve baro, intermissis laboribus tuis, nam te profunde in studio navigandi esse video.

‘Loquere, baro,’ inquam, ‘respiciens, pernicioso risu,’ quod tibi rectum est.

Postremam petitionem habeo, inquit, more suo tranquillo, neque maximi momenti est. Magis placet, quam aliud. Tu scis ex ore meo, et ex lectione familiarum nostrorum, quod fuimus antiquitus latissimi possessores in litore Maris Septentrionalis. Compluribus portubus usi sumus multum in mercatura, saltem duodecimo mense navibus emissis. Portus nostri ditionis unus fuit celeberrimus, et inclutus, et excursus, alveus, mira indole clarus, etc. Dictum de hoc portu periculosius esse quam mare apertum, naves vero tutiores fuisse. Eius quam in ea. In his omnibus nescio quantum veri sit, sed scio quod unus antecessor noster, non solum navigavit in illud, sed etiam re- gressus est in eo, quia scias illum canalem, per quem navis admittitur; ad hunc portum iterum adhiberi non potuit, cum inexsuperabilis vena semper una via flueret, a mari scilicet in arcanum hunc lacum. Ut excederet, nauta audax alteri alvei suo corticem credere debet, et in hoc periculum delitescit.

« Gratum est mihi valde, parvule baro, si posses probare mundo quod, quantumvis difficile, alii duces olim reperti et nunc invenirent, e portu navigare, nulla tamen tibi offerebat impedimenta insuperabilis; quapropter venio te rogare ut ex hoc portu solvas.

“Dicitur?” Quaesivi neglegenter, cum ad aquilonis maris chartulam me convertissem.

“Portus Portus Nulli hominis,” respondit baro.

“Nomen mihi placet,” inquam, “Iube navem meam ibi me opperiri!”

Exsurgens senior baro, corpusque decoro Inflexo discessit. Ad ianuam eum comitatus, et eum honorifice obulans dimisi.

“Portus Nulli hominis” respondi. “Ah, hic chartula!” Textus describit hoc modo:

“Multis annis relictus; ingressu facilis; tam periculosum egressum, ut perniciosum significaret iniuriam, nisi exitium, ad navigandum astum; alveus exterior obstructus a voragini horribili et inclinata petra vocata ‘Thor’s Hammer:’ pelvis interior valde periculosissima ex arenis semper mutabilibus; claudi iussu Ministerii Regii Commercii et Marine ». His peractis verbis lectione exsilui, et pavimentum inscii ac semianimis agere coepi.

Sanguis in cerebrum irruit. Debui consistere et haerere dorso altae sellae quercus, aut vacillasse et ad terram decidisse.

Tumultuatus vehementer pertimuit ululatusque maeroris suppressus. Cum eo tam placide locutus sum, ut illum consolari possem.

Paucis post momentis vertigo excidit et mens mea funditus expurgata est.

“Immo impossibile est,” insusurravi, “maior baro non potuit me malae fidei esse reus! Tolle hanc cogitationem! Errat inprudentia et inscientia. Ille parum novit teterrimos periculosas negotii, quem praeficit. Ad eum, sermones de naufragio et de morte in Port No Man’s Portus non sunt nisi fabulae vitae nautarum antiqui. Non enim tam levissimam suspicionem suam, tam leviter, quam unigenitum, filium et haeredem principis fortunae, et nomen honoratum, aut immergi, aut pavido voragine immergi, aut in exitium immergi. Per ictu Thor’s Hammer.

Et tamen quid murmurat?

“Sero est reclamare. Iam senior baro superbus nuntium sibi praedicavit mundo, filium renovaturus priscae familiae suae glorias! Faciendum est ex duobus unum: haec pericula, ut hominem frigidum, tranquillum animi, aut me damnem vitae hebetis ac languidi, magnatae provinciae, non heros duorum mundorum!

“Minime! Alea iacta est!

Dixi et factum est sicut bonum est.

“Navis mea navigat a Portu Nulli Hominis, aut corpusculum hoc die piscem suum alit!”

Lucebant nimirum oculi mei, et ruborem ruborem genae susceperunt, nam Bulgerus, qui soliloquium meum audierat, gravissima facie in vultu, cum in vanum conaretur sensum verborum meorum, iam fregit. E in vivacem admodum seriem corticum, terminans et exiliens circa cubiculum in asperrima hilaritate. Solus etiam bene sciebat aliquod atrox certamen in animo meo gestum esse.

Iam bene omnia intellexit. Fidelis creatura, si tantum amorem suum indicaret, quomodo omnes homines amantes erubesceret!

Cum appropinquaret hora mihi, ut valediceret ad aulam baroniam, bona domina, clementissima baronissa, mater mea, subito cogitavit de mille et rebus, quae mihi maximi momenti videbatur. Monuit me in captura non esse dormire; panem recenter coctum non gustare; non ut exustus aqua frigida bibat; ungues ne digitos breviores incidant; non aperto ore dormire; vestem meam ne longiore hebdomade induaris; dentes peniculus ne despicias; ne deficiant comae novae lunae; non intendit oculos legenti levi levi, ne deglutiat cibum meum, nisi penitus mandendo; non ut rideam, dum cibum in ore meo habui; ne sternumenta prohibere conentur; non despicias frumenta meas; ne mucrone dentes carpere meos; finem nasi sine speculo non examinare; carnes non sine pipere, vel olera sine sale; ne post magnam cenam enitar; dormienti crure non stare; non tam celeriter, ut lateri meo dolorem capiam; ne somnum quidem, nisi prius a dextris meis quievissem; ne deficias diripio, si in tenebris micare vidi; ne despicias ligare ligaturam circa collum meum, si guttur meum gravem, etc., etc., etc. Omnes servi et clientes, intus et extra, in conspectu meo, osculati sunt manum meam, et in me benedictiones dederunt.

Impune dixeris solum esse praesens non flevisse Bulgerum fuisse. In tantum intentus erat ut per horam vel tam currendo e manerio ad carpentum transiret, et rursus miserabili conatu processuras incederet.

Initium fecimus tandem.

Centum manus vale nobis quassabant.

Degentes arbores in aula baroniae clausae solenniter versabantur. Laetatus sum cum e vestibulo curiae evolvi, quia mihi quieti et quieti opus erat.

Nervi mei in tali tractu mensis praeteriti fuerant ut mutatio scaenae mihi balsamum et relaxationem attulisset.

Iter meum ad Mare Septentrionalem quievit et incommodum fuit.

Navem meam in Port No Man’s Port tuto ancoram inveni, et ibi Seniorem Baronem praefecit. Me vela gubernatori immisit, et ipse amantibus armis me pressit, et blando subridens arduus unda manus, in raeda familiari se consedit. Unius valedicendi fuit.

“Fili, sapientia tua haereditate ad te venit. Non potuisti adepti. Itaque tam nobili dono uti. Vale!”

Silens tacens intendit caput. Raeda revolvit. Solus ego steti. Imo verus et amans ibi fuit. Suspexit oculis magnis, nitorem, quasi dicat:

“Noli tristis esse, mi magister. Omnis qui vadit, per te semper manebo!”

Conversus ad dominum meum velificandum, navigium expediri iussit, et statim explorare portum arcanum in quo mea navis ancoris iacebat.

Hanc ego pelvim spatiosam esse inveni, saxo alligato inclusam litore. Aquis in locis sub atris et vitreis superficiebus obdormivit; in aliis autem omnis motus et motus fuit. Fervens et ebulliens contra immittit arenae candidae globos undae, huc atque illuc, tanquam damnatae ad perpetuas inquietudines.

Quod homines mei, dum in variis sinus partibus piscantur, pisces profundi maris saepe deprehenduntur, mihi probaverunt Portum No Man’s per canalem a quattuor ad sex passus in altitudinem traiectum esse.

Sola difficultas foret huius viae semper vagae limites figere, dum per pelvim navigandum erat.

Deinde animum ad voragines converti. Coniunctionem alvei exterioris cum basi Port No Man’s Portus notavit.

Aliquot puppibus damnatis ad probandi vim et furorem gurgitis emptis, validam gubernacula ad litus appulsam eduxi, et hoc modo intra navis longitudinem immittere potui. Gurgite summa salus. Etenim, cum tantae fluitantis corporis irruptione ad plenum furorem incitatum est, visus terrorem fortissimi cordi incutere.

Cum magno sono et murmure aquae ejus in tumultum, ebullientem, bullientem, aestuantem, usque dum nivei spumae stagnum operiebant, sicut togam linteo infecit, sublato intrusore, qui tunc erat, unus de puppibus erat. In eas immitti iusserat, aquas iratas eas undique circumgyrabat. In momento, velut ingenti labore exhaustus, arcanus tranquillitas in stagnum subsedit. Spuma rupta ramentis molliter unda saliebat sinu. Pax erat omnia, nisi puppis adhuc tremefacta in gremio hujus monstri quietis iacebat!

Nam ecce! Excitatur iterum. Velocius et velocius praedam volvit. Altius atque bipatentes nunc faucibus urna descende infaustas puppis!

Clamor horrendus narrat finem prope esse.

Abierunt!

Hem, sed expecta! Praedam iterum dabit!

lam nunc frena natant pelago, rapidisque salientis aquis.

Mox solutos, fractos, fractosque valentis reliquiae puppis sequetur.

Monstrum aqueum hoc non pascit quod vorat! Solo amore exitii ipse perimit. Nox iam venerat. Redii ad meam navem. Horribiles et gurges detexit. At eos non timebam! Equus domitor ciun ferro freno inter frenos ac frendentes ferocem equitem tandem pervicit, victi iam sensi.

“Et nunc pro Thore Malleo!” clamor meus fuit, sicut sedi apud Bulgerum paulisper reflexionis.

Series prima glauci in oriente me in navi invenit.

“Thor’s Hammer” erat ingens scapus petrae nigrae, siliceae, eminens circiter pedes viginti ex aqua et in capite malleo desinens. Alveum, ubi ad mare pervenit, in medio stans, ita ut ex una vel altera parte urceum transire cogeret.

Excubiae tremendae sub aqua quam ingenti globulo finiri necesse est, quae nervum in strato alvei cubile sibi in fuga temporis attulerat; torsit enim laxus et solutus, omnique valido fluctuans latere in latus, ad perniciem quamlibet transitoriam artis celerem minans.

Ut ingenue dicam, terribili me exterruit machinae visio! Quid fugiam tantae vigilis vigilantiae, qui nescit somnum, nullam quietem, cuius in amicum vel inimicum pari furore ictus cadunt? Quomodo illum quiescam paulisper?

Intentus incumbere incumbere vires, celeritatem, et indolem ictuum “Thor’s Hammer”, multa ingentia tabulae et materiae erigi feci iuxta situm tanti vigilis petrae. Unum ex alio in alveum mitti iussi.

In primis satis paralyticus sum ad inveniendum etiam tenuem voragines e trudibus unius ex his ligneis structuris saxum vibrans vibratione posuisse et semper ad rem transeuntem.

Ex effectu Thor’s Hammer super has massas tabulae et ligna fluitantia, unus ictus sufficeret ad vitam ipsam opprimendam e nave mea, propter eximiam eius firmitudinem.

fixi fixa formidine ominibus. Sentire potui sudoris grana fronti erumpere et genas manare. Nunquid cedere et domum redire, fractos animos, humiliatos, ludibrium, ludibrium, villae ingenii, ludi ac risus in omni casa rustici argumento?

Oh, no! Fieri non potest, non oportet!

Sicut fulgur coruscans, cogitatio per tenebras mentis meae exarsit.

Non somnias? Itane vero?

Una e structuris ligneis adhuc manebat. Animum compescens aegre, praecipitari in alveum iussi, et opportunitatem cepi ut specularetur iterum arduus irae vigiliae. Paucis momentis “Thor’s Hammer” artificii adventum sensit, et se in impotens ira inflexit verberans aerem ictibus, qui ocius et ocius ceciderunt! Immo recte! Cum olim Thor’s Malleus laborem mortis et ruinae inceperat, non ab officio suo deflexit, dummodo aliquid superesset ei quod furorem insumeret!

Nec fuit ulla infausta calliditate fugae, donec teritur passibus. Imminens ictus, stridula terribili clamore secuta. Nec dum eiectae tenues ibant ad litora proras, Cessavit in atra silices telum rota furiosa.

Conversus ad dominum meum navigantem, qui cum admirandis oculis in me positis steterat, placido et negligenti sono exclamavi: “Tribus diebus, Gubernator, si sereno sereno, Portum Nulli Hominis Portum relinquimus!”

Massa surrexit in gutture suo, sed devoravit eam, et clamavit:

Immo vero, domine.

Et quam tres erant dies occupatus! Haud diu mei viri aliquid novi ducis invictum animi ceperant. Laboravi eos, sed bene cibavi, ministravi larga manu, sed prudens manu, et videbat omnia eorum necessaria saturari. Admiratio in admiratione, et admiratio eorum.

Prima die manus omnes, quae parceri poterant, ad piscandum lineas faciendas destinatae sunt, altera parte falce valida, altera subere innatat. Sectae sunt lineae circiter tres passus longitudinis, et liniamenta purpurea picta erant. Tunc imperavi tres iuratos malos, unam mids naviam et unam anteriorem et aff.

Homines mei voluntarie operam dabant, sed aliquoties deprehendebam eos in fronte percutiendo et aspectus significantes immutando. Sed si hic ultimus ordo eos in studium brunneum proiecerit, proximus meus effectus bombshellae in medio eorum explodendi habuit.

Navigantes omnesque, me intuebantur quasi exspectantes ut annihilarent.

Meus iussus erat calces gubernaculo sub capite figurae rigare. Vas maritimum, quod miseram, nunc otiose navigans in Portum Nulli hominis Portum. Gubernatori mandavi ut nautae tres menses extra mercedem solverent et eos dimitterent.

Quo facto, viri nostri in dextera parte oram verberare iussi sunt.

Credo equidem totum consilium meum, tam diligenter elaboratum, hoc in loco solum ab omni delicto servatum esse a fideli mei Bulgeri sapientia.

Litorus quamprimum ad nostrum latus defricuit, quam leviter per convicium insiluit, se lusu nitide ac nitide agere coepit. Repente prope unum excludit et in furiosissimum latrantem erupit. Et vocavi unum de ministris meis, ut viderem acumen et viderem quidnam esset. Paulum unum ex emissis nautis in praesidio deprehensum renuntiavit. Cum eum in vincula coniectum minatus esset, fassus est consilium suum ad oram maritimam secare, cum navis nostrae ad gurgitem appropinquasset.

Angustus effugium erat.

Carus, fidelis Bulger, quantum tibi debemus illi inventioni!

Tertius dies illuxit clara et pulchra.

Ventus secundus erat, valido litore flante.

Ad primam lucem perculsi sunt homines mei et aspectus speculatores mei.

Salutant me Bulgerum et tres magnos clamores.

Fecerant in animo id quod nesciebam, Bulger fecit! Tandem omnia parata sunt!

Adnuisti gubernatori velificanti, et subito vel sic ergastulum revolvi coepit, et laetus “Yo, o superne!” narrabant ancora inchoata. Centum acies ratibus bene inescatis iam excidere. Stans super taffrail manu vitreum, eos diligentius et anxie observavi.

Finge gaudium meum cum aliquot ex his purpureis ratibus evanescentibus instar fulguris, exsurgere, et momento iterum evanescere.

“Primum parta est,” clamavi. “Alveum inveni!”

Cito verbum transeundo ad dominum navigandum qui calces gubernandae praeerat, bonum meum navi tarde e Port No Man’s Portus, puppi primum movetur. Iterum atque iterum hamatis lineis purpureis ratibus praecipitantur. Pisces aquae profundae, qui semper alveum suum circumferebant, constanter ad opus servabant. Ut nostra navis processerat, lineas trahit atque ita tortum cursum distinxit. Speculum in manu, hanc partem consilii mei prosperam operam navavi, venis tinguentibus et cor continenti. Clamor huzza ex nostris narra mihi, quas vagas purgavimus arenas. Immo verum est! Basem Portus Portus No hominis! Frustra horrenda volutant syrtes. Non fatis erat ut navem baronis immergerent!

Sed vide! Angustias canalis! Nigrescunt aquae, et turbantur; Et audiat!

Non audistine illum stolidum rugitum? Ego e taffrail descendo! inter viros meos omitto et hic illico verbum consolationis omitto. Mea perfecta tranquillitas ea imprimit. Non gaude, heu, domine! ascendit, sed responsionem in vultu video. Est: “Confido tibi, centurio, loquere!” Hebes rugitus in maius crescit.

Rapaces conprehendunt et perferunt sicut astulae in spumae fluminis aestus. Nostra firmissima saxa quasi toy navis. Hinc stridoribus coaetor verberatur alter, et fremit indomitis nisus erumpere.

Ad me vocans Bulgeram circumeo aciem, et firmiter verberat in pelagus, timui enim ne subitus emitteret deseri. Die, trepidantes cursu, perlabitur undas. rugitus obstrepit. Aspicio ad nautas meos. Facies aeneae albae sunt. Inhaerent et in arundineto degunt. Oculi eorum in me confisi sunt.

Ecce! Timidus vorago ante nos mortuus est. Spumosis faucibus aperit velut monstrum terribile. In ipso os eius insilimus. An perimus? Quomodo aliter fieri potest? Quas si vas firmum esset nucis, atraque, furens, volubilis, praelians, ministri fervida cingentibus brachiis eam caperent, altam supra mare attollunt, eam undique circumagunt, ac tam terribilem vim moenium ingentia stillant. undique surgunt aquae, et fragilem rem ligneum minantur inundare. Sed mira mutatio maxime; vide quam vitreo innatat lacu! Spuma sub sole per undas saltat. Omnis pax est, ubi paulo ante natura furit dae- monis furore. Velox in cogitationem salio in caecas caecas: «Abscinde iudices malos!» Excidere cum fragore. Insanire homines laborent. Sciunt etiam quod omne instans sit ultimum eorum. Acatium nostrum iam levatum sine verbo aut clamore domum sternitur. Nimis morti sumus ut canamus! Vide! Vide! Ventum magnum velum implet! Movemus. Videntur aquae odorem nostrum effugere. Ad novum excitant furorem. Gravis murmur ab ipsis terrae visceribus vocat eos ut torpor excitent.

Earum nobis sunt.

Sero! Sero!

Verrimus e longinquo. Servati sumus! Servati sumus! Ex duobus faucibus clamor ascendit, unde metus nunc suscipit manum!

Respicere post tergum! Rapta quasi praeda, ingeminato evigilat vorago furore.

Centum scaturientes bracchii quasi rivuli scaturiunt et circumfundunt bonam navem nostram frustra conatu in illam terribilem vortice retrahendam.

Nubibus imbre et nebula perfundimur, dum sensim sed constanter cursum tenemus. Utinam tuti essemus in tumore maris, nam aliud adhuc periculum occurrit.

Alveus noster repente angustat. Biscuit murum saxei iactare potui, qui nos utrinque claudit.

Iterum altum silentium incidit in navim et remex, fracto modo miro sono aquarum inrumpentium, erumpentium ac defluentium, tam regulariter quam penduli oscillantium. Malleus Thor est, pavidas aquas in spumam verberans, quod a latere in latus flectit.

Licet tranquillitas apparere nisus sit, possum sentire cor meum citius pulsare.

Gelidus torpet manus. Aspectu praecedens me excitat ictu tanquam manu invisibili. Ibi, cum sol matutinus in crista malleolo suo nixus, aversos saxum formidabile saxum, minatus instanti exitium nulli navii ausa est transire.

Iuxto meo iussu, omnis navigatio maritima posita erat, et gubernaculum eius verberavit, ut ad ius Thor’s Hammer transiret.

“Confortamini, viri!” Clamavi. “Adeste, omnes! Disperdite verbera! tene!»

Tum ad Gubernator manum iactans, velum nostrum cum cursu descendit. Omnia tamquam leporem laboraverunt. Nostra navis retardavit, dum ad perniciem maritimam iaculatus est. Aspice, quam leto celerat peritura dolus. Increpuerat enim aura, et varios lauros et vexilla laetos, quae mei cucurrerant ad summum, volaebant rigido matutino aere.

Ibi! Nonne audisti ruinam illam?

Hammer Thor’s eam percussit!

Ictus sequitur ictus!

Crash! Fragor! Fragor!

Nostrum nunc tempus, neque numquam!

Indiligens non sum captus. Cum nos in litore essemus perspicui, vela satis erigi iussissem ut in cursu suo navem teneremus stabilitam.

Iam appropinquavimus ad Hammer Thor’s, quod in informi molem orae maritimae celeriter quatiebat. Frena impletur asseribus et lignis fractis impletur mare. Thor’s Malleus ad suum terrorem exitii laborem flectit, praesentiae nostrae immemor.

Quid atrox furoris potuit sustinere?

Ligna robusta cedunt sicut virgulta.

Aliud minutum, et monstrum habemus et eius victimam in nostro evigilo!

Nunc, nunc eum transimus! Vela tremunt ab ipso anhelitus impetu! Constrata est assulis nostra! Fremitus et fragor obstrepunt. Hammer Thor’s pro uno ultimo ictu ad costas et spinam victimae fractae et disiunctae flectit!

Euge! Euge!

Nostra navis bona in alto rotulo pectoris oceani immergit! In aperto mari sumus! Portus Nulli hominis, valete!

Cum homines mei ad ianuam saxosam respexissent et tristes vigiles portus Portus Nulli hominis, pileos in aerem iactaverunt et clamorem miserunt post clamorem.

Bulger cingitur cingulo, optime latratu strenuissimo agens, ut testetur suam admirationem parvulo domino suo.

Accessit navigatio; et cum tetigisset pileum et radit calceamenti pollicem calceamenti, exclamavit hilariter:

“Euge! Libellus Baron. Quod egregie factum est! Pro certo habebamus nos numquam debere per incertas arenas obtinere. Cum autem transirent, paratus eram ad gurges iurare opus nostrum breviare. Sed cum ex illo tuto navigaremus, accessi ad caudam clausurae paratae ad saliendum, nam sentiebam nihil nos ab ictu Thor’s Malleo salvare posse. Maculatus sum et griseus contra procellas dominii Neptuni, sed numquam dominum habui usque nunc.”

Adnuit et subridens, et sermonem in aliud locum cito convertit.

“In via, Gubernator,” inquam, “meminit, in ipso momento Anglicanum Channel purgamus, caput ad meridiem vertit!”

“Eia! Hey! Baro parvus!” responsum fuit. Vocans Bulgerum ad me iam infra ivi. Solus esse volui. Ita se res habet, cetera mihi opus est. Meorum nervorum spes et metus per hos dies indicare mihi diram incepit.

Me in conopeo iaciens, in soporem decidi unde a Bulgeris ploratu et vagitu excitatus sum.

Dominus navigat sollicite pulsum meum sentiens.

Ego dormivi tres dies et tres noctes. Hoc tempore Bulgerus omnino noluerat me a latere vel cibo sumendo discedere, cum nauclerus eum subtilissimis buccellis tentasset.

Gaudia nullos limites exsilui, meque excussi Formam.

“Ubi sumus, domine?” Clamavi.

“In Atlantico lato, ad meridiem versus mortuus, parvus Baron,” responsum fuit.

“Bonum! Mitte mihi lardi temeriorem et callidum quempiam. Aura Atlantica appetitum mihi dedit et, Gubernator, addidi, “aculum volucri assi Bulger.”

“Nunc, terra calore et sole!” Murmuravi, “nunc pro domo aurantiorum et palmarum! Mihi non placet ventis frigidi, puer sum tropicorum, natus in terra, ubi natura operatur et homo ludit. Nullus umquam gelidus furor sibilavit tristes cunas meas! Qui volunt, dimidiam vitam degunt expectantes Tellurem matrem ut e somno hyemali excitent! Congelo corpus, et tu cerebrum riges. Ego sum eorum, qui magis flores amant quam nivis. Gloriosa terra Austri! Ave, puer iterum ad tua brachia venit, Suscipe benigne et amanter!

In meridiem, semper ad meridiem bona mea navis currit. Per diem navigium delphines in ludo spectare aut stuporem Bulgeri observare, cum pisces errantes in navi volitantes ceciderunt; nocte, oculis ardentem in cruce fixis australem, desiderabam tempus futurum, cum in acia quadam pulchro ramo corallio conchisque margaritis ornatam pedem ponerem, in cuius liquidis aquis pisces aureos in medio marinis plantis nidificarent. Non minus nitor.

Iam tres hebdomades erat cum ultimus murmur Hammer Thor’s in auribus nostris incidisset.

Meus chronometer.s. Omne velum positum est, et navis bona nostra tam lepide observavit quam hirundo volatu inclinata ad tangendas aquas vitrei lacus frigidos. Subito ventus cecidit, stabat navis nostra in immoto mari, pennata quasi filo pendebat. Non erat satis aer ad levandum fumum ab igne nostro triremis. Mirum in navi marique arcanum silentium appendit. Nimium novi quid velat. Eorum una formidandarum tranquillitas, quam nautica tempestas adurit magis timenda.

Nostra navis stabat quasi emporio marmoreo religata.

Et quia dies mens mea cogitatio emicuit, hebdomades etiam prius transirent, quam venti se iterum ad portandum iter haberent, summae languoris affectus supervenit mihi. Magnum opus erat mihi proicere.

Non audebam me viri quicquam dehortari in vultu videre.

Atqui labor erat. Nisi durior factus essem, ego flebam meum profectum videre in eo ipso momento quo prope in manibus erat victoria.

Item, sicut accidit, cum terrores Portus nullius Portus, sicut malignorum demonum potentiae, me in saxea circumtecta pelve in perpetuum clauderet, cogitationes mee ad domum reverterunt, seniori Baroni et gratiosa conjuge sua. carissima mater; servis et clientibus aulae baroniae; ut vicani et tenenti. Quomodo, o quomodo omnibus occurrerem, si turpi confessione defecissem iter ad domum redire cogerer?

Bulger in frontispicio primus umbrae. Obscuros ille nitidos oculos in me sic orando convertit ac si diceret: O homuncule, quid agis? Non possum a facie tua tristia pellere melancholia? Tu scis quomodo amo te. Doce me adiuvare te. Vita mea tua est. Sicut plumbum in corde meo premit dolor tuus. Loquere ad me parvulum dominum!” Leniter et amanter caput perculit, et mollissimis verbis ad eum locutus sum. Gavisus est, sed tamen sedit et observabat me, quia non potuit eum falli ficto esse levem et securum.

Secunda hebdomada invenit nos iacentes sicut tigillum in mola, vela nostra per levissimo flatu aeris; mare depressum in somnum quasi mors videbatur. Desperatio sedit in ora virorum. Excita te, parve baro. Murmuratus sum apud me, dum incedimus aream meam casulam, “Ubi est calliditas tua gloriata? Ubi est sapientia tua? Numquam dicere te virum esse consiliorum, cito ad excogitandum et ad faciendam promptum! Perdidisti tenere rotam locutam fortunae!”

“Putasne?” Ego autem in cogitationibus meis respondi.

“Sequere me, videbimus.” Vincto laxavi viam. Dominus navigat in navi obdormivit. Viri catervatim, hinc inde, ipsam desperationis imaginem spectabant. Gubernator cum strenuo cingulo ad cingulum excitans, adiutus a Bulgeri furentis latratibus eruptione, exclamavit:

“Avast! Ibi Gubernator. Somnum ab labore? Tibia omnia in navi manus!” Ascenderunt vivide, et oblectabant caedem meam velificantis, qui oculos attrivit, attonitus repentino impetu. “Mitte mihi faber naves.” perrexi; et frustum creta arripiens traxi consilium capsulae magnae vel cistae, fere modo latitudinis nostrae navis trabi, et mandavi fabro ut eam aedificarent fortissimis tabulis in tabula habendum. Ipse et socii mox in opere erant.

Conversus deinde ad cocum precepi eum ut porcos et volatilia, que ad nostram recentis copiam portaverat, interficeret, mandans ut caveret ne guttam sanguinis amitteret.

Haec ordines satis curiose feras meos.

Accessit navigans magister et conatus est mihi aliquid exponere, sed frustra. Profundior eram cogitatione loquendi.

Arca longa paucis horis parata erat. Verbum nunc ascendit quod navem deserturus sum et remigando terram attingere studeo, et hanc longam cistam commeatum tenere.

Naviculator rursus intuitum percontando in me defixit. Orantem non dissimulavi aspectum. Coquus iam recentem escam in promptu habebat. Totum sub pectore longum translatum est, perfusus sanguis, et arca secura occlusa cum operculo vitreo gravi, ex pluribus fragmentis confectus ad reparationem luminum fractis. Hoc tempore homines in arcano arcano et arcano adhuc contentis ita excitarunt, ut redire deberem, ut faber eiusque adiutores sine intermissione opere suo pergerent.

Proximum erat cistam plumbeis longam ponderare et armamenta ad singulas anulos ferreis firmis apponere. Cum paratis omnibus clamavi adstantes per saxum et deprimi. Ita ut demissionem longae cistae spectare possem, eam de tribus pedibus sub aqua demergere curavi et deinde in puppi navis eam firmiter verberare. Vix verbum demitterem omnibus velis, cum navis movere coepit! Effectus in viros ineffabilis fuit. Quidam exsanguis, steterunt quasi metu fixi. Alii in morem ferocem risum. Alii, qui de illis deerant, ad puppim mysterii integumentum proruperunt.

Satis erat aspectus!

Simplex post omnes.

Paulatim alii rationem recipiunt, et ad socios suos properant, et in aquas despiciunt, ubi capsulam longam, cum vitreo operculo et inusitata contenta, detruserunt. Interea bona nostra navis ocius et ocius per pigras et languidas aquas movit. Insonuit clamor, ter repetitus, cum plene solutum mysterium ascendit.

Sacramentum?

Audi ergo quid sit hoc sacramentum!

Primis diebus tranquillitas huius mortuae, quae velut stragulum terribile invisibiles monstri manus pervaserat, ad cohibendos progressus nostros, animadvertimus aquas immensas squalidum profluxisse; hos atroces daemones profundo nauigio nostro nauigio suspensos frequentibus, coeno deiectis allecti, multorum procul dubio animantium odore nauim conscendit.

Cum interdum magna purgamentorum copia in aquam incidit, adeo atrox impetus monstrorum rapacitatis fuit, ut vel latera vel puppim inruerent, velut instructae cohortes instructae in unum concurrerent.

Hoc admonitus feci. Si, ut cogitabam, hanc nunc feram vim tantum regere non possum, cur non utar illo graviore periculo navem meam quam furiosa tempestate eriperem? Multo enim satius est ululatum Obstrepere, et spumis spumis obstrepere undis, quam siti, anhela, pelagoque ligatus aperto.

Jam vero omnia mutata sunt.

In nostra, bona navis ivit, Increbrescente cursu, sine silentio, Velociter lapsus per aquas speculi. Longe melior mea ratio laborabat quam somniare auderem, nam dum recens per longae cistae rimas cruor manare coepit, monstruosi maris rapaces odore et gustu prope insaniunt. Maximus acerrimus et densus instat ordinibus, minores socios in sublime iactans, loca emissa, insana et avidissima praedae, quae se trahebat, in propinquo, semperque extra se.

Quod ubi Myrmidonum acies prima signa altae lassitudines ostenderunt, quam recentium et recentium tironum acies provolavit, dextra laevaque fatigatos, velut subere frenos, munus subegit. Semper cedentes praedae, quae, quamvis effuso sanguine et conspicuo, tamen nihil defatigatum scire videbantur, et tendere, et ante liaec tumultuantis impetu cohortes proruere.

Luna iam caeruleis moenibus aethera caeruleis fulgebat ut lamina caeruleis, frangiturque alta silentia soporis aquae torrens ingentium corpora micantia luce, dum moliti certabant urgere carinam. obiter.

Dormire non potui.

Panni laneo involutus, ut me ab insidiosis roribus tropicorum protegeret, in navi me conjeci, capite meo in gremio Bulgeri dejectus.

Aliquid mihi susurrabat, quod si inediti latrones profundi essent, solum suum munus retinerent usque ad matutinum solem orientem perplexum, molares ventos venientium flatum sentirent.

Sicque evenit. Prima luce lucem conspexit in stagno, Oceani Sinum. Eodem momento etiam animadverti nostram navem tarditatem esse. In taffrail exsilui. Ecce! Socii reliquerant. Nemo ex castris istius tumultus apparebat! Ah parum somniaverunt quomodo navem et nautas servaverunt! Quam immensa est hominis contentio! Bestiae agri, beluae altae, suo arbitrio ministrent, imperata facturos. Monstravi undam murmure, et cum primus ventus validus ad nos pervenit, parati eramus ad recipiendum. Omnis navis erat.

Exsultavit cor meum gaudio, ut nostra navis ad ventum traxit, ut vitse clavum paret!

Atque ita rem publicam meam navim et nautas graviore periculo quam procellosis fluctibus servavi. Ex hoc tempore omnia bene fuerunt. Vix hebdomadam intercesserat cum clamorem insuetum, qui dulcius auribus meis sonabat quam vox regis ad aulicum.

“Ho terra! Mortuus est ante!”

Rapiens vitrum meum in globulos prosilivi, et intuitum in partem significatam converti. Immo vero! Hic pronus ab Oceano mitis adsurgens clivis, Arboribus varies variegatam frondibus altam, litoreis nivei litoris aevum.

Purpureum supera ignota ferens caligine tingit olli pinguis, ut matura coma molares. Cum appropinquaremus ad portum positos nos excipere visum est. Haud tamen aut vox aut signum vitac frangere pontum quies cingebant sinus et litora fluctus.

Tarde et bonam navem nostram ferentes in portum navigaverunt et ancoris iacuerunt. Nunc super me terra splendida pulchritudo exorta est. Milia conchylia tinguunt margaritae colores candidis arenis micabant, liquidis dum in aquis, florea marina, ima purpurea coma leniter aestu flectebat. Declivis ripis natura altae Saturnalia tenuisse videbatur. Nulla virgulta, nec rubus, nec arbor simplici viridi gestare contentus fuit. Quisque aliquam in molli et mollis ac mollitia caeli florem vibrans. Hinc inde praeceps torrens volvens, undantia, spargens spargensque musco per saxa cubile. Aer gravabatur odore vasti horti tam pulchri, et tamen taciti ac deserti.

Postridie, relicto gubernatore meo velificante, profectus sum in comitatu meo fideli Bulger unice comitante. Si haec insula mihi erat videnda, sic enim inesse aliquid certi et curiosi putavi. Quo magis in interiorem hujus speciosissimi terram florum nitidorum, rivorum, rivorum, serenatorum, et odoratam aeris, processi, eo magis mirabar, quod nec vitis, fruticis, peniculus, nec arbor ullum baccam, nec fructum ad vescendum ferebat; et quamquam talis erat terra rivorum, florum et aeris balnei, ut quidam incola longinqui septentrionis somniare posset; necdum tamen calcatum est ab homine, nam rarum quidem est ut tropicorum populus alium sibi cibum parare velit, quam quod natura serpit.

Nunc gratias agere coepi quod siccis fructibus abunde me praestiteram priusquam navem meam proficiscerer ad iter insulae, quod ita mihi videbatur esse.

In hoc momento constitit Bulger, et in aere nasum suum attrivit, duram et longam attraxit, ac deinde obscuris oculis in me defixit, ut diceret: “Cura, magister, aliqua animalia appropinquant!” Vix tempus erat e sclopellis educere ac festinare ad eius primordia aspectum, cum miris clamoribus et peregrinis motibus duodecim aut plura humanae speciei e vepres e vestigio exsiluerunt et nos circumdederunt. Bracchium ignium, quod dextra manu tenebam, sustuli, paratum obsistere cohortis curiosissimae, occiso duce. Nam cum horridum famee stimulum horrendoque corporis habitu horridum aspectum vultusque corporum adspectum iudicasset, ad saccos pellium ossium compagibus suspensos, quod minime crepitantibus gressum caperent, praeveniebam. Eorum conatus percutere ac devorare.

Sed valde cito consolatus sum. Primo, quod cuiuslibet generis arma non ferebant; deinde per mollitiem vocum suarum, ac transversis similium corporum motuum, quam gratam quamdam permixtam cupiditatem amici cum homine tam ab se dissimilem significari interpretatus sum. Quanquam aut intelligere, aut facere conabar, anathesim motus capitum imitando, sequebantur conatum adaequare operam in arcubus infimis magna multitudine, tam lepida ac facilia, ut fidem fecissent. Ad magistrum choris Gallicum, quod nihil timerent, tamen a me quantum progredior retrahere perserunt. Bulgaro nonnihil miratus sum, quod tam ieiuna creaturarum intuitus amicos componendi, et atrocem rugitum servans, inspiciens eos suspiciose, dum ambulationem corporum motu a me recedente manerent.

Nunc me inveni ante globi umbellae bamboo figuratae casas in quas plerique se contulerunt. Non modice difficultatis fuit quod tandem blandis et persuadendis mihi in animo fuisse tranquillissimas valuissem. Horae enim quartae vel amplius me tacito circumibant admiratione, dum ego ex parte mea haec specimina generis nostri mirifice stupens intuebar. Quid de me senserint, disces sicut narratur, sed quomodo eas tibi semper describam, ut te vel levem speciem admirabilem reddam.

Finge sceleta parvae staturae ambulans, saccis farinae collapsis illis suspensis, pellis in plicas undique demissa, omnibus gradibus plaudens, et aliquam tenuioris notionem habebis ridiculi et deridiculi horum aspectus.

Fere omne os in corporibus sub hoc tenui velamine conspicuum erat. Genae eorum ut binae manticae vacuae ab utraque parte faciei pendebant, nasi sicut sculptilia fixa. Rugae altae et rugas transierunt, et facies crissa transibant, eis vultu tristium melancholiae et miserationis funditus.

Osseis digitis subinde complicare cutem arripientibus, expolire, vel alibi, ut laxius vestis apta, propulsare. Atqui miserrima ac melancholia, cum haec viderentur ad oculum spectantis, voces erant leves et hilares, ac molles ad tibiae notae. Loquebantur et deridebant inter se, pleni erant mali, et digitos suos penicillos demonstrabant in diversis partibus Bulgeri et corpus meum cum evidenti oblectatione rerum tam novarum et extranearum. Aliquoties dum has lugubres et evigilans vultus vultus intuens, simulque faustum ac puerilem audientem garritum, in cachinnum prorupi, qui non modo admodum inhumanus erat, sed qui semper effectus est causandi. ut iterum inordinate.

Paulatim tamen invaluerunt, et per signum quoddam sermonis dederunt mihi intelligere quod me tangere volebant. Recurrendo ad eandem hominum linguam communium, certior factus sum, quod nimium felix petitionibus eorum satisfacerem, et pectus meum nudare et manicas tunicae meae volvere perrexi. Paenitentes temeritatis suae, conferti, brachiis cruribusque ita implicaverunt ut, ut vitam servarem, nescirem ubi alter inciperet, alter finiretur.

Sed post paulum blanditias, persuasi ut mihi manus inferrent.

Clamores sequuntur admirationis et stuporis. Ut postea didici quod proferebant significabant: “Massa!” “Chunk!” “Lapis!” “Durum!” “Solidus!” Hoc momento esurientem sentiens pauxillum, saccum meum sicci fructus aperui et aliquot frusta in os meum coniecit.

Iamque atrocior admirationis, horrore et fastidio permixtus. Iterum abeuntes in nodum se ligaverunt.

An forte, inquam, istae creaturae solidum cibum numquam attingunt?

Cum animadvertissent inter se quidnam de me ageret consulere, veriti ne in capita, ne in dumeta evaderent, tam cito in motu quam mente ac phantasmata essent. Nihil morabatur, quod in conspectum regis vel principis duci cuperem.

Hoc eis placere videbatur. Sed cum multis anatibus capitum, paulum recesserunt, et quandam latralem tenuem tenuerunt. Post quem unus ex eorum numero, qui inter eos princeps esse videbatur, et cuius nomen Go-Whizz, ut postea comperi, multis demissis corporis flexibus ad me processit, et me certiorem fecit. principem eorum longe abesse unde fuimus, meque hic manere oporteret, dum ad principem suum me ad se perducendum peteret veniam.

Ego tali dispositioni libenter consensi.

Go-Whizz tunc me duxit ad unam mansionem eorum, monstrans cubile spicae aridae iunceae, et invitavit me ut consolarer me donec veniret, ut me duceret in conspectum principis eorum, Ztwish-Ztwish, sicut erat. Nomen ferebat.

Bulger et secundam iussionem non exspectavi, nam post longam corniculum ad os fessi eramus. Cum dimidia parte duodecim vel plurium arcuum, tam minore quam factae a Go-Whizz et sociis suis, ad quietem nocturnam parare coepi.

Parumper, vel ita, spectabam cedentes hominum eximiorum hominum figuras, qui in singulis fasciculis, velociter ac sine strepitu, tot phantasmatum, e vestigio devolaverunt. Tum me in cubile iunci deieci, Clamavit Bulgerum ut cubaret a me. Sed ille non adeo confidens, ut ego, et manibus blandiens, ad ostio habitaculi consedit, ut parvulum dominum suum ab omni fraude phantasticorum conservaret.

Dies nunc subito exiit, sicut lampas a vento exstinguitur.

Bulger dormire noluit.

At ego nocturnis roribus tecti densissimo tecto, mox in altum soporem et refrigerium incidi, e quo me movere difficilem inveneram Bulger, quia levi recordatione sensi scalpendi bracchio. Aliquot momentis, priusquam somni vincula possem excutere, quae me tam arcte tenebat.

Sedens propere, inveni Bulgerum in magno tumultu peragrasse solum, intermisso aere matutino subinde olfacere, quod, cum appareret, admonitio aliqua ei attulit. Statim mihi in mentem venit ferae in propinquo vagari. Primordia examina ignium meorum. Bulger bene prospexit me permotus ad periculum imminens.

Audebat iam, et sub divo exiens, habitaculum circuit, modo horrens redire crinibus fremens in suspicionem non oportebat.

Increbrescente sollicitudine nunc coepit me genuinum terrorem incutere. Ego in ipso navigio properans, cum cogitatio per meum animum emicuit: Quid? Celeres effugiunt ista phantasmata? Otiosum est id attentare!” Statui igitur casus meos capere, quid eveniat.

Tuguriolum valde aedificatum est eiusque tectum saltem nos ab fuga sagittae venenatae tutaturum.

Dum autem in festinatione loci perlustrando, clamor a Bulgero me instigavit. Unum aspectum dedi et tremefactum tremefecit corpus meum per obliquum.

Cohors armata in conspectu erat.

Clamore magno, propius mugire, propius ac propius accedere. Hinc ad latus formae ingentes versantur. Ingentes artus, mota more quercus. Brachiaque ad ramos robustos desinentia palmas, Luce obscuro mane, nodosasque per umeros nodosasque figuram accipiunt; latis et gravibus umeris adumbrata vis terrifica. Ictus unus e manu talis tribulae pondus mallei, fragilem creaturam tanquam me inopem in pulvere poneret!

Bulger, ut erat fortis, aspectu tremuit. Illico cogitationes meas collegi et ultimum vale Baroni seniori et clementi baronissae matri meae, in longinqua domicilio sub aquilonali.

lamque ad limen perventum erat, et pectora vastis stant tundentes sonitus emittit in alta sonos.

Prorsus ego poniam ensem detexi et in aere vibravi.

Effectus stupendum!

Clamore terribili, gemitu ac clamore, terribili pavore recidebant, inter se volventes globos instar giganteorum distrahentes, terram ferientes et in loca erecta terminantes.

Cum tandem hi sacci humanos in aliquid simile quietis consederant, unus e numero in lacrimosam et deprecantem orationem erupit, quam postea intellexi de hoc sensu: O Magister! O Magus! O mysteria massa! O Res impenetrabilis! auferte instrumentum horrendum. Ne nos pungat tremendo, ne pungat molles pelles. Atrox mucro levissima tactus causaret corpora nostra quasi pisces stimulos rumpere! Ne timeas nos. Amici tui sumus. Te perducimus ad magnum principem nostrum Ztwish-Ztwish. Ego sum Go-Whizz, servus tuus.

Subito veritas animum inrupit in admirationem meam. Falsitas in verbis oratorum nulla fuit. Go-Whizz erat! Alii socii, miserae ossei sacci, qui nudiustertius mecum dividebant.

Subridens et lenis unda manus, pugionem meum ad vaginam propere retuli, et Go-Whizz dedi ut intelligeret se nihil a me timere. Dimidium curiositatis insanum iam progressus sum ut propius inspiceret Go-Whizz et socios eius. Sobrius quippe est, cum dixero tibi hominem esse hominem, idipsum primum incidi, cum proficiscens ad explorandam insulam.

Sed hanc mutationem mirabilem requiris? Ut herculea fabricata fuisset una brevi nocte, arma membraque tam grandia quam Iaponica luctandi.

Dico totum esse aerem! Hos ego cum primum conveni non prandebam. Iam ex magna cena nuper veniebant. Scias enim me nunc fuisse in terra mirabilis Ventri comedentes! Cum aer tranquillus est et uenti dormiunt, curiosi homines ieiunare coguntur, et in saccis eorum rugosis, ut diximus, pellibus pendent; sed cum ventus in rabiem ludibrio vel etiam leni flatu et ictu surrexerit, istae res alienae statim crescere incipiunt, nec diu ante omnem rugam et rugam sicut magicam evanescunt.

Sicut Go-Whizz et socii eius coram me steterunt, ego perplexus sum ridicula antithesi inter voces et voltum vultus eorum. Hesterno die, vultu truci ac vetantis, voces molles et tibicinis erant; hodie voces terribiles, graves, mugire, voltusque inflare leves et circumfusae risum ac facetiarum.

Cum admiratus eram in conspectu horum hominum miris transformatorum, aliquid Go-Whizz fremuit, quod facile intellexi petitum esse, ut me permitterem ad residentiam magni principis sui Ztwish-Ztwish ducere permitterem.

Subridens assensum praeponens laqueos colligo.

Tumor exinanitus erat, ni fallor, ocellos, In me quantum diceret;

“Carissime magister, quomodo potes te credere ingentibus montibus carnis, quorum unus tam fragili corpore quam vellem murem comminuere potuit?”

Pauculas ei blanditias dedi et tunicam holoserica permulsi, ut scirem me rectum esse me scire. Go-Whizz et eius manus, informes ut videbantur, haudquaquam tardi gressui erant. Progrediebantur ad ratem alacrem, quia tranquillus aer erat et parum ad portandum. Nunc demum, simul bumping, seorsim tanquam globuli globos finiebant. Difficilis res erat mihi risum tenere, praesertim cum viderem aspectum Bulgeri summae perplexitatis. Oculos in me comice volvit. Tandem vero intravimus villam Ventorum Eaters, ubi magnus princeps Ztwish-Ztwish tenebat curiam suam.

Is et ipse rotundus inflatus est, quamvis, ut postea didici, non permisit eum tam aequo animo quam subditis terrae legibus vesci. Ruga passim apparebat. Vultus et arma non habebant speciem tumidam emissiones communem populo suo post magnam cenam. De meo adventu in eius insulam iam certior factus est, ac singulari gravitate et duritiei magnitudine.

Ventorum edentium circiter quindecim tulit ut me in statera libraret.

Dux Ztwish-Ztwish Bulger me suscepit humanissime. Statim oblatus fui ministris publicis et domesticis eius. Regina Phew-yoo erat domina valde magnifica, moribus decora et conservata; sed parva regina Pouf-fah puerili curiositate me delectavit.

Eorum principes, ministri civitatis, dominum suum stabant, et longe plus monendi quam audire volebant intenti videbantur. Nomina eorum Hiss-sah, Whirr-Whirr et Sh-Boom.

Credas tumultum in domo capitalis Ztwish-Ztwish meo adventu creatum. A summo ad imum, a summo ad serviendum homini, omnes orabant, orabant, ut de me sentire liceret.

Sollicitus es alienis favere populis, ut eis opportunitatem ad otium meum studere possem, ad horam vel amplius lepide submisi, pungendo, pungendo, fricando, mulcendo.

Frustra me conarer ad te dare mille et uno clamores admirationis, delectationis, prodigii, metus, metus, metus, quae ex hac multitudine alienarum rerum ascenderunt, qui, cum viderentur, non viderentur. ita existimare, quantas curiositates mihi ac ego illis.

Exsiccatum meum lignum iam admodum defatigatum est, ac famem rosiones sentire coepi.

Nunc, ut scis, vox Ventri comedentis ex conditione hominis est. Si modo comederit et corpus eius rotundum sit quasi vesiculam bene refertam, vox eius alta est et sonus; si vero interdiu cibum non sumpsit, cortex eius in sinubus et rugis ossium compage dependet, molli et tibia sono loquitur.

Ingredienti ad frontem, sequitur Bulgerus, et seviem juxta ostrearum acervum, clamor ingens ascendit, in quo fremitus inflati venti edentes permixti sunt mollibus tibicinis sonorum jejuniorum. Non animadvertens ullum instrumentum prope quo testas aperiret, incaute ponim e vagina traxit. Mox atrox pauor concursum multitudinis invasit. Regina Phew-yoo et regina Pouf-fah in deliquium inciderunt. Dux Ztwish-Ztwish cum in conditione ieiunii ad cubicula sua phantasma iacularetur. Ministri civitatis Iliss-sah, Whirr-Whirr et Sh-Boom, plenissime elati, terram pedibus collidunt et velut globulis ingentis e via evolvuntur.

Velox sicam putavi, cuius aspectus cuspis fulgida haec consternationem attulerat; et, lectionibus datis in primo congressu nostro Go-Whizz et Sociis, incepi seriem anatum et ambulationum motuum corporis mei, qui mox in tranquillis intentionibus fiduciam reddiderat, et dispersos auditores ad me reduxit. Sedes suas. Go-Whizzus, qui extremus cucurrerat, nunc maximus erat in eo, quod se minime timuisse gloriatur. Dux Ztwish-Ztwish resumpsit sedem neruo magno, sed animadverti eum defixis oculis in loco ubi pugionem meum in balteo abscondi. Quamvis ostrea dentifricia solum ad acuendam gulam visus, nunc tamen vehementer haesitabat scire, quonam modo conchas apertas rimaretur, nam leges terrae eduntes in aliquem inven- runt poenas mortis. acuto in possessione.

Ungues in prima infantia deprimuntur ad carnem, donec invalescere vires amittant, et durissimae cutis loco prehenditur.

Dentes, non habent venti; vel, quod rectius dictum est, dentes supra gingivas non nascuntur. Videbatur enim natura sensim cessasse operam dare, ut iis aliquid ad quod omnino nullum haberent usum, suppeditarent.

Meminerint curiosi homines non semper tam tenui victu contenti fuisse. Antiquitus — ita dux Ztwish-Zt- wish me certiorem fecit, maiores suos pomiferos fuisse; fructibus tamen deficientibus, ad gingivas, quae ex arboribus fluxerant, recurrere coacti fuerant, et cum sensim exsiccatae essent, varios ventos, qui per insulam flant, quibusdam invisibilibus seminibus vel particulis replerentur. qui vitae sustentandae potestatem habebat.

Ad resumendum: Ascia silicem humi iacentem observans, eam apprehendi et ad aperiendum unum e maximis ostreis laborandum est. Magnum silentium incidit in comitio. Subitoque contorto contorto contorto superiori, inferiorem sublato, cui pinguis ac decoriosa creatura imminense fatorum immemor iacebat, ore aperui, et e conspectu elabi lepide pinguis buccella. Centum stridorem stridorem semihorritum, Dimidium stuporem erupit, sicut chorus ingens a circumfuso ventorum edentium turbis. Iterum atque iterum erupit, modo geminato vigore iterum erumpere.

Hoc tam gravi morbo multi videntium, illis singulare spectaculum, ut abripiat locum, priusquam iterum buccam sumere posset.

Videas quomodo senserint. Ut voles ingurgitare ex lapide ac ferro incipiam.

Regina Phew-yoo timide adhaesit lacerto mariti sui; sed principissa Pouf-fah audacter propius ad me iit, quo melius perspicere posset homunculum totum per solidum. Iterum unam ex maximis conchis sustuli et occupantis iugulum labatur tacite, non oblitus toties ad solvendum album musculum, qui conchas pro parte festi Bulgeri tenebat.

Paulatim adeps Ventorum edentium, conspecto homine in massas cibum deglutiendi, cessit curiositati edacitatis, ut propius propius accederet, meumque satiandi famis modum melius consideraret.

Satis intelligere potui scire multos Ventorum Eaters dubitationes gravissimas habuisse me vere ostrea deglutivisse.

Ad eos minus veniam aliquam nequitia aute.

Principissa Pouf-fâh super scamnis unum conscendit, et statim ostrea evanuit guttur meum, institit aperienti os meum ad maximam latitudinem, ut sibi quaereret et videret si ostrea non esset. abscondi sub lingua mea, aut alicubi in maxillam meam.

Subitus clamor terroris insusuit spectatores, quantum me fecit.

Regina parva deliquium abrepta est.

Dentes erat! Terruere leves Pouf-fah media morte neci.

Parumper omnia confusio. Inciti a Go-Whizz, multi Ventorum Eateri fustes arripiunt, et parricidio intento urgentes. Principissae Pouf-fah reditio, splendida et arridens, omnia rursus recta statuit.

Turba autem inexplicabili curiositate correpta accedendi et quaerendi sibi rem horrendam quae Pouf-fah in deliquium proiecerat.

Mox incoepit dolor fauces extendere os meum satis apertum, ut unumquodque eorum spectet in duplici ordine eboreorum et molarium, et si hoc ipsum dico, habui in illis diebus unum ex tenuissimis. Dentes, qui semper per frustum Nienburgi biscoctum secarunt, aut frustum anseris assati Germanici terebant.

Posthac, pueriles ac simplices homines satis comperti sunt “Minimum Hominem Creber Totum Per” creaturam benignam ac pacificam ac omnimodam prorsus innoxiam fuisse.

Pueri circum me confluebant, et risibus et anatibus meis mox amici mecum fiebant.

Hoc gavisus sum, nam cupidus eram Ventorum comessatores arcte studiosos facere iuvenes et senes.

Mirationem meam iudicare licet, cum vidi turbam horum puerorum, animatam globulos, quos in illis erant, occupatos esse, novos lusus in me irruentis benivolentiam et quasi pilas globulos e saepe tabula iactantes.

Bene, credo, curiose ardes, aliquid certius de istis alienis audiendi.

Mihi non prorsus ignotae fuerunt. Antiquas peregrinationis libros ab Arabicis auctoribus passim legeram, et de tali aliquo genere; quorum corpora adeo fragilia sunt, ut validiores et graviores cibos gustare non possent, quam dulces gingivarum, quae ex arboribus fluxerunt, et quorum pellibus adeo perlucentibus, ut vitreae vocantur, pulsus corculi sui manifeste. visibilis est oculis aspicientis. Non dubito hos auctores ad insulae huius mirae incolas referri, in qua nulli fructus, baccae, vel eduli radices invenirentur, et quorum maiores, ut Ztwish-Ztwish praecipuus informatus sum, superioribus seculis fecerunt; ita vitam sustentant. Sed fateor me esse homines, qui proprie in aere vixerunt; vel, rectius loquendo, ventis quibusdam invisibiles materiae sustentandae particulas onustas, paulo plus fuit quam unquam etiam in vehementissima imaginationis meae operatione somniare ausus sum. Delectationem igitur meam iudicabis, cum me inter tam extraordinarias homines invenias, et ut eos genuinos naturae, mansuetos et placidos esse deprehendas.

Nec tamen diu inveniendo quod mihi satis magnum esse probaretur.

Hoc erat. Didici quod, licet verum sit, ut dictum est, Ventos edentes regulariter, genus pacis amantium, ingenio modestum et aversatum maleficium, tamen hoc generale regulae exceptiones fuerunt. Mirum dictu, quo vento pascebantur.

Sicut ipsae omnes mulieres erant mansuetudo. Mollibus zephyris austri vescebantur. Sed pars magna eorum famem suam implendo validi et salubris Favonii vento contenti sunt; bonus autem numerus, ex aliqua opinione quod suaviorem et subtiliorem saporem haberet, quamdam gravem et nucem similem saporem, ventosum ventosum irregularem praeferebat. Neque tamen a medicis nationis optimae habitae sunt alimenta salubria, et contendebant eos, qui hunc ventum pascebant, nunquam tam sanum ac cordi fuisse, quam qui se totum ad alunt et ventum Zephyrum stringerent.

Pauci erant, ut in omni terra, qui validis et opulentis cibis gaudent vescentes praeruptis, procellosis aestivis, affirmantes aptissimum esse ad inopiam et naturam homini destinatam. Ad sumendum ventum validum et validum, ut aptum illis ad bellum vitae. Fuerunt etiam nonnulli, perpauci, ad honorem mansueti et pacifici populi, qui contra leges terrae ac principes Ztwish-Ztwish expressa imperia susceperunt. Sibilus iratus, feruidus Aquilo, et periculosus umor hausit, donec melioribus naturis funditus mutatus est; et ex mites, timidi et pacifici, asperi et litigii facti sunt.

Huc pertinebat dux Go-Whizz. Nam, ut mihi per Whirr-Whirr dictum est, ipse dux Ztwish-Ztwish timoris signa praebuit, cum vidit Go-Whizz in villam venire fluctuantem, oculos inflammatos, gressus instabiles, orationem indistinctam post gravem coenam super. Rude et colaphis Aquilonis. Dum in hac conditione Go-Whizz modicam potestatem quam in se habebat amisit, et semel tantum oblitus est sui, ut minas et contumaciam contra principem Ztwish-Ztwish efflaret, e suis conclavibus ejiciendo rectorem. Ei cum silice, quod habebat, gravi cuspide acuto.

Tales erant curiosi homines per quos me peregrinam et iucundam familiaritatem cum principe suo inveni.

Paucis diebus post adventum meum ad villam Ventorum Eaters eram, proh dolor innocens causa gravioris casus, quae aliquantisper invidiosa me effecit apud Ztwish-Ztwish aulam capitalem.

Totum hoc modo factum est.

Dixi iam tibi quam cito pueri soliditatem corporis mei detegerent, et quantam laetitiam contra me se iactantes in me plenam benivolentiam iecerint, ut iterum ludibrio iterum quasi pilae tot pilae proiecerint.

Nunc memorare debes quod etiam post cordiam prandium, totum duodecim infantium istorum circiter unam bonam libram expendit.

Eos hortabar ad ludendum de me, quo melius observarent curiosas suas artes et vias, quarum una erat brachiis cruribusque cincinendis, et ita catenam humanorum nexuum formabat, quarum altera ad fastigium affixa erat. Tectum et alterum fortasse ad aliquod altum baculum vel pertica, interdum etiam per viam tendens et in tecto habitaculi oppositae desinens. Sic festos horas in auram diei nutantes, saepe iactantes somno. Nec inusitatum omnino fuit videre unam ex matres quaerentibus prolem insilire, claudicare, deponere nexus vivendi, uncoquere infantem, repone lineam ac festina domum.

Sedente quodam die, in podio vnius casis capitalis Ztwish-Ztwish, duodecim vel plures filiorum suorum positi ad talem catenam faciendam, uno extremo affixo inaures meas, sicut bonae. Nauta libebat interdum gero, et alter pene ad terram perveniens, podio summo clausurae transiens.

Ruere, obnixus, obnixus, clamores, clamores et stridore emisso, parvus ventus comessatores gaudio ferino erant, cum repente unus ex proximis mihi in acumen torsit, quem sine dubio in lapellum detrusit. Extremum tempus tunicae meae facerem aliquid reparandum, nam, ut vero nauta, acus et stamine usus eram.

Excitatus sum e somnis speculatione horum phantasticorum per rimam acutissimam, qualis facta est rupta ludibrii vesica.

Iterum atque iterum idem sonus acris in aurem.

Satis erat aspectus ad explicandum omnia. Comae horrore horrentes sentire potui, dum vivos nexus catenae huius post se disrumpere vidi, et in tenues auras evanescere. Explo- dando in contactum cum acumine, vis explosionis primae harum globulorum flatuum humanitatis satis fuerat ad infantem proxime in acie erumpere et sic usque ad finem catenae!

Duodecim ex eis intraverunt in minus quam tot secundis secundis et non tam quam crinem crinem ad domum matrum fractis ferentes!

Paucis momentis ex omnibus partibus vici. Fletus, ululantes matres, ultionis ululantes, de habitaculo in quorum interiora Bulger et se cesserant cito congregati.

Credas nunc mihi cum dico, quod minime formido exercitui Ventorum manducantium stetissem, quando post magnam cenam plenissime inflati sunt, sed contigit ut aer tranquillus esset per diem. Vel ita, ut multi iam ad vitalia sceleti magnitudinem adterriti essent, in qua ego primum occurram. In hac conditione hostes haud spernendi erant, quippe qui, ut fecerunt, fulminis prope celeritatem inicerent, in retibus subtilibus retibus contexta bamboicis fibra inplicabant ac fustibus interfecerunt.

Verum, fustes hae factae sunt de corkwood, et sexaginta ex illis minus pondo quam libra; sed haec res tardius et graviorem mortem faceret; Nam, cum paulis percussionibus unum sui generis pro sua miseria perduellionis sufficeret, totum diem eis de tam solido hoste, quam fui, vitam percutere oportuisset.

Priusquam forte cogitationes meas colligerem, Go-Whizz ad ianuam cum scapula erat, retia me obiiciebant, dum post iacula stabant fustium ordinem, exspectantes vices suas inceptas. Cogitavi apud me: “Grave est hoc negotium. Si dux Ztwish-Ztwish non adest, me retibus implicabunt et vitam ex me percutere conantur antequam redeat, bene enim noverunt amorem suum in me. Sed peius omnibus fuit quod Go-Whizz ex longinqua insulae parte nuper redisset, quo ipse et pauci ex suis faucibus clam iter fecerunt, ut in rudes et indomiti aquilone se effunderent. Favonius. erat plenus swag et ere! Ad tantam magnitudinem tumidum numquam videram. Vox eius sonabat tanquam profundus mugitus alicuius animalis truculentis.

Retia sua in aëre contorsit, et clamabat tonantibus, ut se sequi possent.

Sensi nunc momentum me advenisse ut vitam meam ac Bulgerium nimis arduum conatum facerem, nam cum quattuor pedibus in retibus suis tortis, praedae facilem caderet Go-Whizz eiusque. cohortis. Sensi etiam pejorem fore quam inutilem appellare Go-Whizz ad misericordiam, ut erat permotus longis et profundis haustibus saevi ac furentis aestivi zephyri.

Ibi constitit, inflans, flatus, tortus, vibrans, ut circum caput et circum caput torsit fatalem telam, quae, cum dorsum e muro tollere conaretur, intendit me obicere ut auceps captaretur avem.

Repente me cogitabam vasculum, quod me ad tam periculosum angustiam attulerat.

Priusquam tamen e latebris eam traherem, statui edendum esse et me paululum iactare.

Nunc gravissimus ventus Eater sex libras pondo pensat; et, ut credis, pondus meum, centum fere librae, magnae terrori fuit. Steterunt in timore assidue, ne forte unum digitos Ventri comedentis calcaret et exploderet.

Priusquam permitterent me unum ex maenianis suis audere, vel unam mansionem superiorem inhabitare, perrexerunt eam firmissimis polis bamboicis firmare quam invenirent. Ita, nunc coepit mihi pauca Go-Whizz fortissimis dare monimenta leves ponderis et soliditatis mei.

In altum saliens in aerem, bamboum in terram apposui tanto obstrepente obstrepente ut omnia tremerent ac tremerent.

Primo signatus generalis de sequacibus Go-Whizz, et dux ille strepitus solus relictus est contra Bulgerum et me.

Ille satis fortiter constitit, quamquam viderem se inclinari ad clamores suorum exaudiendos, et e conclave emittere priusquam frangeret. Sed, post aliquot ex meis saltibus, videns tabulatum restitit omne meum conatus ut eam frangeret, Go-Whizz in cohortem suam redintegrandae sunt.

Iterum iamque furiosius nos stridore et ejulantes tanquam furiosos circumdederunt, dextras manus erectas retia periculosas ferentes, quibus me et Bulgerum inplicare sperabant, ac deinde mitte.

Iam tempus erat mihi in subsidiis meis subsidia.

Ita feci. Effectus stupendum. Acus probatur unum genus audaciae; praelonga et splendens et acutissima. Punctus pugio mihi satis male erat. Is eos in atrocem ac perculsum metum conjecit. Sed hoc vasculum, quod ante eas vibravi, in vicia rigidi terroris injecit.

Ad terram defixa steterunt, ac si in acumine totos oculos defixit, unum omnes, si unc arriderent, ad necem sperabant.

Tandem magno conatu Go-Whizz ex loco erupit, elato alto horroris ac murmure clamorem, volvens post se, atrocissimo terrore. Quod videntes tumultus, in quo fortes Go-Whizz et ejus sequaces a me recesserunt a facie, convocati viri ac mulieres, clamore terribili, se ceperunt quasi legio daemonum insequentium.

Brevi tempore Bulgarum solus in acie steti. Non e parte mea movit sub tempore quo mihi mors minata est.

“Veni!” dixi ego, ut te inclinavi, et percucurri caput. “Veni, fidelis amice et comes, eamus ad principem Ztwish-Ztwish, et rem coram eo ponere!”

Princeps e somno meridiano modo evigilavit. Tota conflictu placide dormierat, unde necesse erat ei plenam rationem reddere casus infortunii, quod fiebat in explodendo totum chordas infantium, et conatus Go-Whizz me interficere. Animo magno et patientissime exaudivit. Postulavit deinde paulisper excusatum, quod sibi paulo ante nuntiasset mollissimum ac suavem austrum flare coepisset.

Et egressus est in podio; Et postquam circiter duodecim offam puram refrigerium auram reficiens, paulo pinguiorem reddidit, et, sicut omnes, accepti cibo prandio, amabilior et benignior fuit habitu quam antea.

Nuntii duodecim minimorum subditorum tam acerbe papaver exsistentiae non videntur eum valde sollicitare. Quod eum maxime movit, quod usque ad illam horam nunquam in mentem venit, p. vir!

Pro certo habeo hoc ipso momento in vestitu meo absconditum esse ante oculos.

Contremuit.

Confirmare studui, explicans ei me quamprimum putem immergere in cor meum, ut hoc paene invisibile et mortiferum in ejus vitam converteret.

Ridere conabatur, sed horrore finitum est.

Putasne, homuncule spissus, tremula lingua Ztwish-Ztwish dux interrogavit, ut videam, et in deliquium non incidam?

O certe, princeps magne, meum responsum. Imo, Ztwish-Ztwish, levissima et erectissima, perrexi, “Hoc horrendum instrumentum totius virtutis tuae spoliare possum, ut te laedat et in manu tua tanquam ligneum aliquod innoxium collocet. Visne metuenti sic tibi tradere punctum?

Cum levi horrore dux Ztwish-Ztwish responderet.

“Immo vero, magne et doctissime magister, iam videor posse conspectum eius ferre. Fortissimus quidem sum, sed scis unum stimulum illius lethalis puncti statim in vita fortissimi Ventri comedentis.

Iterum ajebam nihil esse vereturum, dum iter secutus sum. Haec fatus e latebris strinxi acum renidens.

Dux Ztwish-Ztwish primo oculos clausit, sed paulatim ausa est ut punctum micantis cerneret.

Procumbens tuli unum fustibus subere et abrumpi paulum minoris extremitatis acumen in illud intrudere.

Dux Ztwish-Ztwish meus motus observavit cum quadam acerbitate curiositatis.

Ibi, Ventorum comedentium princeps, exclamavi, “nunc cum eo gaudeas, in juncis lecti tui absconde, nocere tibi non potest. Tam innocens quam scurra saxum, unius micantis aquae rivuli tui montis. Accipite illum! Aliquando tibi serviat, si subito impetum in personam tuam illustrem.

“Tali momento nihil time! carpe firmiter, metuendum cuspis e latebris trahe in hoc cortice cortici. Tam parvum est, ut in manu tua invisibilis sit, et dum adstat inimico tuo ante te ficta salus, eum perforet ad mortem; tu enim dominator es, et eum qui populum tuum principem suum spoliare conantem mors decet percutiat.

Dux Ztwish-Ztwish arripuit acum cum tremore manu, et abscondit frenum cortici, quod tenebat sub culmo tecti. Tunc convocata e famulis suis unum e cubiculis quendam parvam cistam bamboo adferre iussit, e qua raras gemmas filo traxit, nonnihil succini natura, sed millies clarius. Hoc pulcherrimo munere me dimisit, ministris suis imperans ne quid mali mihi liceret venire ad casum, qui chorda ventorum eaters explosa est.

Ite-Whizz iram suam aegre celare potuit, ut me rursus honoratum hospitem apud Ztwish-Ztwish principis aulam videret.

vigilantiam tamen in minimo non relaxavi. Per singulas noctes manibus meis fenestras obstruxi, et Bulgeris iunci ante ianuam posui, ut me opprimi non posset irato duce.

Cum infantium explosio penitus oblitterata esset, peregrinatio mea inter Ventos Eaters pergrata maneret, nisi nova difficultas orta esset ut me sollicitum faceret.

Tenuior victu in quo fueram, quoniam adventus meus inter curiosos homines, dum mitigavit famem meam, expoliavit me pinguem et saginatum aspectum, quem semper habui, atrox me carne perdidisse. Dux Ztwish-Ztwish et regina Phew-yoo delectati sunt, nam, ut hoc expresserunt, “Parvulus homo densissimus-per in specie saltem verus ventus comedenti celeriter fiebat.”

Bulger quoque diro corruit.

Miratus deinde subinde nigris, oculisque micantibus in me, ut diceret: “Domine, magister, quid nobis est? Edimus, et tamen attenuamus. Numquid vere convertimur ad Ventri Eaters?”

Et alia mala res erat, quod, dum mea semper manitas me tantam sollicitudinem faciebat, ferebat laetitiam cordi reginae Phew-ioo, qui me de ceteris observare videtur instituisse. Mese in servicio domini et domini mei, donando mihi manum pulcerrimae principissae Pouf-fah.

Regina Phew-yoo explicatio tenuitatis meae semper crescentis fuit, quod effectus admirabilis insulae suae erat; Parum admodum interest, quam crassus et solidus homo, si satis diu inter eos vixerit, paulatim amitteret ac, si non genuinus Ventus comedentor, vel prope ut levis et aereus esset.

Quas opiniones cum ab aliis didici, antequam eas ex ore ipsius reginae audirem, minime mirum mihi erat, aliquando nuntium ex magnifico Phew-yoo accipio, qui me coram ea me praesentet.

Acceptatio mihi gratissima est, et etiam regina Pouf-fâh, quae me sub matris tecto videre plurimum delectat. Huc atque illuc quasi globulus ludibrium, nunc unguentum e floribus arefactis excutiens, nunc chordas gemmarum curiosarum, quas supra memoravi, tendens, ante faciem meam micabat.

Oblectabar eam tenentem manum manus meae et iactantem et captantem, velut pilam globulum volo.

Regina Phew-yoo aspexit tacita satisfactione.

Cum reginae Pouf-fah ludi pertaesum esset, regina sic locutus est:

« O homuncio spisse, habeo tibi dicere quod letificabit cor tuum. Summe princeps, mi vir, et notavi gaudio quod quotidie in dies tenuior ac tenuior es. Scito ergo, quod hic effectus magicus aëris spiras. Cum ad hanc insulam appulissent majores nostri, ipsi tui similes per omnia solida erant. Noli ergo expavescere, cum paucis hinc mensibus te totum mutatum inveneris. Hoc gravius onere inutilis carnis mox amittes, quem tanto tempore tecum circumferre damnatus fuisti, et levis et erectus fies, sicut nos. Et, dilecte Lump, ut ab presenti solida forma mutes properes, et venuste et concavus fiat sicut unus nostrum, consilio et assensu Ztwish-Ztwish, annuentes tibi licentiam comedendi apud nos illo die. Hac ipsa hora primam tuam coenam facies in vento dulci ac salubri Austri. Eo ipso momento, pusillule Chunk, quod satis macilentus fias ad magno principi, dabit tibi pulcherrimam reginam Pouf-fah in uxorem tuam.

Ad haec verba, regina, quae me valde amare videbatur, plaudit manibus gaudenter, et inter matrem et me quasi ludibrium pediludii proclamat.

“At, homuncule Lump,” regina Phew-yoo continuata, “priusquam proficiscamur ad cenandum in dulci vento, qui super Convivium Montem spirat, duo sunt, quae summus princeps Ztwish-Ztwish dixit me esse valde singularem. Commemorare tibi duas conditiones, quibus te super omnes homines honorare voluerit, manum pulcherrimae reginae Pouf-fah tibi largiendo.”

“Nomina illos, regina piissima!” Clamavi, quia nimium sapiens eram, ut quid in hoc loco opponam. Solus nimium bene novi, unum verbum a principe Ztwish-Ztwish me traderet in viscera trucis Go-Whizz.

“Sunt,” resumpsit regina Phew-yoo, genas inflans et dorsa pollicum ludibundus percutiens, “sunt, homuncule, perplexe, ut dentes etiam gingivis ac tuis limabis. Ungues tuos semper carni excisos.

“Erit, ut optas, clementissima regina,” respondi, multis humilibus corporis anfractibus.

Tum regina Phew-yoo gayly respondit, “Nihil tibi restat, nisi ut protinus te cibo nostro assuefacias; sic ad convivium montem sine mora proficiscamur, nam ventus auster dulcis et fortis flante recenti!

Comitatus sum reginam Phew-yoo et reginae Pouf-fah loco indicato. Pulvis erat colliculus, a quo longe ad meridiem versus per vallem spectare potui, lepide admodum pulchra.

Illa statim ac reginae mollem, dulcem aerem attrahere coepit, et me hortabatur ut idem facerent.

Gaudebant mea opera. Nam maternus Phew-yoo parum sollicitus videbatur ne ego me nimis.

Postquam paucas altas potiones reginae ceperat, miratus sum quod ad eam accederet famulus, et circa iugulum globuli iugulo elastico funiculo inserta ponerem. Id cautum erat, ne reginae nimis libenter comederent, si libuisset. Bene, ut credis, ad conclavia mea redii a cena cum regina Phew-yoo et reginae Pouf-fah in Banquet Hall hominem valde esurientem; si fieri posset, esuriens erat quam prius eram, nam me rapacem fecerat aura purum, dulcem multamque profundam flatus.

Rursum solus apud Bulgerum, pono operam excogitandi rationem aliquam ut plus cibi excipiat; et reprimendo meam terrorem carnis amissionem, reginae Phew-yoo consilium finem mutandi me in genuinum Ventus Eaterem et me reginae Pouf-fah in uxorem dando.

Visum est mihi ut aliquos pisces in armis maris proximi vicum caperem, et in vivis favillae aestuaret, nam fomes in sinu meo habui.

Hoc consilium lepore laboravit. Mox aliquot de servitoribus docendis complura retia sua velut in Sequanam aggerare potui, gavisus primum illud conicio ut bolum duodecim vel plus squamae marinae subtilius efficiat.

Bulger risum cum magno studio ingressus est, arripiens funem in ore et pro vita cara trahens, dum trahere coepimus.

Proximum erat ut folia arida et ligna colligeret et ignem idoneum inciperet ad faciendum favillas lectum. Ventorum catervas circa me convenerunt, et motus meos observabant cum quadam mixtura admirationis, timoris ac voluptatis.

Cum tandem fumus volvere coepit, et flamma se ostenderet, clamor consternationis erupit, et stimulus ferox consecuta est.

Dux Ztwish-Ztwish accitus fuit; sed nihil negotii erat ei persuadere, me nemini nocuisse, quod rubrae linguae, quas prosilire videbat, innoxias esse, si cum carne non convenirent; necesse esse ei id edici iubere, ne ad linguas purpurae, quae e fumo atris emicat, populum propius accedere.

Per tempus favillarum vivarum formavi paratus eram cum basa marina duorum pondo librarum et incoeptio incepit.

Supervacaneum est me tibi persuadere Bulgerum et ad jucundam cenam sedi, vere primum satisfacientem ex quo meus adventus inter Ventos eaters.

Ex hoc tempore omnia bene operata sunt. Cotidie ostrea conglobatores et piscatores mei ad litus visitabant, ut lardario meo inservirent. Rediens semper fui pulchro favillae cubili paratus. Ita res per hebdomadam vel sic ibat. Delectabar reperire Bulgerum et me splendide assequendo carnem. Et tamen omnibus subinde debui reginam Phew-yoo invitantem ad coenam cum illa et reginae Pouf-fah apud Banquet collem accipere, ubi simulavi cenam molli et odorato vento aeque ac illi frui. Sibi fecerunt. Regina Phew-yoo affirmabat complexionem meam in dies clariorem ac dilucidiorem esse, ac procul dubio paucis mensibus “deglutire lapides”, ut vocant, penitus emittere possem.

Dum mea studia curiosorum hominum quiete prosequebamur, alia infausta res evenit, et hoc tempore gravissima et gravissima res evenit.

Non diu adsuefacti adsueti edentes Ventorum, visu primo, visuque ab atrae Ora purpureae linguae spirantis nubila. Nam mox didicerunt dulcem boli odorem suavissimum in favilla iacuisse, et cum esset frigidus aer, non dubitavit circa Bulgem formare gyrum, et me sedentem prandio frui ac sedisse. Et eis curiosum spectaculum simul. Forte una vespera altius cubile reliqueram quam putabam. Et cineres super eos collecti usque ad noctem ardere pergebant. Cohors rostratorum factionis Go-Whizz, casu fortuito, ex itinere ad septentrionalem insulae littus domum rediit, ubi se vento illius partis vehementissimo convaserat. Reliquorum favillarum ardore attracti festinantes multam ligna colligere festinaverunt in linum iacientes, et, ut rubras linguas hinc inde flammas ejicere coeperunt, sese in orbem circumdederunt; calor enim nox humida et frigida erat.

Tam iucundum effectum caloris inveniunt, ut ibi pernoctare constituerint, ac prope ignem in terram se proicerent, quo ire arbitrati sunt.

Media circiter nocte, leniter a pede brachii scalpendi, mihi narravit aliquid insolitum accidisse, nam me numquam excitavit, nisi satis scivit rem esse gravem ut ei in perturbatione me confirmaret.

Villam in incertis terroribus inveni. Perforantes auris feminae clamoribus altis miscebant virorum clamoribus.

Dubitas, iam quid accidisset. Simpliciter haec res erant: Frigora abundabant nocte, multique Ventorum comestores semisomnus, et semisopitus alta potione feruentis Aquilonis, propius propiusque ignem accesserat; subito ingens vis aeris frigidi, quam absorpserat, dilatare coepit, et quatuor ex his terribili sonitu explosa est.

Citius quam nunciare oportet, habitatio mea circumfusa est quiritatione, stridore, ululatu ventorum edentium turba, mortem instantem flagitans.

Omnes principales auctoritates Ztwish-Ztwish cum suis requirebat ut me eriperet ne in retibus funestis implicaretur et illico necaretur.

Ad rem millies gravius, saevus et praeoccupator Go-Whizz vicum hoc ipso momento ingressus est, cum stipendio rixorum adseculorum in vestigiis eius. Fuerat in itinere secreto ad ultimum septentrionalem partem insulae, ubi aquilo fremit et fremit insana. Nunquam eum videram tam valde prorumpentem cum alimentis suis intumescere.

Audito fato, quod quattuor socii consecuti essent, furor non est modus. Ipse et socii pectora tundebant, donec alto sonante sonante tremuit aer, ac subinde in funestos funesti lamenta eruperunt. Principem Ztwish-Ztwish palam et audacter incussit, cum populum suum prodidisset, et quondam beatam insulam suam in ruinam quandam per manus “monstriculi per omnia densa” tradidit, qui per dierum magicam et turpia mysteria volebat. Mox suos lapides ut sibi pascat.

Dies iam frangere coepit; et, superveniente luce, tumultus castelli novas vires suscipere videbatur. Ita certus eram quod mors me percuteret, quod plures nuntios scripsissem ad Baronem seniorem et ad clementissimam baronissam, matrem meam, in foliis libelli mei, et cum uno e principibus servientibus reliquit partes. Hoc mihi optandum fuit, ut eos populo meo mitteret, quos in litore insulae longinquo in litore pulcherrimo navi inventurus essem.

De Bulgero nihil dixi, nam nimis bene sciebam illum meum latus esse moriturum.

Pessime paravi. Scindibulas examinavi sclopis mei, pugionemque meum sub pallio ad tergum cervicis abdidi, quo melius vellem attingere, si comminus accederet.

Quo facto, accessi ad ungues meos quam potui acuminibus incidi, nam vitam meam quam carissime vendere decrevi.

Dum ego de affectu erga me Ztwish-Ztwish principe confidebam, nesciebam tamen quo tempore animum amitteret et me ad populum converteret ut se ipsum servaret.

Bulger omnes praeparationes meas oculis apertis et intelligentibus observabat, interdum humilem, nervorum querimoniam proferens, sicut ululatus, eiulatus, rugiens turbae ante habitaculum principalem Ztwish-Ztwish.

Iure terrae populus prohibebatur ad interiorem clausuram principis mansionis ingredi, sed Go-Whizz, cum unus ex principibus vel principibus minoribus, decebat ut in conspectum principis progrederetur suasque iniurias faceret. eius precibus.

Nunc igitur furens Go-Whizzus, a suis discedens, non destitit ultionem de daemonio massam clamare, qui bis in conspectum populi sui mortem et interitum straverat dux Ztwish-Ztwish.

Tranquillus princeps fuit. Cibum non sumpsisset per quatuor et viginti horas, et stetisset, ruga, tegimen- tum, et coagmentatum; Prope eum sedit regina Phew-yoo et regina Pouf-fah, et statim post eum ordinati sunt tres consiliarii, Hiss-sah, Whirr-Whirr, et Sh-Boom. Recentibus haustibus validi et salubris Favonii venti bene rotundati erant, ac proinde quasi contenti et ridentes videbant Ztwish-Ztwish tristes et sollemnes. Steti in diaetam contiguam, post velum bamboum absconditum, cum fideli meo Bulgero iuxta latus meum. Ita sum positus, ut omnia viderem, quin ipse viderim. Dux Ztwish-Ztwish cognovit meam praesentiam ibidem.

Cum Bulger furentis et mugientis Go-Whizze conspectum arripuit, adeo timidus est, ut decumberem et caput mulcere deberem ut nihil pertimescam. sed ita se res habet, semper me magna pericula subiciunt.

Ego illos frigidos habeo, sed tristes, nam cogitationes meae in tantis momentis revertuntur ad Baronem seniorem et ad clementissimam Baronissam, matrem meam, in longinqua domo sub caelis patriae dilectae.

Sicut eu ingens pedis magni cuiusdam calcis impulsi, Go-Whizz in auditorio camera principis Ztwish-Ztwish appulit. Brachia violenter quassat, et interiori furore constringitur, quia adhuc nimium amens erat, ut alium sonum ederet, quam fremitus aut fremitus profundus.

Ex loco meo post Bamboo velum secutus sum, cum omni acumine visus, quo tam juste famosus sum, omnes motus furiosi Go-Whizz, ac actus et mores praecipui Ztwish-Ztwish et consiliariorum ejus, Statui enim me non indiligentem esse, si aliqua proditionis signa conspicerentur. In primo aspectu vidi quod rebellis Go-Whizz aliquid absconditum in cingulo suo habebat, et ex figura et longitudine statim scivi quod esset cultellus silicis. Velox ex sententia, annui servienti mihi lateri, nuntium ad Principem misi, nuntians apparitorem videri occupatum in unguentorum foliorum agitatione ramos, quod officium erat, dum in aurem principis insusurravit.

Erat haec.

“Cavete! Domine, dux. Litigator in zona silicem cultrum abscondit. tentabit te occidere. Cave! Et cessabit!”

Go-Whizz paululum iam quievit; sed, tonitrui voce, coepit vexari. Longos annos pacis et felicitatis in insula sua depingit, quibus benedictionibus longis et gloriosis principum, quorum Ztwish-Ztwish progenitus erat, dignus erat. Intonuit ferociam contra omnes Ventorum hostes Eatores, et suas laudes quam mollissime intonuit narrans tot operas virtutum, quas in Ztwish-Ztwish obsequio peregit, ac finem pro dilecto suo principe moriturum se paratum ac promptum declarans.

Cum Go-Whizz dixisset, princeps paulisper tacitus caput inclinat, ac deinde respondit: « Vere et sapienter locutus es, o Go-Whizz! Fortis es. Dextera es postulare gratiam a manibus meis. Dic, Go-Whizz, quid faciat tibi Ztwish-Ztwish?

Ad haec verba Ztwish-Ztwish, omnis ille furor Go-Whizz denuo erupit. Tunsis pectore, innixus et dejectus auditorio thalamo, fremit;

“Ut hac ipsa hora, ‘Solid daemone,’ tremendum ‘Man-Lump,’ monstrum ‘Crass-Omnis per manus meas dederis’, qui totam hanc mortem et ruinam in terram nostram perduxit!

Dux Ztwish-Ztwish paulisper tacuit.

Quid dicam tibi quod cor meum ipsum pro responso auscultavit?

Nihil audire potui nisi altum, crassum, sonum raucum spiritus Go-Whizze prono ad capiendum primum verbum quod de labiis capitalium caderet.

Visum vita. Tandem Ztwish-Ztwish locutus est;

“Frater meus, haustu saevo ac furiali Aquilonis inardescis profundo! Extra te es. Non vides manifeste. mortem non adiudicandum nisi cum legibus patrum nostrorum constituetur. Vera, ‘Homo Crassus-Omnis-per’ causa fuit magnae calamitatis nostris, sed causa innocens. Non est certavit nec voluit laedere. Pacis amator est, amicus benignus. Sectatores mei de periculo linguae purpureae admoniti sunt. Quod ‘homo Lump’ mortem suam non quaesivit. Et bene, nosti quod jura patrum nostra jubent Convivarum sacras ut textura tenere cutis. Vade ergo, Go-Whizz, adire non possum hominem ‘lump’ ad mortem.

“Numquid hic” fremit dux fallax, “iustitiam quam das populo meo?”

“Age, litigator!” re- spondit dux Ztwish-Ztwish, nunc celeriter amittens dominium in se. Obmutesce et recede, ne in indignatione mea ad frequentem iniuriam tuam te ad poenam merendam tradam.

“Curam habe, Ztwish-Ztwish!” fremebat Go-Whizz, fervens ira, cave ne populus tuus surgat in virtute sua et eiciat te, princeps iniquus.

“Abite, inquam!” Ztwish-Ztwish erat placida sed severa responsio.

“Vade igitur primum proditorem populi tui,” intonuit Go-Whizz, prosiliens scopulo cultro in sublime levato.

Clamorem terroris ab iis concursum in auditorium thalamum prorupit. Dux autem Ztwish-Ztwish placide extendens manum et tetigit futurum sicarium.

Mille furentis corpore crepitu Go-Whizz volavit, ut ingens tempestas manibus vesica rapitur, et eiectae quassatae quercus aegrae.

Regina Phew-yoo et regina Pouf-fah trepidi et attoniti inter se inhaeserunt, tacitus timor in vultu principum sedit. Ille autem placidus, et pauca leni et stabili voce ad reginam et reginam locutus est.

Cum populus Go-Whizz de conatu suo rectorem suum occidere et quomodo litigatorem cognosceret, in ipso momento cultrum silicem ad percutiendum, occulte percussum ad pedes Ztwish-Ztwish mortui, emisit voce huzzas pro truculento. Go-Whizz magis timebatur quam amabatur etiam a suis.

Postulabat aliquot dies ad vicum Ventorum Eaters ut quiesceret et in dies singulos aspectum reciperet, post arcanam Go-Whizz mortem; sed, suo evanescente evanuit omnis oppositionis regulae princeps Ztwish-Ztwish.

Firmiter enim credebat populus ultrices aeris esse, qui litigiosos ense tetigisset, cum manum contra rectorem levasset.

Haud equidem tibi dicam gratiam praecipuam mihi nullam esse. Nulla dona nimis pulchra aut nimis pretiosa mihi offerenda erant. Quod vero ab omnibus recusabam, tantum videbatur eius erga me confirmatio.

Sed quomodo potui, quomodo ausus sum negare donum manus pulcherrimae reginae Pouf-fah?

Facere hoc esset omnia quae feci, Ztwish-Ztwish inimicum meum facere, amorem in odium, fidem in suspicionem mutare, fortasse mortem meam scribere suadent.

Unum mihi reliquum fuit ut persequar. Fugiat id et!

Fugiendum quoque illico erit, antequam fiducia principis amisero. Primus actus Ztwish-Ztwish unus post liberationem e ferro silicis caedis Go-Whizz erat, mihi parvum instrumentum cum puncto invisibili restituturus erat.

Quo facto atrox videbatur ab eius mente sublatum. iterum factus est. Reversoque foelicitate ac contento, vehementior adhuc cupiditas venit ad nuptias maturandas cum reginae Pouf-fah.

Cautissime hanc et illam excusationem feci, ut tempus colligendi cogitationes meas et certum aliquod consilium evadendi capiendi cognoscerem, aut mortem aut deteriorem mortem, incarcerationem donec consentirem tradere. omnes ventorum Eedores insulam exeundi cupiunt, meque, quantum natura patiatur, ex eorum gente fieri spondeo.

Cautus eram, suspiciones excusationesque meae.

Prima probatio est, ut invenias imperatum datum esse ut piscium copiam intercludat.

Regina Phew-yoo veritus est ne, quamdiu mihi permissum est, omnes cibos solidos habere volebam, non satis macie contenta aere victu, et ideo non satisfecit ut domi meae apud illos de cetero ponerem. vitae meae.

Proximum est, ut mihi contingat, ut ostrearum et concharum mearum copia dimidia iussu Phew-yoo redacta sit. Hoc intelligitur, cede vel fame!

Percussit me sicut fulmen e caelo sereno!

Sed talis semper fuit ictus, qui me in omni vita ad tranquillitatem, velocem, ac prudentem excitavit.

Iam non haesitabam. Consilium meum uno momento perfectum est. Cum nox advenit, propere paucas ad naviganti lineas contorsit herum, fatum narrans venturum, iubensque paucos fidos armare viros ac properare ad opem. Hoc ligavi ad tortam dilecti et fidelis mei Bulgeri. Blanditiis texit manum, et amplexa tenebam illico dum lachrymis ardentibus et ieiunabat. Tum molliter ostium hospitii mei Bamboo aperui.

Nox erat clara et gloriosa. “Abe, mi Bulger dilecte!” Susurrans, procumbens et presso tandem ore labra sericis auribus et tereti capite. “Ad navem! Discedite!” Constitit, vultumque meum inspexit, ac si diceret: Heu heu, heu, heu minus, intelligo! Et auferetur quasi ventus. ilico illum sequor ut longo et valido currendo vinculo. Et tunc abiit!

Postridie mane, in stuporem meum, certior factus sum omnes apparatum nuptiarum principissae Pouf-fah et “parvulum per omnem hominem” confectum esse, et postridie postridie incipere convivium ac iocum.

Hoc nuntium, ut erat insuetum, summa tranquillitate accepi. Suspicionem plane omnem expoliavi mea apparenti satisfactione cum prospectu fiendi gener magni principis Ztwish-Ztwish. Loculos meos quaerebam pro ornamentis ad lucem et aeream Pouf-fah tribuendam.

Regina Phew-yoo non visibilis erat. Tanta laetitia cordis matris fuerat, ut in momento infirmitatis nimis avide divitum, sed pestilentis aestus, et horribili dyspepsiae impetu laborabat.

Hoc mihi felicissimum fuit, nam certo certo habeo reginam Phew-yoo nunquam consensisse ut me in mea illa nocte redirem permitteret. Nunc unum restat ut facerem, et id peterem in longinquam oram maritimam, ubi navem reliqueram et remigem.

Satus etiam ipsa nocte. Cum infausta fortuna esset, dux Ztwish-Ztwish animadvertens iucunde vehemens zephyros flare coepisse, quasi praeliminares epulas circa solis occasum habere coepisset.

Invitatus sum ad convivium.

Non ausi abnuere, cum laetis cantoribus profectus sum, nec me solum defatigavi, ut me invisibili cibo replerem furibunda conatu, sed media fere nocte, antequam villa quiesceret, omnes fores occlusisse videbantur, ac fenestrae habitationis suae. Sed tamen tumultus Ventorum Eedentium fortuna mihi fuit. Ibant cubitum ita multis et profunde cordis haustibus exsatiati, et favonio vento implentes, ut quasi tigna dormirent, si me globulos ligno solido comparare licuerit.

Exspectavi donec interiisset strepitus vocum, ut ultima turba rostri dirupta, et ventus solitarius comestores per plateas dispersus, singillatim in bamboorum habitacula disparuit.

Relinquens ostium intus affixum, leviter per fenestram provolavi, et tectus umbrarum profundarum iter ad urbis extremam latuit. Hic in currendum acutum fregi, nam plurimum haberem sex horarum initium Ventorum Eatentium et longe minus. Nam , ut ante dixi , phantasmata volitant , cum in jejunio, et etiam cum bene satur, pedis velocissimi sunt, praesertim si quievit aer, ne progressum impediat.

Ego vero valde festinavi propositum me tam bene usui meo facere, ut non posset me consequi.

Ad horrorem meum, postquam circa horam currendum est animadverti pedes meos lassescere incipientes.

Hoc atrox mihi ictus fuit. Parumper haesitavi semianimis, ubi essem, quo properarem, et tanti periculi impendentis. Nec mora, res mihi facta est.

Ego naufragio mei prioris fui. Longa mensium piscium victu eripuerat nervos meos mirae illae virium et elasticitatis, quae olim superbiam ac praecipuam in periculis periculi.

Fragili iam crevi, iam crura sub me flectuntur.

Tardior et tardior gressum meam crevit. Visum est cor intumescere et ipsum vitae halitum excludere.

Ego semper elaboravi summo studio persequentium fugiendi, quorum sonitus dimidium mihi videbatur languide sonare procul.

Sed natura non faceret!

Commota sum, titubavi, substiti, cecidi!

Quam diu ibi iacebam nescio. Sed cum ad me venissem, plane sentirem illam aeris mutationem, quae venturi diei narrat. De torrente incidit in aurem meam. Corpus traxi traiecto ad sonum. Alta trahere ad frigus, aqua limpida de torrente me aliquantum refecit. Assurgere conatus sum; sed, o nova spe deminuta, ut invenirem articulos meos in terra iacentes, detectos, etiam male vestitos, dormientem, nam unam partem vestimenti mei remansi pendentem in fenestri thalami mei. Castellum, ad quietandam suspicionem, quae oriretur ex servorum animis.

Cogitationes autem domus maioris Baronise, mitis Baronissae, matris meae, dilecti mei Bulgeri, volitaverunt per pectus meum febriculatum, et instigavit me ut plus laboraret ad pedes meos recuperandos et mortem evaderet de manu capitali. Ztwish-Ztwish’s irati homines, qui mox collisis, clivos et valles, ut erant spiritus, erant.

Gemitus elapsus labra dum surrexi ad pedes, sic ut mucrones in articulorum cultri sunt dolores quae per artus emissa sunt.

Sed conandum est ut sursum sit et absum, licet mihi labor mille atrox gemellis constaret.

Debeo caris domi impulsus, donec penitus contritus concidam, donec, tanquam percussa bellua, abreptus potestati standi, procumberem et procumberem et sectantium misericordia.

Tales erant cogitationes quae meum egenum nutantis cerebrum premebant.

Atrox mysterium, somnium cruciatus me gravavit.

Adhuc animus mihi erat. Viderem. Sentire potui. Audirem. Et cur non assurgo et progredior, et a certa morte me obversabar?

Talibus attonitus cogitationibus, nixus ad pedes, haesitans, emisso omni gradu gemitus!

Sed me ad opus pertraxeram, et trahebam me adhuc quodam insueta et occulta vi oppressam, quae omni lapillo saxi molem dabat, omnemque gyrum hiatu laxavi, cuius in margine aegra defixus sum. Metus aliquam in atram voraginem demitteret. Et tamen, o gaudium! paulatim membranae ab oculis defluebant, vis arcana e cerebro suo levavit. Sensi similior.

Clarius vidi. Firmior gressus meus. Nunc demum omnia bene me putavi!

Cum subito longa caerulea-viridia micabat per capita collium in longinquo orientale caelo. Mane erat signum!

Rursus genibus lapsi cum gemitu me decepi, stupefactus resurrexit, lente, lente, pressus, omne gradum cerebro calefacto quasi ictu mallei lacessens; sed usque in puram!

Horrendum tenaci quasi alicuius gigantis manus, palmam ferrei digitique ferrei, in ipsis meis visceribus posita. Putabam etiam nunc effugium meum notum esse inimicis meis, quod phantasma Ventus Eaters, retibus et fustibus armatus, e viis capitalis Ztwish-Ztwish vicus volitare, me vivum in pejorem mortem deportare praecepit, quam mors ipsa, seu me peremit, quia perfracta fidem et faciemque probitatis in fraudem dolisque meam pones, artus torpent, et parvae quae reliquerant vires eripiunt mihi.

Et usque in sæculum certavi, sicut erat in calice vini torpens. Celer! Nimium rapidus, qui series glaucis aurora dilatatur, et per matutinas umbras emissa diei orbis nuncius lucis huc illuc, nunc debilis et incertus, nunc validior et longius penetrabilis.

Vidi eos, et sentiebam, quia in terrore eorum visi sunt erga me emicare et percutere oculos meos conniventes, quasi pulsantes ad fenestras animae meae, et excitabant me ad movendum de morte nocumentum.

Ad breve tempus constiti tanquam aliquem cupidum et familiarem vocem in auribus meis sonantem.

Contigit.

Fuit mitis Baronissa, mater mea! Leniter, suaviter, suaviter, vox illa notissima fluitans in aere matutino iubente me cor capere, me nomine appellans sicut in diebus infantiae et dicens: “Infana mea! Meus puer! Fili mi! Amica mea! Excita te! Preme! Preme cito!” Et tunc corde tuli.

Fibulae tremendae pectori solvuntur custodia.

Vires reverti possem. Sed o tam lente, tam tarde! Tamen in reditu suo fuit tandem! Sentire possem pedes meos leviores fieri. Paene ad cursum gressum aliquo labore excitavi.

Die, speto, nunc omni momento vires novas mihi praebes, omnis motus calido sanguinis tinguendo ad digitos meos mittendo.

Sublata incantatio! iterum ipse fui!

Velocius et ocior gressum meum animavit, donec sicut in diebus antiquis volavi, cum facile omnes post me venientes reliqui!

Vix equidem sonitum fluctuum audirem in nivalibus arenis pulcherrimi portus, ubi mea bona navis iacebat.

In, semper et deinceps, nova et arcana viribus concito. Obstupui in factis meis. Paene timui, tam festinanter finiebam, ne rursus aliquis aeris daemon tangeret membra et cursum meum maneret.

Sed cor! Non audisti vocem profundam illam?

Caelum patet. Fieri non potest vox procellae.

Ha! Altius et clarius quam prius, raucus, humilis, murmurans, fremitus, fremens, alis excitatus aura fertur.

Perdita! Perdita! Perdita!

Clamor insequentium, vox hostilis.

Isti filii caeli sunt in via mea. Sequuntur me saltu et saltu. Quis furor est praecurrere eos. Sinite me ut homo moriar! En ut per campum vincti sunt!

Veloces et taciti sunt gressus eorum, phantasmata quae sunt!

Claudo. Converto. Igneum bracchium meum teneo! Sero! Molestum retibus me involvunt! Nitor tantum innecto magis, brachia, manus, crura, pedes, miserabiliter torquentur.

Disvolvo, cado, voluto, circumvolvo, circumvolvo, in diro ambage!

Iamque super inermi corpus venit imber aculeis. Alti fremitus clamoribus auras implent, ac tempus in imbribus plagarum truculentissimum per ora et caput manusque pluunt.

Dum perseverent, vires crescere videntur.

Nam dolor, ante ac porta suscipit, nunc efficitur dolor. Lumen exit ex oculis meis, intumescit clausus sub hoc saevo hiatu.

Aures mille soni strepunt.

Meum cerebrum nutat, ego vado mori-

Cum, cor, iterum!

Hoc audire non potes! Aures tuae non noverunt! Sed mea do! Domine!

“Bulgaris cortex est et ego servatus sum! Velocius et velocius Ventorum edentes fustibus suis agunt.

Non exaudio. Non sentio nunc, nam propius ac propius est illa jucunda musica.

Hic est!

Iterum fortis sum. Exsurgo dimidium — labra moveo—loquor—clamo: “Cito, bone Bulger, vel omnia pereunt.” Unica aspectus formidolosa fortuna pusilli sui narrat ei omnia. Ululo irae, atris oculis flammam emittentes, Ventorum edentium se vestigiis inicit. Dentes eius acuti penetrant sicut acus!

Crack!

Dentes iterum iterumque per cutem Ventus emittit.

Crack! Crack!

Fustibus eorum inclinata cessant. Clamor horroris ascendit, quod quater bonus dentes Bulgeri calcaneum Ventriculi comedentis transfigit et corpus eius magna fama in tenues aerem mittit.

Vertunt; perculsa pavore frangunt; pro vita volant, fustibus abjectis, victimam deserentes. Plura videre non potui.

Nigrata est, rapuit me vertigo. Manus meas conabar tangere amantes Bulger, nam letum venisse putabam!

Cum vita reversus est, Bulger manus et os lingebat et gannit miserabiliter. Retem vacui domini membra roderat.

Cum clamore gaudii et lacrimarum rubigine, cepi fidelissimum, amans ad pectus meum.

Tum per colles volitant procul aequore clamor. Venerunt a meo velificante domino eiusque factione subsidio.

Respondere non potui. Sed Bulger caput levavit et paucas cortices acutas misit ut narraret ubi essemus.

Brevi media hora ad latus meum erant.

Contusi os et manus in aqua frigida abluta et aliquot offas vini deglutivi, satis valens sensi super pedes meos et pedetemptim progredior.

Bulger superbus ambulabat a latere meo, intermissa semper et subinde intueri me in facie, quod quaereret:

“Quomodo tecum agitur, parve magister?” Cum in navi, bono cibo confirmatus, et casulae meae commoditatibus elaboratus, non diu valetudinis mee recipiam. Post septimanam requiem precepi ancoram pensare et ad aquilonem vertere bone navis nostre caput, quia anxius eram valde anxius videre Baronem seniorem et mitem baronissam, matrem meam, et narrare omnia de mirabilibus que videram.

New Documents: Maese Nicolás is Based on a Barber Cervantes Knew

“Oh, sweet Spain, beloved homeland.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

The distinguished historian, Don Sabino de Diego Romero, President of the Cervantes Society of Esquivias, former mayor of Esquivias, and author of excellent books and articles, including Genealogía de Fray Francisco Ximénez de Santa Catalina, fraile de la Santísima Trinidad de Calzados, natural del Lugar de Esquivias, que fundó un hospital en Túnez (Genealogy of Fray Francisco Ximénez de Santa Catalina, friar of the Holy Trinity of Calzados, native of the Place of Esquivias, who founded a hospital in Tunis), Cervantes y Esquivias, lo que todos debemos saber (Cervantes and Esquivias. What We All Should Know), and Catalina. Fuente de inspiración de Cervantes (Catalina. Cervantes’ Source of Inspiration), discovered a new document about a real person in Don Quixote.

In 2015, Diego Romero published Análisis biográfico sobre Catalina de Salazar y Palacios (Biographical analysis on Catalina de Salazar y Palacios), which provided new, unpublished documents on the barber Mease Nicolás, a character in Don Quixote, that most outstanding work of universal literature by the “king of Spanish literature.”

According to the excellent documentary work of Diego Romero, from the of the time of the publication of Don Quixote, in 1605, Cervantine researchers have been making all kinds of speculations about whom Cervantes took as literary models, starting with Don Quixote himself and continuing with characters, such as Sancho Panza, the priest Pero Perez, as well as a character whom Cervantes gave the responsibility of bringing Quixote’s “madness” to a happy ending, namely, the barber Maese Nicolás.

In this sense, it should not be forgotten that Maese Nicolás is introduced by Cervantes, for the first time, in Chapter V of the Part One of Don Quixote, together with the priest Pero Pérez, both residents of Esquivias, who eagerly conspire to bring Don Quixote back to his senses and are found in Quixote’s library, burning the pernicious books that altered his mind, in the opinion of both characters, found in Quixote’s library.

Therefore, in this context, I would like to emphasize that according to Don Sabino de Diego Romero, the barber’s shop, together with the tavern, were the ideal places for conversation among neighbors, and playing the guitar, and being also the centers of attention and influence. The barber, tonsor (of medieval origin), in addition to shaving beards, exercised the function of tooth-puller, performed bloodletting, healed wounds, bruises and broken bones well into the nineteenth century, when doctors became an independent guild and looked after the ailments once taken care of by the barbers. The barber of Esquivias was the one who took care of the tonsure—popularly known as coronilla (“crown”)—of Father Pero Pérez, priest of Esquivias, who exercised his pastoral work in the hermitage of San Bartolomé, in the outskirts of the town. The number of services rendered by the barber meant that:

“The influx of people to the barber’s shop was such that this place was the most frequented for social interaction and public discourse, where public forums were formed, for open debates with the participation of the locals on current issues.
“In small towns, in the absence of a regular doctor, it was the barber-surgeons who looked after medical needs, and accompanied the physician in his sporadic visits to the sick of the place.
“This meant that the affluence to the barbershop was massive and the barber needed the assistance of a good number of people, women in this case, who helped, cleaned, and produced soaps for personal use that were sold in the establishment, among other things.
“Likewise, as the shaving process was slow, given the deficient tools used, this meant an inevitable delay, resulting in the crowding of people in the barbershops being greater than in the taverns.”

Without a hint of doubt, Don Sabino de Diego Romero has found in Esquivias the barber-surgeon of the last third of the 16th century, whose name was Nicolás de Olmedo, a person of primordial influence among the commoners of the town. His opinion was respected by all, even by the noblemen of the town, who were also his clients, since the Master Barber, Nicolás de Olmedo, exercised a decisive influence between the two cultural strata of the town of Esquivias, noblemen and commoners, both for being the center of attention in his barbershop, as well as the natural gratitude of the families of Esquivias, for hiring a good number of young girls for the many services at his shop.

At this point, I must state that Diego Romero has found precise documentation that, between 1577 and 1589, Nicolás de Olmedo hired 20 young girls, all of whom were eleven years old. According to the new document of January 5, 1592, found by Diego Romero, we know that the Council of Esquivias agreed to appoint a new barber officer in this way:

“For being Able and sufficient and having a Letter of Review for such barber by Cristobal Ximenez… And that he be obliged to have knowledge of the Sick that are found in the said place and to walk with the doctor to visit them… that he cannot leave the said place without the License of Justice. That he may not play ball or throw or work with an axe or adze or anything else. And if he should be ill, that he be obliged to have another barber in the place at his own expense, and if he does not do so, that the Council bring another barber at his own expense.” (And it is signed by Nicolás de Olmedo, as a member of the Council).

Thus, from the beginning of January of 1592, the Master Barber, Nicolás de Olmedo, stopped holding the office of the barber’s shop in Esquivias, which then reverted back to Cristóbal Ximénez.

Further, it is worth mentioning that thanks to these new documents, found by Diego Romero in the archives of Esquivias, other native characters have become known, and there is now evidence that some of these were relatives of María de Uxena (Quixote, “Galatea,” 288º, 19), the girl whom Catalina de Salazar y Palacios named as heir. One of the most representative of these characters is the Master Barber, Nicolás de Olmedo.

In addition to this, the investigations carried out by Diego Romero document that Nicolás de Olmedo was married to Magdalena Rodríguez, sister of Catalina Alonso, mother of Ana Rodríguez—who married Juan de Uxena, who were parents of María de Uxena (Diego Romero, Catalina, p. 280), and in turn, Nicolás del Olmedo was the brother of Lucía Romana, who married Martín Alonso, parents of Pedro Alonso (Quixote-V-I; “Galatea,” 290º, 18-19).

In this respect, it is indispensable to emphasize that Nicolás de Olmedo and Magdalena Rodríguez were grandparents of the child Juan, whose baptism, Miguel de Cervantes and his wife Catalina de Salazar y Palacios, on the basis of the good friendship between both families, sponsored, on October 25, 1586.

Add to this that on April 9, 1588, Catalina, together with her cousin, Diego García de Salazar, acted as godparents at the baptism of Susana, the granddaughter of the Master Barber, Nicolás de Olmedo, where, on that occasion, Catalina was identified, in the baptismal certificate, as “muger de Miguel de Cervantes” (wife of Miguel de Cervantes).

Adding to the extensive list of inhabitants of Esquivias, and those related to the Master Barber, Nicolás de Olmedo, Diego Romero has discovered that Magdalena Rodríguez, Olmedo ‘s wife, was the aunt of Juana Gutiérrez (obit October 25, 1604) who was the wife of the Sacristan Mayor, Francisco Marcos, who in turn appeared as witness in the marriage of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra with Catalina de Salazar y Palacios.

It should also be said that Catalina Alonso, the maternal grandmother of María de Uxena, was the sister-in-law of Nicolás de Olmedo, and who, at the time of her death (Documents, 10-IX-1590), named Don Juan de Palacios y Salazar, Catalina’s maternal uncle, as her executor.

Baptismal certificate of Diego, son of Nicolás de Olmedo and Magdalena Rodríguez. February 8, 1573 (B1059v2ª. Unpublished).

In view of this, through the documents revealed, linked to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, husband of Catalina de Salazar y Palacios, and the evident relationship that existed between Cervantes and Nicolás de Olmedo, for being contemporaries; in fact, according to Diego Romero, it is crystal clear, based on the legitimate documentation, that for the character of Maese Nicolás, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra took the person of the Master Barber of Esquivias, Nicolás de Olmedo.

In short, I congratulate the Esquivian historian Don Sabino de Diego Romero for the magnificent discovery of new documents of capital importance about the authentic characters presented in The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha for the documented biography of Catalina, the glorious Man of La Mancha, the history of Spain and of Esquivias.

As well, I must emphasize that Diego Romero has discovered the twelfth real character of Don Quixote, after Quijano or Quijada y Quesada, sometimes called Alonso Quijano, protagonist of Don Quixote; the priest Pero Perez; Teresa Panza, wife of Sancho Panza, whom Cervantes calls Juana Gutierrez, Mari Gutierrez or Teresa Cascajo; Sancho Panza; the squire Vizcaíno; Pedro Alonso, also called Pedro Alonso de Salazar; Aldonza Lorenzo; Ricote, the Morisco; Pedro Martínez, Tenorio Hernández, and Juan Palomeque, named in Chapters XVII and XVIII of the first part of Don Quixote.

Without a shadow of a doubt, I thank Don Sabino de Diego Romero for his exemplary and excellent work; and with all certainty these documentary gems will form part of the new book, Documentos de Catalina de Salazar y Palacios (Documents of Catalina de Salazar y Palacios), which currently includes 1700 legal documents, 1350 of which were discovered by our extraordinary and indefatigable author Don Sabino de Diego Romero, President of the Cervantine Society of Esquivias. Congratulations.

Laus in excelsis Deo.


Krzysztof Sliwa is a professor, writer for Galatea, a journal of the Sociedad Cervantina de Esquivias, Spain, and a specialist in the life and works of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and the Spanish Golden Age Literature, all subjects on which he has written several books. He has also published numerous articles and reviews in English, German, Spanish and Polish, and is the Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Cordoba and Toledo.


Featured: Escrutinio de las Novelas llevado a cabo por el Cura y Maese Nicolás, el Barbero (Scrutiny of the Novels carried out by the Curate and Maese Nicolás, the Barber), engraving by Jérôme David, and published by Jacques Lagniet in Paris, between 1650—1652.

Peace Calls Us

Beatriz Villacañas is a poet, essayist, translator and literary critic. She holds a PhD in English philology and teaches English and Irish literature at the Complutense University of Madrid. Her father was Juan Antonio Villacañas, one of the greatest Spanish poets of the post-war period. She has published many books of poems and has won various literary prizes. For her poem, “Peace Calls Us” (newly translated below), she was named an International Cultural Ambassador on behalf of Spain by the International Chamber of Writers and Artists, CIESART, as well as an International Ambassador for Peace.

The translations that follow are by Krzysztof Sliwa, who is a biographer, documentalist, writer and Corresponding Academician of the Royal Academy of Cordoba, Corresponding Academician of the Royal Academy of Toledo and Member of Honor of the Sociedad Cervantina de Esquivias, Spain.

“God is the only example” [Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591)].

“The pen is the language of the soul” [Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616)].

Peace Calls Us

Peace calls us, brothers, it invites us,
and opens for us the lights of its bridges,
on which we walk to find the sources
of a Good that heals every wound.

Although evil is winning the game,
let us not give up, let us be resilient.
May peace, justice and the good be the currents
to navigate in this life.

Let us open our eyes to Truth
and with its lucidity and its caress,
let us be a worthy humanity.

And in the face of lies and their malice
let us defend peace and truth:
And with them will come the good and justice.

Peace and Truth: Union

Truth in life is essential,
Truth is our need.
With truth we will have freedom,
and Peace will arrive wholesome and complete.

With truth, peace will be real and peace
will give us security, wholesome path to happiness.
Peace and Truth: vital union.

We must know truth delivers us from lies
and its betrayal and not let evil take its toll.
Peace and truth in our hearts will come
and give us good strength:
after crying, the song.

Praying in Hope

Jesus, in my soul I feel now
that You will come to save us from the one who lies.
In Your Love, I see and feel that Your bridge
leads us to the truth and to the dawn.

You give springtime to those who long for it:
for my thirst for You, You give me the spring
that your Permanent Presence flows in me,
with the Truth that saves and redeems.

You are, Jesus. Truth, Way and Life,
and I believe, Lord, for Thou sayest it,
Thou art the all-embracing Good.

May the Truth set the guidelines
and may lies be destroyed,
while You, Jesus Christ, bless us.

Living Word

Your Word is so living, Father
that it gives light to the meadows,
gives color to the flowers,
makes the roots fruitful,
enlivens the fire of love,
opens the way
to the steps that yearn for transcendence,
makes my verses sprout.

You, at each of our steps, You teach us
that everything here is born
from the fruitful root of Your Word.
Each day opens a dialogue with You.
I thank You
because Your Word
is daily news of Love:
and Love, day after day,
gives us news of the eternal.

When Faith Came to Dwell In Me

Question after question I asked myself
and, without an answer, I spoke with doubt,
always searching for the naked Truth,
that would illuminate my life.

Poetry came to lend a hand.
With it, Dear God, You gave me Your help.
The faith that does not make mute penetrated me,
that which turns tears into joy.

Faith is a gift, also a workout,
an indispensable and persistent effort
to which Your Love gives great benefit.

Faith entered to dwell my ardent soul,
which thirsted for You from the beginning,
and, wanting to feel You, already feels You.

“Gain a heart of wisdom” (Proverbs 4:23).

Laus in excelsis Deo.


Featured: The Last Judgment, detail, by Fra Angelico; painted ca. 1435-1440.

Iter et adventures baronis Trump et canis mirandus Bulger—III

CAPUT IV

Quaestio, quae nunc animum patris occupavit ad exclusiones omnium aliarum cogitationum, hanc magnam pecuniae summam collocare erat, ut, cum pervenisset ad annum vigesimum primum, satis magno fructui ad habitandum Baroni provideretur. Praesertim cum ad tam celebrem familiam quam nostram pertineat.

Ita se res habet, pater, hanc quaestionem depraedari tranquillitate animi permisit in tantum, ut sensim carnem amitteret.

Mater quoque eius miserabilem condicionem videns usque adeo anxiari et laborare coepit, ut ipsa quoque valde macer fieret. In carne enim sua minuebantur naturaliter, et paulatim vel nullo cibo suppeditabatur; vel, certe, non plus quam satis erat satisfacere Bulgeris et meis necessariis.

Unde servi coeperunt amittere carnem et tectum et foris; cum magno animo esse intermisso, equi iumentaque exiguis frumento pasti, quo fit, ut celeriter etiam labi incipiant.

Itaque admodum gravis visio crevit, ut miserum patrem et matrem in meris pellibus et ossibus redactis, meris raedarii et peditis umbris circumacta patria, quatuor equis traheretur, quorum ossa sub pellibus cum essent satis crepitantia. Coactus fueris aut tunditur in curriculo piger.

Bulger et ego solus pinguedinem nostram et bonos spiritus retinuit. Tandem intervenire decrevi et celerem finem huic rei miserandae statui. Exegi a seniore Barone promissionem sponsionis, quod mandassemus se ad amussim, et non obiiciebamus, quantumvis ferae vel irrationabiles sibi vel matri meae viderentur.

Tunc precepit ei ut sumeret aliquod bonum et sucosum cibum, et primo secederet et caperet sibi iucundam diu somnum, salutavi eum reverenter et dixi:

Baron, usque ad crastinum diem.

Vix ientaculum finieram cum fores apertae et senior Baron in cubiculum ambulabat.

Refectus multum aspexit. Color in maxillam rediit, fulgor ad oculum.

Erat jam alius homo.

Ecce, domine clementissime, incepi ei pergamenum tradere, index omnium notissimorum Almanachorum in terra nostra. Colloquium cum illis statim habes et ab illis emptionem ius praebet ut tempestatum praesagitiones praebeant anni futuri!

Senior Baron coepit expostulare. “Baron!,” ego duriter inspexi manum, “Verus eques non habet unum verbum dare.”

Ille tacuit et me pergere annuit.

Ita sum secutus.

“Reuerende parens, cum ab utroque hoc iure obtinueris, ad me redi.”

Paucis diebus pater munus suum perfecit.

Et intravit cameram meam, et dedit in manus meas concessiones necessarias ab omni almanac factore prenotato in terra.

Iterum imperavi ei se ipsum refocillare, ut bonam noctis quietem caperet et mane me videret.

Cum Bulgerus et ego rediens a prandio, senior Baron senior se obtulit ad fores mansionum mearum.

Vidit fortis et bene. Vultus iterum impleverat et gressus pristinam elasticitatem recuperaverat.

Iterum in manibus suis librum pergameni posui et dixi ei.

Per singulas almanach istius membranae contenta aequaliter et copiose sparge in paginas devotas mensibus Novembris, Decembri, Ianuario, et Februario.

Respexit ad me percunctando, et movere labia coeperunt.

“Domine illustrissime!” inquam, antequam sonus ex ore eius emanasset, “In familia nostra semper milites sine timore et sine opprobrio fuistis.” Tacitus inflexit sublimem formamque recessit.

Fortasse lector aliquantulum curiositatis scire potest contenta voluminis pergameni, quam in manibus baronis maioris hac occasione posui.

Si brevitas sit animus ingenii, facetus. Si rotundus, vestis veri, verax fuit. Hoc ut esse libuerit, verba quae in illo volumine pergameno exaravi stylo meo, haec leguntur.

“Omnes signa demonstrant frigidissimo hiemali.” “Indicae sunt hiemem venientem dimidio saeculo gravissimam fore.” “Omnes idem praesagiunt responsum, eximiae longitudinis hyemem et frigora amara.” “Prognosticatores peritissimi concordant in praedicando gradum temperaturae humilis raro in his latitudinibus perventum.” “De hoc tempore expecto insolitum frigus.” “Protege plantas.” “Nunc vide bene herbas tuas hiemales.” “Conserva eos ab extremo gelu.” “Duplici copia brumalis cibus.” “Nunc saevas nives expectamus procellas.” “Exspecta frigoris amarum in toto hoc mense.” “Praeparate rarissimas grandines procellas.” “Cavete de repentinis ac penetrabilibus Aquilonibus ventos.” “Domus pecudes conlaudantes per totum hoc mensem.” “Cavete a lethalibus blizzardis, venient rabie ruenti.”
Paucis diebus absens pater meus domum rediit. Eius adventus mihi rite nuntiatus est a Bulgero, cui dixi: “Ite, bone Bulger, et baronem deduce ad cameram meam.”

Multis saltu et cortice ludibrio se circumscribit, et mox seniori barone cum iocunditate tam communi sibi serviendi more inauguravit.

Obedivi tibi, fili mi. Murmuravit senior baron cum grandi arcu in flexa.

“Salve!,” Respondi eum sedere rogans.

“Et nunc incertorum pedum meorum rector honorate, verba mea attende: negotium nostrum paene factum est. Paucis diebus confecta erit haec pecunia, quae tibi tantam sollicitudinem attulit, et cordis tui officia expilavit; atus, completus; et, quod melius est, tam feliciter investituram, ut patrem unius ditissimi filii in regno vocare valeas.

Audi, Baron. Ite nunc in primores mercatus terre et quemlibet furnum mercatorem sub stipulatione scriptionis ponite, ut tradat tibi in primo autumno omnes pelliculas, indutas, vestes, vel dorsa dominis, de quibus manutenebunt traditionem sub manibus eorum et sigillis.”

Vix labiis exciderant verba prius quam senior Baron e sella surrexerat meque ad pectus amore rapuit.

“Fili mi!” exclamavit permulsit frontem meam protuberans, “Dominum ictus est! Dignum est rectore provinciae. Cupio incipere bonum opus.

Permitte me hac nocte proficisci! “Exspecta Barone!” Dixi, ducens eum ad sellam suam et cogente leniter sedere. Exspecta, Baron; nonnihil tamen dicendum est. Cum perfeceris emptionem omnium pelliculorum, quae hoc anno exspectantur in Regnum, expende reliquam pecuniam in emendo omnibus lignis, carbo et gagatis invenis, non quod lucrum ex pauperis emolument. Graciles copia; sed ne alios iniquum in eum contrahendo, quod in prima tempestatum praedictione certe faciunt. “Ah, parve Baron!” pater, “quam cogitatione; non enim, ut dicis, pauperum humeris oneramus!

Tanta fuit diligentia qua pater meus consilia perfecit, ut uno mense totum opus macelli emissem ac vendidissem, parvo quidem progressu, sed satis amplo, ut me perquam pessime faceret dives.

Quod ita leniter et scite factum est, ut nemo callidam calliditatem umquam suspicaretur qua satis mihi ad iter faciendum divitias comparare potui, sicuti animus promptus erat, et scire me captum et teneri. Redemptis praedonibus avarissimis, nummulariis meis aurum satis esset ad redimendum me.

Post octavum annum expletum, inexstinguibili desiderio sum, ut statim ingrediendi ad perficienda diuturna consilia dilecta, longinquas terras, ab extraneis et curiosis hominibus habitatas, visitaret. Domus mea, lingua mea, populus meus multa me fœtebat, et circumdederat me.

In somnis ego navia pudens navigia pressi, iussa mea vociferans, placidum vela scopulum imminentem tempestatem creber. Transivi tempus meum a mane usque ad noctem, congruis articulis mercandi cum barbaris positis stipendiis, ut penetrare in interiora nunquam possem ab homine humano visitari, et ascendere flumina clausa a mundo incohata alatis nunciis. Mercatura et mercatura. Sed, quod mirum dictu, pater ad hoc adhortatus est, forte precibus matris meae, firmiter ac fortiter intendit in consilium abiturum domum.

Iuxta me destitutione fui. Oravi, obtestatus sum, minatus sum. Primum enim in vita mea—dolet enim me etiam nunc confiteri—cuiusdam incusavi autorum meorum contemptio.

Bulger, post aliquot dies res perspectata, conclusionem habuit seniorem Baronem aliquo modo infelicitatis meae causa, et postulabat interdum severissimo meo imperio eum a vitulis maioris dentes cohibere. Tibiis Baronis, ut ex mea diaetas post aliquod turbidum colloquium egrederetur.

“Quid!” exclamavi voce tremens maerorque, “Ego magna pereo munera, quibus me natura dedit, muris oppidi huius saeptus, cuius rixis fora amplissima sunt, quorum numquam homines testantur. Quid magnificentius quam regia turma equitum transitus? Non oportet, non erit. Tute dixisti, me non vulgarem esse puerum, ut pila et cacumine delectetur, et picturis excipiatur libris.

Sed senior Baron induraverat cor suum, et omnis oracio mea incassum erat.

Et tamen non desperavi in fine potiri.

Tandem aqua iugi stillicidio abstraxit petram. Constitui nunc animum meum Baronem seniorem movere ut acquiescendum in consilio meo relinquendi domum, conferendo ad rationem prorsus diversam. Dixi egomet mihi.

“Puer me esse vult: unus ero!” Statimque in oppido omni pernicioso scelesto amicos facere institui.

Non una iuvenilis curas meas ne-do-bene fugit.

Quo magis vehemens, strenuus et infatigabilis suae mali potentiae, eo arctius involvi affectibus meis.

Haec mihi de cinereis aurora roscida vesper Concurritur, comitesque mei comitantur in arcem. Me ducem colebant, et praeceptis meis obsequens obtemperabant, ac si alicuius dominii super eos haberem.

Senior Baron vidit glomeratam nubem et intendit caput quasi ad occurrendum tempestati meliori casu resistendi.

Ibi convivio accessit, electissima Burgundia subductus repertus est et utres communi claviculis referti. An senior Baron senior cum accipitribus amicis in campis ad iudicium venit, id solum deprehensos ita fuisse demersos ut cucullo remoto stolide placide sederent. Dicatur coquus hospites expectari et cavendum esse ut globuli pulmenti sui extra delicati, seniori Baronis horrori, in centro cuiusque globuli cerasi inveniretur.

Unus ex coadjutoribus meis satis ausum fuit cistam Baronis senioris surripiere et eam pipere implere. Consequens cogitari potest. Alius bene curavit ut omnes pyxides fomes infunderent aquam coram invitantibus ad fistulas. Cum a mensa surgere conaretur, passim queue dorsum cathedrae secure reperiretur alligata.

Una mearum rerum gestarum me in prima statione scalae constituo et, “Pontem teneo ut olim Horatius Cocles,” mea effera cohors duorum duodenarum iuvenum barbarorum per scalas ruentium clamoribus, clamoribus, vocibusque quae haberet. Cui umquam immanium verarum turbae fidem visitavi, dum ego, cum ligneo sabre, fustibus tundendo, interdum nimis audacter adolescentulus in articulos irruens, et ad calcem scalae Bulgeris infinito ludibrio mitto. Ut semper adsensum in acie esse et de virtute gloriantem.

Tandem cum magno gaudio meo animadverti, quod maior Baron maior deditionis signa ferebat.

Ego quasi prudens imperator omnes in ipsa acie impetum feci.

Futurum esse ut vulpes postridie venaretur. Unam ex meis legatis fidelissimis mandavi ut canes cibos omnes crudos deglutirent, circa horam ante initium.

Alios denos, velocissimos ac dicaces, decem principes medicos et chirurgos oppidi et vicinitatis eius domos misi, cum isdem mandatis, ut singulos, feminas, puer; violenter egrotante manerio fuerat, et maxime festinandum est ad uenturam cum medicinis pectoribus, ut pestilentia reprimatur.

Eodem fere momento decem doctores in atrium incurrerunt, solum ut Seniorem Baronem et amicos suos in suggestu congreges invenirent, et de insolitis canum actionibus sibila consultatione tenentes. Irati Galeni discipuli pro animalibus pauperibus praescribere noluerunt, et bene repletis holsteriis in crura involaverunt.

Interea non eram otiosus.

Ad ungues scoriae vel plurium volatilium Baronum senioris ligavi quamdam fuzeam inventionis meae, ita inflammabilem, ut levissima frictio exardesceret, et tunc in campis et hortis adiacentis resolutos converti domus praetorium.

Tota aestas occupati erant et laetati sunt in spe boni temporis scabendi, inter folia arida et stipulam camporum patentium.

Per hoc tempus venatores canes nonnihil e stupore excitando successerant, cum clamor, “Ignis! Ignis!” Ascendit. Venaticus raptim desiluit et insana ruunt aqualis hydrias iunctaque ministris.

Sedebam placide in conclavi meo, cum Bulgerus ad latus meum, cum tumultus sublatus est.

Senior Baron in primis inclinabat in mentem, quod, licet mea opera manifesta esset in fabrica mali, quod in edacitate canum consistebat, et decem doctores ad manerium vocato in venatione anseris feri, igne tamen erumpente. In proximis hortis et agris nihil ad rem pertinens. Reditus vir venerabilis Dominici Galli senis, qui vel nimis imbellis vel nimis piger fuerat, ut fuzees unguibus adnexis exploderet, rem tamen confecit.

Maioris Baronis animus iam claruit quisnam facinus conceperit in quo tam ignari conscii eius miseris avibus facti sunt.

Illa nocte Bulger et levibus cordibus cubitum ivi.

Senior Baron tandem consensit, ut primo proficiscamur ad quaerendum peregrinos casus inter curiosos populos longinquarum terrarum.

The Death of the West

For more than a century, since the First World War, authors, notably Spengler and Toynbee, have announced the decadence of the West. Spengler shows that civilizations, like living organisms, are vitally destined, after birth, growth and aging, for death. According to Spengler’s historical morphology, the Faustian civilization, which is the result of the imperialist excess of techno-science and of the delirious, satanic and omnipotent will to despise and dominate nature, is the flagrant symptom of the sclerosing crystallization of culture into civilization, of the turning against itself of the vital will.

According to the historical paradigm of Toynbee, decadence has for symptom, beyond the debilitation of the elites, unable to take up the big challenges of their time, the sleep of a glorious civilization resting on its laurels before the external proletariat comes to deliver it the coup-de-grâce.

All this was neatly conceptualized and announced. The decline of the West was certainly particularly slow, no doubt in proportion to the glory and prosperity of the West itself, but its inevitability did not further need to be demonstrated.

Moreover, one of the symptoms of the decadence, according to Toynbee, is psychic and social disintegration, giving rise to the subjective illusion of the universal. This illusory universality is double. It is at the same time political and religious. It is on the one hand the elaboration, by the elites who lost their authority and their charismatic force of drive, of a totalitarian universal State aiming at maintaining, by the force of institutions and fear, and not any more by creative genius, the social order. It is on the other hand the elaboration, by the insider proletariat, of a universal religion whose spirituality is foreign to civilization. These two illusory universalities are the ultimate symptoms, before the final destruction coming from outside, of the decadence.

Two contemporary books describe the process of totalitarian sclerosis from which modern Western states are already suffering. In the novel Le Réveil (Awakening), Laurent Gounelle draws an analogy between the dictatorial management of the pandemic on the one hand and American propaganda during the Great War and communist totalitarianism on the other. In his book, Post-modernisme et néo-fascisation: le grand retournement (Post-Modernism and Neo-Fascism: The Great Reversal), Gilles Mayné establishes, using the study by the philologist Klemperer of the rhetorical procedures specific to Nazi discourse, an analogy between Hitler’s “phagocytage” of opposing ideologies, including Christian ideology, and the ideological “blurring” specific to Macron’s “at the same time.” Mayné thus shows that, beyond the antithetical character of the Macrono-post-modernist and Hitler-Nazi ideologies, the ideal of openness of the former opposing that of closure of the latter, it is the same totalitarian process that is at work. This process is still what is now called triangulation; that is to say the systematic and silly amalgamation, in political rhetoric, of references and ideas proper to the adversary, the refusal of a clear and assumed democratic combat.

Today, it is not only the simple ageing, but it is now the death of the West that is taking place, before our eyes. The Muslim insider proletariat is making a foreign Islamic spirituality flourish in the Christian West. The European states are borrowing from the totalitarian states of the world the mode of institutional domination through fear and intimidation.

Beyond these two symptoms of death foretold, even before the destructive invasion of the African foreign proletariat, two other symptoms of civilizational death are already working on us and destroying us in depth. On the one hand, it is the totalitarian ecological ideology which, allied to the ideology of the deconstruction of authorities and of minority victimization, aims very clearly at the self-destruction of Western traditions. On the other hand, it is the economic and financial imperialism of China which, allied to the great capitalists of the world, has programmed the pauperization of the Western middle classes, the dynamic and global displacement of wealth having led to the prosperity of the new Eastern middle classes.

The agony of the West has arrived. In a world where Christianity hardly prospers any more than in South America, we are condemned to wait, in Europe, for our eventual salvation from Providence alone.


Patrice Guillamaud is a philosopher. His latest books include Le divin et l’Etat, essai d’ousiologie théologico-politique sur la co-existence (The Divine and the State, an essay of theological-political ousiology on co-existence), and La Nation, pour une définition philosophique (The Nation, for a philosophical definition). He has been working for many years on a new philosophical science, “usiology.” This article appears through the kind courtesy of La Nef.


Featured: Vanitas Stilleven met denken jonge man (Vanitas Still-life with Thinking Young Man) by Samuel van Hoogstraten; painted ca. mid-1640s.

Bakunin

Władysław Broniewski (1897—1962), the famous Polish poet, translator, writer and soldier, wrote this poem as a homage to Mikhail Bakunin (1814—1876), the Russian revolutionary. This poem is translated by Przemysław Abramowski.

Bakunin

Such veiny hand on manuscript
Lionish profile of head above it.
Huge shadow falls on wooden doors
Slightly ajar. On the table
Oil lamp glows
While the night—immense, starry…
The silence overwhelms, it’s midnight.
Sparkling snow on roofs, fluffy snow.
Bakunin’s writing.
(This veiny hand. The lion’s mane.
Ominous shadow alludes pain?)
The shadow here might rise a cloud
Which could unleash a storm today!
(How heavy’s hand… To think about
Why pen—my weapon—is a weight…)
Outside—just snow, night, stars…
The tea is tepid. Pipe’s smoke rises…
Bakunin dreams—scenes from his life
Flow in his brain… some, inter alia,
Adventurous—like freedom run
He made alone through Transbaikalia
With Tsarist posse right on his heels
Escape by luck—chance U.S. sail…
His traces then, to their blight
As if some snow obscured white.
The silence grows. The darkness crawls.
Cherry smoke curls dreamingly wade…
This shadow there, dwarfing the walls
It’s him! Year eighteen forty-eight!
Again, voracious and so savage
Sniffing for blood in shifts of tone
Song sung on Dresden’s barricades
Which cries as then: Tear down the thrones!
This song puts Europe to a torch
The spring of nations, freedom’s magnet
The million-footed crowd now bulging
In booms of salvos—hear, young Wagner!
…all lost. Last, mutinous
Prague would flash, then only darkness.
And so things ended up
In chains, in bloody Chemnitz dungeon.
Each day he measured the world with thought
His cell had three steps for him only.
Freedom! Many hard years went by
Whispering her name to walls in torment.
Nicholas’ thugs put him in chains
Whose ringing he only heard as “Rise!”
Free man he sailed the world around,
No land was safe like Switzerland
Where he had settled—and what today—
Bern’s eerie silence so tough to heart?
Here—Siberian snow…
Wild and unbounded freedom!
Longing, which Herzen didn’t know!
In this great silence time seems to
Roll back the memory with its weight
Bakunin’s mind breaks free and talks
Again to Orlov, which their fate
Prevented, yet the old man swears
To give the Tsar no more weak lies
Never kowtow—better offend!
“Pugachov’s spectre is now me
So like a phantom shall I stand
Over Empire, and people’s fury
From prison here I will swing
On world and Russia!”
With squinted eyes
This January Bakunin writes:
“I’m leaving only what I got
Some clothes (all patched), some free thought.
The glass of life—I took a good sip
So as a free man I’m on this old trip
I’m leaving now. Swiss city Bern,
Its silence—Iet clock-masters keep them.
Our stars have harsher sparkle learnt
Over the steppes and in my wisdom.
Slowly through snow I’ll walk alone
After the call of northern wind
Which in eternal snowstorm blows
And blasts, so free—all time it did
Shake fist at Earth—while in its path
Teaching us humans its full wrath.”


The Catholic Challenge to Progressivism

Thomas Michaud’s book, After Justice: Catholic Challenges to Progressive Culture, Politics, Economics and Education, is an attempt to address the decline of Western Civilization. Michaud believes that this decline has occurred incrementally, and he is intent on identifying the reasons for it. Convinced that ideas have consequences, Michaud records how competing ideologies have upset the West’s moral compass. The most conspicuous of these ideologies is Progressivism. For the author Progressivism is something of an umbrella term covering several left-leaning visions of individual and communal life.

Since this volume is a kind of polemic, one might expect it to have a bellicose tone, followed by a mournful quality. But to the contrary, Michaud’s book is curiously bright and hopeful, despite its critical aims. Michaud’s polemic is buoyed by its enthusiastic reliance on Catholic social teaching and Catholic wisdom in general. Michaud is confident that the long historical arc of Catholic wisdom provides the resources to teach how the decline of the West can be arrested.

Michaud discovers in the Catholic tradition the principles of a rich theological and philosophical personalism. On this earth God’s glory is most manifest in a human life fully lived. In personalism the wonder of the mysterious depths of human person as an embodied soul, endowed with intellect and will, is the metaphysical foundation for explaining human nature and civilized life. Accordingly, personalism, comprehensively understood, is the remedy for what ails culture. This book is basically a reminder that Western Civilization is at its heart Christendom, a vision of society built on Jesus Christ as the standard of humanity. Personalism applies its principles on cultural, economic, and political life, since the triad of culture, economics, and government constitutes society and its development. Michaud’s volume shows that Western Culture now is in distress because it has forgotten the person as the proper foundation of this triad.

Upon summarizing the book’s structure, an Introduction and Seven Sections of essays, one can see how Michaud in his own way prosecutes this triad. The Introduction provides autobiographical details which illuminate key elements of Michaud’s own pilgrimage as an educator, philosopher, and Christian intellectual. Next follows the book’s seven broad sections, each containing a “Section Introduction,” which is exceedingly helpful. The Sections cover a wide variety of subject matter. Section I: Lectures and Editorials treats issues ranging from electoral politics to sports. Section II Marcelian Perspectives speaks to the influence of Gabriel Marcel on Michaud’s philosophical work. Marcel’s influence is evident one way or another throughout the entire volume. Section III: Leadership Formation summarizes reflections on the nature of leadership, a subject on which Michaud has lectured extensively, appreciating that principles of leadership disclose how organizations, including civilization itself, can succeed. Section IV: Environmentalism and Realism, a discussion Michaud takes up because of the many ideological assumptions implicit in the environmentalist movement. While environmentalists profess to be green, they also tend to be red since they hope to commandeer big government to advance their various agendas. Section V: Critiques of Progressive Politics, Pluralism, Political Economy and Revolution is a set of essays wherein Michaud speculates about the reasons for social decline. Out of the plurality of essays in this section, Michaud recommends five of them for special consideration: “The Problematic Politics of Postmodern Pluralism,” “Diversity within the United States’ Culture and Politics.” “Democracy Needs Religion” “Blasts from the Preclassical Past: Why Contemporary Economics Education Should Listen to Preclassical Thought,” and “Anatomy of the Progressive Revolution.”

The first two of these five essays express Michaud’s conviction that tolerance and justice have been altered by Progressive culture to insinuate a social philosophy akin to Marxism, especially in the form of identity politics. These essays also suggest Michaud’s agreement with John Adams that America will thrive so long as her citizens remain a moral and religious people. As a group, these five essays consider how Left-Wing ideology depersonalizes society, the effects of which are evident in the past few generations. Michaud salutes the influence of Alexis de Tocqueville and Michael Novak for their implicit personalism, especially evident in the way they worry about the erosion of morality and the dignity of the person in economics. The fifth essay reminds us that Progressivism is not just a movement aiming at reform but seeks transformation of Western Culture.

Section VI: Progressivism’s Challenges to Education and Millennials’ Happiness relates how questions of social organization impact individual happiness. The book closes with a fascinating Short Story which narrates an event from Michaud’s autobiographical record.

The persistent theme percolating throughout Michaud’s book is that political correctness is a toxin. Political correctness is not just an annoyance caused by ideological busy bodies. It is an assault on truth by the manipulation of language. By means of that manipulation, people become confused and social standards become transformed, which causes confusion as people habituated in traditional language are bemused by its change. Political correctness in its extreme is Orwellian, represented by Winston Smith conceding in 1984 that indeed 2 + 2 = 5. By control of language, authorities can control thought. This outcome is now evident in the way universities equivocate on truth and turn education into indoctrination.

A keen insight is Michaud’s observation that in recent times, champions of political correctness have refined two social tools to serve their purpose of transforming Western society. These tools are (1) a modified, ideological adaptation of tolerance and (2) an alteration of fairness in the form of social justice.

Tolerance and social justice are subtle devices since they exploit the hope that people will assume that tolerance and social justice today mean what they have meant for centuries. Who would oppose openness and fairness, which principles tolerance and justice imply? However, tolerance today and social justice are a new kind of pluralism and fairness and are effectively equivocations on the ancient meanings of those terms. The politically correct are clever, which is demonstrated by using terms which have appeal because people think they signify what they have traditionally meant. But by the sleight of hand of Leftist ideologues, the meanings of justice and tolerance have changed.

Justice classically means relating to people in a way that they deserve. But social justice is different. It interprets desert not in terms of merit but in terms of identity politics. Consider that political correctness adds an adjectival qualifier which alters meaning. When the word “social” modifies justice, a different meaning is attached to fairness. Traditionally, justice is an individual’s habit or virtue of being respectful of others, who deserve respect. Social justice, on the other hand, is a kind of identity politics, in which one divides people into groups and stereotypes them. Once the groups are stereotyped, the effort is made, often by means of government, to favor some groups and disfavor others. The virtue of justice classically understood implies impartiality and equality of standards in the application of fairness. But this is not how social justice applies today. Instead, social justice suspects traditional ideas about impartiality associated with meritocracy or earned desert. Social justice comfortably accepts partiality and inequality of application, which the politically correct call “equity,” a principle inspired by the aim of restorative justice, the remedy of past wrongs perpetrated by some groups against others.

Aware of these points, Michaud regards social justice as a Marxist trope. By using politically correct language, social justice insinuates that justice is about groups, not individuals. Because human beings are social animals, as Aristotle long ago observed, there has always been sociability implicit in the idea of justice. But the status and significance of the individual was nonetheless at the heart of the classical meaning of justice because it involved individual judgment and habit formation. Social justice, however, is a Marxist tool to eliminate the individual and reduce justice to a matter of group identities and relations. For example, when a teacher discovers that a student is cheating in class, he or she ought not judge that the student is an individual wrongdoer. That would imply that he has autonomy and moral agency. Such judgment is simplistic and does not consider how we are shaped by social forces. No, it is not the cheater’s fault. It is society’s fault, which has somehow made the student a victim. If schools weren’t compromised by an unfair social system, students wouldn’t cheat. Not surprisingly, victimology is common in the exercise of social justice, a point of view that echoes Vladimir Lenin’s conviction that the proletariat cannot commit crimes because of their disadvantage before bourgeoise power. Of course, the radical political implication is that when injustice occurs, social justice warriors cry out for big government intervention to remedy the problem. Hence, social justice becomes an excuse to expand government. As a tool of unbridled political correctness, it can encourage formation of a totalitarian state.

Tolerance is another classical virtue that has been malformed by political correctness. Historically, tolerance was understood as a virtue of justice which impels a person to allow something he disagrees with because, if he were to disallow it, a kind of injustice could follow. In the spirit of traditional tolerance whole peoples with profoundly different beliefs and values have gotten along and have even lived as neighbors. But this vision of tolerance is less popular today, especially when ideological disagreements are the issue. Today, those who profess to be among the most tolerant are often content to seek refuge in tribalistic separateness. Among Progressives, tolerance is a kind of virtue signaling, a way in which a person authenticates himself as an enlightened human being by accepting the directives of politically correct thinking.

Accordingly, Progressives, while preaching tolerance, often appear intolerant. For them, tolerance is not a species of traditional justice but a politically correct instrument to transform society. Of course, one could say that it is a species of social justice. In this way, tolerance conforms to the Leftist agenda to transform the West. Hence, the Progressive’s exercise of intolerance is quite coherent with their own worldview, even though it is out of step with the classical view of tolerance. Conservatives often do not understand this progressive application of tolerance, dismissing the Progressive’s attitudes and practices as inconsistent. But Progressives are consistent according to their own imperative: be intolerant of those who champion traditional tolerance, which is based on corrupt, benighted values. A tolerant person, as Progressives see it, is enlightened, and an enlightened person knows that intolerant people should not be tolerated. Intolerant people are unenlightened, and they are people who do not support or advance the interests of Progressive politics and culture. As a result, they are a social menace. So why should society tolerate them? An intolerant person, on their view, is indeed a regressive person, someone, like a practicing Christian, who tries to maintain traditional values and institutional beliefs that, while they pass as civilized, are, in fact, benighted.

Michaud’s book is a reminder that conservatives could help themselves by better understanding these nuances about tolerance in the Progressive movement. Instead, conservatives tend to complain tirelessly about inconsistency and censorship, failing to grasp and address the deeper motivations in Progressivism. Conservatives must recognize that they are dealing with a collision of worldviews. The Progressive worldview has endured longer than many conservatives realize, having emanated out of the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose ideological heir was Karl Marx.

Conservatives would do well to appreciate how champions of political correctness play them. Michaud appreciates how political correctness has taken over universities. Allan Bloom, in his instructive book, The Closing of the American Mind, explains in detail how the University became a stifling culture against free thought, changing from an institution that sought to instill liberal education, freedom and independence of thought, to a system repressing the exchange of ideas. This happened, Bloom explains, as Leftists indoctrinated students in relativism, claiming there is no truth, and that no idea is more defensible than any other. Bloom explains that this relativism, akin to nihilism, would nullify educators’ efforts to instill moral and intellectual ideals in students. The only virtue, intellectual or moral, that students wanted taught, was openness, a curriculum without judgments. The students would pay a price as this relativism became the cultural norm at the university, an outcome Bloom captured in the subtitle of his book: How Higher Education Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students. Without moral judgment there is no nutrition for the soul.

Michaud understands that this is what happened to the universities. But, of course, the strategy of political correctness recognized that this nihilism was just an episode. No culture can exist without judgments and constraints. The politically correct just pretended for a while that the university was a bastion of non-judgmentalism. After removing traditions and curricula on grounds that they were biased, the new politically correct leaders took over most universities and imposed a bureaucracy of bias and censorship of their own, mainly through the formation of programs and committees that might make old-time fascists envious. For example, universities made traditional educators remove speech codes and standards. But they celebrated this removal only until they came to dominate the university and inflict innumerable speech codes, behavioral restrictions, and censorship rules of a sundry kind. The politically correct played the Rope-a-Dope game to perfection. The conservatives on campus, wanting to appear open, accommodating, and non-judgmental (in short, wanting to appear “Progressive-Lite”), fell for the strategy: from radical openness to repression in two generations.

Conservatives would do well to learn to resist political correctness at every turn and not play the game by its rules. This is one of the lessons of Michaud’s instructive book: conservatives must learn to fight back, and with intelligence.


Curtis Hancock is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Rockhurst University, a Jesuit institution in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, where he held the Joseph M. Freeman Chair of Philosophy for twenty years. He has a B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Oklahoma, and a Ph.D. from Loyola University of Chicago. He is former President of the American Maritain Association and co-founder of the Gilson Society. He has published several books, including Recovering a Catholic Philosophy of Elementary Education. He has also published numerous articles and reviews.


Featured: The Liberation of St. Peter, by Antonio de Bellis; painted ca. early 1640s.

Iter et adventures baronis Trump et canis mirandus Bulger—II

CAPUT III.

Hic manus tremit, et stylo titubans atramentum fluit.

Quas res gestas profiteor, Lector mihi pro certo assentior, cum considerans maxime interesting meae vitae alienae ac variae. Forsitan mihi studium dicat; Nam, Lector benevole, unum ex his “quaedam eventa” supra citata non minoris momenti evenit quam nativitas mea in hunc magnificum et pulcherrimum mundum, quem mundum mirabilibus et mirabilioribus, sicut tu, plenum esse probavit. Videbunt ut ego pergam cum mea fabula.

Aestate natus sum. Nox erat tempus.

Milia per cunabula miselli Scintillata, parva, inops, argillae gleba; sed clarior omnibus, ut purpurea taeda in sethera flammea, Sirius, caniculae stella, super me effulsit!

Ad coelum aspiciens pater subridens, murmurat: «Parve peregrine, canum semper eris amator. Risus erit illis laetitia, musica verba tua, et in aliqua bestia quadrupedia generis sui, optimum, fidelissimum, amicum tuum invenies.

Quasi in verbis patris mei ipsum veritatis pressum poneret, eo ipso momento clamor matris canis in contiguo cubiculo auditus est et unus e regiae familiae Chew-lâ-â in meam praesentiam accurrit cum calatho parvo catuli. Pater meus viminea cunabula noviter advenientis familiae ridens rapuit eamque ad me clamabat;

Elige, parve baro, amicum et socium elige tibi. Manum meam parvulam porrigi parvulam et in una cum maximo capite recumbens. “Ha! ha!” risit pater, “Bone te, parve baro, elegisti, cui tu tantum cerebrum elegisti, ut bene torvum caput.”

Et cum ad luctandum cum illo verbo infantulus lingua mea venit, tortum est in “Bulger.” Sicque Bulger et eodem fere momento in vitae itinere profectus sum! Postera die pater patefecit aquas nocte recedere coepisse, et prospiciens ab excelso domicilio nostro, vidit in medio satis amplae insulae stetisse. Pater meus post prandium, secundum morem patriae, duos Chew-lô regi calceos ligneos ligneos, quibus omnes canorum scularium usos erant, in superficie molli luto movere conabantur, imposuit inundatio.

Hi calcei lignei perquam leves sunt, quamquam tam longi et tam lati quam calcei nivei sunt. Expolitione pedum, velatos perlabier in lutum, quod natura terrae est pinguissimum, eadem celeritate qua currit ad calceos nivis.

Post aliquot horarum excursus in montem et descendentem, pater meus cum hac mirae intelligentiae particula rediit, scilicet, quod proculdubio habitatio eorum, ante descensum aquarum in stagno posita; sed paulatim, cum recessissent aquae, factam esse insulam, quae paulo post in peninsulam fuerat, quae rursus adhuc demersa aquarum in verticem montis conversa erat. Leniter acclivis lateribus ut, referens matri meae, pereuntem diem neque dicere posset, si natus esset in lacu, in insula, in paeninsula, an in summo monte, factum esse. Quod eum gravissime angebat, nam, ut omnes eius familiae sodales, summa rerum memorandarum summa diligentia usque ad minutissimas rerum gestarum fastus summa cum diligentia sumpsit.

Dissimilis plerisque infantibus, qui primum dimidium annum transire contenti videntur, aut vitae suae edentes, dormientes et clamantes, ab ipso exordio praecocentiam mirabilem prae se ferunt.

Cum paucae tantum hebdomades, quamvis loqui non possem, sibilo tamen didicerant Bulgerum, cuius progressus in animo et corpore etiam gressum meam tenere visus est, et qui plurimam aetatem aspiciens in puerilem vultum transiit. Quod significat, “O, gaudebo, cum ista lingula soluta est, ut me vocas Bulgerum et iubeas me facere voluntatem tuam.”

Nec mora.

Illud unum, quod in hac aetate vitae meae mihi gratissimum gaudium dedit, lux erat.

Fui intus fores morosus, morosus, iracundus, sed sub divo semel emissus, tota natura mutatur. Bibi mollem et mollem acrem vigorem et oblectamentum patris mei delectantis. Facies mea clara est, oculi mei de valle ad collem, a summo usque ad celum gradiebantur.

In tantam ecstasim voluptatis me hoc conspectus mundi magni proiecit, quod mater mea anxia facta est, ne praevideret aliquod magnum malum mihi evenire.

Sed magnificus baro tantum risit. “Nihil timeas, uxor, solum significat quod intra caputculum illud miro modo activum animum prolis mensibus habitare.”

Quotiens Bulgerum dominum suum laetis vocibus ad aspectum mundi pulchri clamantis audiebat, certo vehemens latratu correptus erat, in quo circum me evagabatur cum asperrimis et profusissimis sympathiae manifestationibus.

Sine dubio mira inter nos fuit dilectionis vinculum.

Matris meae paene horrorem dixeram, ego quadam die cum mecum in brachiis suis in latis verandis ambularet, quae aedes Chewchewlô cingebat, me ex brachiis iactare conatus sum, Germanice clamans: Los! Los! Dimitte me! Sine me!

Habui usque ad id tempus, ut videtur, plus studii fuisse in lingua mea regiae nutricis Chewlae molli et canora, in qua facillime me intellegere potui. Circa hoc tempus accidit mihi, quod, licet non effecit, valde festinavit emissio parentis continentiam, tam ardenter desideratam, tam a Bulgero quam a me, nam ab ipso ingressu in hunc mundum aliquid mihi dixit me esse. Puer clarus debet esse, non mera et praecocia iuventus, qui a parentibus in coetu socialium adhibitus est ad portandos homines iam in pauperes spirituum, ascendendo super sellam vel mensam et versus declamando, parrotsos, cum dimidia duodecim lignea, hiulca gestus; sed verus heros, verus viator, non formidans tempestatem, feram, saevum, barbarum, ut faceret, quod vellet.

Solebat matris meae in auram diei sedere mecum in latis verandis, dum patris mei tibialia arridebat; Nam, licet generosa, ita consueverat, cum puella in omnibus rebus Germanicis parsimoniam exerceret, ut nunc, quamvis verae baronis uxor facta esset, non posset in illis bonis rebus agendarum delectationem praetermittere vias.

Sicque patrem meum multis pfennigibus servavit, quod vir bonus pauperibus dignis largitus est, et bonis onustus ad sepulchrum descendit.
Tali tempore subito Sternutatio matris rapuit, et infandum horrorem e manibus emisit. Decidi, decidi, lutum molle feriens, et visu evanescens.

Misera quasi plumbum ad solum cecidit.

Adstitit ei proceras ad pedes stabantque pedesque, fugitque virilem genae color.

Sed Chew-lô, qui ad patrem feliciter salutabat, risit.

“Agnus barbarus!” fremebat magnus baro, “Nisi despicis lachrymas patris, angorem matris? Ex te. Utinam nunquam regnum tuum intrassem in coelum! Chew-lô ne verbum quidem. Conversus imperioso more ac iure regio in turbam clientium manum quassat.

Citius quam cogitatio Sutulae canororum cohors ad calceos ligneos prosiluit.

Ite, procul, iaculantes sicut nigrae in ala vespertiliones.

Baro videbat in tremendo maerore emissum iudicium melius elabi, et vultu pallente caputque inclinatum stabat languida forma coniugis.

Sensit, sciebat, praesentiam suam apud Melodios Snutores hoc momento solum perturbare, impedire progressum, ac fortasse ita confundere, ut frustra omnis conatus esset. Illi ab infantia ita consueverunt ligneos illos calceos ingentes gestare, ut in hoc luto perfidiae versarentur, ut, si fieri posset, manus humanas filium ad bracchia restitueret, id facerent.

Itaque pauca adhortatus ad aurem matris fatur, et instar statuae stare pergit, voltu melodiae snuculorum longis scriniis defixit, dum circumvoluti cacumen montis locum obtineret, judicabant, interissem.

Luce lato, ligneo scopulo armato, armisque obscuris surrexerunt, et mira subtilitate ac constantia ceciderunt, notis musicis sternutationis commorantes; nunc mollis et humilis, nunc erumpens in modum truculenti ac putrefactus.

Descende! Descende! Descende!

Et tamen frustra elaboraverunt!

Nullum ibi erat indicium miserae moeroris aegrae.

Sed cor!

Quid est clamor iste?

Non est humanus!

Nullus; est enim cortex Bulgeri, vel potius latrantium Bulgeri est.

Spectaverat Sutulae canorae thiasos, ceu candida scopas, Omniaque incassum concidit, pergula pergula capite impulit.

Nemo satis erat mente et corde ad capiendum sensum illius miselli latrantis.

Chew-lô vidit suos stantem in scopis innixum, oculis dubiis et haesitationibus.

Rex tacuit.

Erat baro ille magnus, qui loquebatur;

“O ne des! Mea vita, opes, omnia tua sunt bona, bona Chew-Chew.

Sternumenta appellatio.

Iterum clamor Bulgerorum sublatus est, et hoc tempore rex eam exaudivit.

Famulus regis videns nutum, et festinans ad pedes canis ligneos calices ligandos, in superficie luto solutus est.
Quid est homo intelligentia gloriata?

Erant decem passus vel amplius ab eo loco ubi disparui.

Gannita, latratu, et ploro per vices, mi Bulger, properavit ad eum locum, quo evagatus odor narravit carissimum dominum suum descendisse.
Iterum canororum snuariorum cohors renovato vigore laboratur, scopae albae miro opere fulgentes contra atram caeni nigredinem.

Bulger eos magnis et laetis latratibus hortabatur.

Subito serenus, tinnitus, canorus “rumdere” aerem discidit.

Me viderant!

Rara providentia per unum mensem, una manu nares clauseram priusquam ad lutum perveniam, et sic pulmonem a repletione servaverim.
Sed quam inutilis fuisset haec cautio, nisi bulger meus fidelis subveniret!

Nunc gaudens modum non noverat.

Putabam me subridentem veteris baronis lacrimosa maxillam prehendi, dum puer ad verandam ferebatur, animati massae terrae magis quam alia re, nam me aerem recreaverat. Oculi mei non modo aperti erant, sed solum in toto corpore mundo.

Convulsa mater mea me pressit pectore pectus, et equidem caeno pressisse caput et ora, ora, ni latam suspectam vidissem baro palmam; dum matris cor se verbis effundit. Pelves paucae aquae calidae, et ego ipse iterum.

Imo numquam ipse iterum fui. Balneum meum in luto calido Lâ-aah-chew-lâ maximam mihi mutationem fecit; incrementum corporis mei compressit et omnes vires meas in caput et cerebrum convertit.

Caput meum in uno brevi mense fere magnitudine duplicatum.

Infans vultus vultusque meus recessit!

Et prius alia luna impleverat cornua sua: Crevi mirandum!

Non solum magnitudine capitis mei aliquid praeclarum fuit, sed etiam ex oculis mirificam intelligentiam eluxit.

Mulieres pauperculae de Lâ-aah-chew-lâ ante me oraverunt quasi ens essem ab alio mundo, et deinde frontibus percutientes matri meae appropinquaverunt et susurrabant:

“Gracissime Magnus Spiritus Chew-lâ-â-â-â-â-â erravit et duas animas ibi pro una posuit!”

Et tunc decora corpora inclinaverunt donec frontes matris meae tangebant pedes et recesserunt retro exeuntis sicut dominae curiae optimae, unusquisque digitum suum ad me adaequans et oculos suos per ianuam evanuit aperiens.

Tota res adeo deridiculo erat, ut in risus clamorem erumperet.

Quo audito, miserae bestiae inter se praecipites ruebant, insano conatu, ut extra domum exirent, stridentibus in summa vocibus;

“Serva nos! Salva nos! Llle nos fascinabit!

“Parvus baro!” Pater meus irae voce subsannans dixit, “Dominas regis Chew-chew-lô’s aulam non terrere!”

Chew-pa! Chew-pa! (Idiotae! Idiotae!) Respiciebam e tabula mea, in qua exemplum arithmeticae faciebam, nam figurarum valde cupiebam.
Nam pater meus iam me adiectionem docebat, ostendens mihi quam vilia globuli vitrei pro ebore pretioso mercari, et dividendo, auferendo nonaginta cents de quolibet dollario quod feci. Multo ante quam legere aut scribere potui, epistolas plurium linguarum noui nominatim, nec verbum ullum exarare potui, quod nullas in ea litteras taceret. Nemo miris artibus magis delectabatur quam Bulger.

Is suapte natura videbatur scire parvum dominum suum non esse vulgarem hominem, et eum honoratum esse. Nunc valedicere Landam La-aah-chew-lâ et Sut.

Rex Chew-chew-lô cum valida manu clientium nos ad suum fines comitatur, sylvas canoras masticando ruminando resonant. Super humeros baronum veterum stans, ultimum vale eos vibravi ad quod tam perfecto turbine Chew-chew-â responderunt quod Bulgerus satis jucunde ululaverat.

Quilibet praecipuus honor domino suo semper fuit ei materia personalis. Senior baro ulterius penetrare in cor Africae destinaverat; sed plane, tam mirabile mentis meae incrementum, ut a mane usque ad noctem animum suum occupaverit. Conatus est hoc a me celare; sed omnes inaniter.

Priusquam biennium essem, cerebrum meum adeo grave erat ut mater mea in plantas calceamentorum meorum suere plumbeos, ut me rectum finem sursum teneret, et tamen in hac cautione saepe stans inveniebam. Caput meum difficiles difficultates mathematicas operando utendo digitos meos, sicut Sinenses faciunt machinas numerandas.

Primum quod pater meus domum attigit, me ad phrenologum duceret ut chartulam capitis mei haberem.
Examen fuit unum mensem.

Tandem, chartula completa, repertum est me habere triginta duas labeculas distinctas.

Bene intellegitur etiam!

Statutum est igitur statim instituisse tutores duos et triginta doctos, ut quisque paedagogus habeat singulas personas gibba, et operam navare, ut si cornu sit crescat.

Pater meus decrevit nihil omittere, ut meae mentis vires usque ad ultimum evolveret. Nihil dixi aut ad consilium aut contra.

In uno brevi anno didici omnia, quae me docere possent triginta duos paedagogos, et, quod plus est, unumquodque eorum quinquaginta docuissem, quae ante non cognoveram, et quae peregrinando in exteris regionibus didiceram. cum parentibus meis.

Tutores triginta duos uno mane cum magna admiratione eorum totum functus sum.

Senior baro ad suggestionem meam nunc misit libellum cuilibet tutori pro servitiis sibi per me redditis.

Quisque tutor solvere noluit.

Senior baro, meo suggestione, nunc fecit processum juris unicuique eorum serviendum.

Curia, audito testimonio meo, sententiam reddidit, quae quinque millia paginarum chartarum legalium operiebat, et totam hebdomadem ad legendum requirebat, in qua singula, quae singulis triginta et duobus paedagogis docuerat, mirum in modum erat et peculiare, ut in oculo legis saltem centum dollariorum valebat. Qui rogationem cuiusque paedagogi fecit ad quinque milia dollariorum, vel omnium centum sexaginta milia dollariorum.

Curia deinde per annum dimittitur, omnes tres iudices mente et corpore ita fatigati ut duodecim mensibus reliquis egent antequam aliud negotium suscipiant.

Plures casus venire…

Lege pars I

First Cinema in Iran

The first Iranian cinema spectator (1897 AD). and the first Cinematograph theater in Iran: 21 November to 20 December 1903.

As such eminent scholars as Farrokh Ghaffari and Jamal Omid have shown in the past, an Iranian‘s initial acquaintance with the cinema is first mentioned in Ebrahim Sahhafbashi‘s memoirs.

Ebrahim Sahhafbashi (Mohajer) Tehrani was born around 1858 and died in 1921 or 1922, at the age of 63, in Mashhad His full name has been copied from a note of his reproduced below his portrait in Name-ye Vatan, and his birth and death dates are approximations provided by his son, Abolqassem Reza‘i. He was fascinated with new technologies and inventions and his trade of eastern Asian goods took him several times across the world. He was a liberal-minded modernist and rather nonconformist in his clothing. Undoubtedly, following the first cinematographic representation in Paris in 1895, and soon after that in London, Iranians living in Europe at the close of the nineteenth century were able to see various films, but since no writings from them remains—or has come to light—the first spectator (as he is called today) must be considered to have been Ebrahim Sahhafbashi, in London, seventeen months after the first public representation in Paris.

He writes in his memoirs:

Yesterday, at sunset I took a walk in the public park… [In the evening] I went to the
Palace Theater. After song and dance performances by ladies [… and a show of acrobatics, etc., I saw] a recently invented electric device by which movements are reproduced exactly as they occur. For example, it shows the American waterfalls just as they are; it recreates the motion of marching soldiers and that of a train running at full speed. This is an American invention. Here all theaters close one hour before midnight.

Sahhafbashi was mistaken as to the cinema‘s country of origin, perhaps because the film he saw was American, as his reference to the Niagara Falls seems to indicate. There is no reason to believe that Sahhafbashi‘s interest in cinema, during his first encounter with it, went beyond that of a mere spectator, but it is also probable that the thought of taking this invention to Iran crossed his mind, although this is never mentioned in his writings.

According to sources known to the present, he was the first person to create a public cinema theater in 1903, eight years after the invention and public appearance of the cinema in France, six years after Sahhafbashi‘s seeing the cinema in London, and three years after the arrival of cinema equipment to the Iranian court.

Sahhafbashi perhaps held glass plate shows (akin to present-day slide shows) before making his career in the cinema. These were performed with the lanterne magique, known as cheraq-e-sehri in Iran. In good shows of this kind, a succession of black and white—or, even better, color—glass plates depicting a story (as in today‘s comic strips) was projected on a screen. The lanterne magique was used in Mozaffar-ed-din Shah’s court and a couple of such color plates have been identified in the Album House of the Golestan Palace. Viewing was affected with one or another type of jahan-nama, including the stereoscope, in which a pair of almost identical pictures were used to achieve a three-dimensional view. It consisted of a small (or large) box equipped with two viewer lenses and a slot in which the glass plates bearing the image pairs were inserted. Examples of this type of jahan-nama, for example of Verascope brand, existed in Mozaffar-ed-din Shah’s court and in the hands of private individuals, because I have seen glass plates of this type, both processed and unprocessed, in the Album House of the Golestan Palace. Another type of jahan-nama, the Edison Kinetoscope, was completed in 1891. It was a large, hefty machine in front of which the viewer stood to watch a very short cinema-like film through a pair of lenses on its top. Other types of jahan-nama, namely Mutoscope, Kinora and Théoscope, also existed, in which cinema-like moving pictures could also be seen. The Théoscope, for example, was small and could readily sit on a foot.

As concerns lanterne magique shows, Nazem-ol-Eslam Kermani writes in his Tarikh-e Bidari-e Iranian:

The (lanter majik) cheragh-e sehri appeared in Tehran in the sixth year of the reign [of Mozaffar-ed-Din Shah]‖, which corresponds 10 April 1902–29 March 1903. What Nazem-ol-Eslam Kermani means by (lanter majik) cheragh-e-sehri is unclear. If he means the kind of shows current at the time, which consisted of projecting a succession of various scenes depicting a story (as in today’s comic strips), these had certainly―appeared‖, even if they had not yet achieved wide popularity, before this date. But, if he means the onset of private and semi-private film viewing with the lanterne magique and then the jahan-nama, then the date does not conflict with that of Sahhafbashi‘s film screenings. It is conceivable that, following the warm welcome given at the court to various types of lanterne magique, jahan-nama and Cinematograph, and perhaps after a second travel to the West in 1902, Sahhafbashi brought together a collection of such devices, together with X-ray equipment, electric fans and probably phonographs, etc., which he sold to the rich or used to hold shows. Therefore, Nazem-ol-Eslam Kermani‘s allusion to him—whom he says he knew well and with whom he was involved in underground political activity points directly to Sahhafbashi and his first public lanterne magique, jahan-nama and later Cinematograph shows. It was not rare at the time to refer to the Cinematograph as lanterne magique, and Khanbaba Motazedi, at the age of fifteen (1907), heard his father say that Russi-Khan had―brought a lanterne magique… which showed moving pictures‖ to Arbab Jamshid‘s residence.

The first reference to a theater (public cinema) is found in the absorbing memoirs of Nasser- ed-Din Shah‘s protégé. He wrote about the evening of Sunday 22 November 1903

I went to Sahhafbashi‘s shop. On Sundays he holds simifonograf shows for Europeans, and in the evening for the public. When I arrived there was no one; just me, a secretary of the Dutch embassy and a few of Taku‘s personnel. Taku was a European goods shop on Lalehzar Avenue. Apparently, on this occasion Malijak went to see a session for Europeans, because he adds: It was two and a half hours past sunset when I called for a landau. Accompanied by the supervisor [his teacher], I went to Sahhafbashi‘s shop to watch the Cinematograph.‖ Malijak. Taking the season into consideration, the cinema session began around eight o’clock PM. Malijak was interested by the cinema, because he again went to a session on the next evening. He wrote in his memoirs: “I called for a landau and we went to watch the simifonograf.”

Having watched for a while, we returned home.

This was probably no more than one or two days after Sahhafbashi had begun holding public film shows, because, had other films been shown earlier, Malijak would have certainly paid a visit or made an allusion to it in his memoirs. The study of Malijak‘s memoirs clearly shows that, fortunately for the history of Iranian cinema and photography, he truly was a full-fledged professional sloth. From morning to night, he paid visits to the court and the houses of different people, poked his nose into shops or wandered in the streets. Malijak‘s life and the style of his memoirs, particularly concerning everyday events, hunting, music, gambling… and social visits, are such that it is hardly conceivable for a public film show to have taken place without him noticing it.

Moreover, in those early years of the twentieth century, Malijak was also keenly interested in photography and music. He took piano lessons and was well aware of the existence of the Cinematograph. He had seen films at Mozaffar-ed-Din Shah‘s court at least as early as 1902, a year before the first public cinema was created. Although opposed with his political views, he was acquainted with Sahhafbashi and had paid him visits even before seeing films, mentioning the novelties he had seen in his memoirs. At first Malijak misjudged Sahhafbashi as an ignorant liar, but after seeing his X-ray equipment at work on the next day—Thursday 22 May 1902—he wrote extensively about it.

Unfortunately, as Malijak‘s memoirs begin on 20 March 1903 / 29, they hold no indication concerning the first four years of filmmaking in Iran. The first Iranian cinema, or tamasha-khaneh, was located in the yard behind his shop on Lalehzar Avenue.

Jamalzadeh writes about Sahhafbashi‘s estate: He had a building at the crossroads and avenue known as Comte, on the northern stretch of Lalehzar, on the left hand side, and he and his wife had transformed their home into a hospital… [and] they had [also] built a functional water cistern on the street side of their garden … The type of goods that Sahhafbashi had in his shop indicates that his customers came from among the aristocracy. Among the films shown there, Qahremanshahi mentions one in which a man ―forced more than one hundred [?] men into a small carriage and had a hen lay twenty eggs. Such comical or extravagant films were very popular at the time and lasted about ten minutes, as did most other films made in that period.

The history of the activity of Sahhafbashi‘s cinema must be limited from 21 November to 20 December 1903, because Malijak makes no other mention of its activity, Sahhafbashi having apparently traveled to America in the meanwhile. The month of Ramazan, which occurred in autumn in that year, was undoubtedly chosen on purpose, because spectators could easily use the long evenings to go to the theater after breaking their fast.

Financially, Sahhafbashi‘s venture seems to have been rather unsuccessful. For example, as we saw, only a few spectators were present at the first session attended by Malijak. And this was probably why Sahhafbashi moved his cinema to a new address on Cheragh-e Gaz (later Cheraq-e-Barq, and now Amir Kabir) Avenue after returning from America around 1905 and not later than 1908 in any case. If this change of address actually took place, it was not any more successful, and this time Sahhafbashi‘s theater closed its doors for good.

The only document on Sahhafbashi‘s travel to America is a bust photograph that shows him in European attire and which was reproduced by Jamal Omid together with the caption: “The picture] shows Mirza-Ebrahim-Khan Sahhafbashi (Mohajer) Tehrani [in] San Francisco.” Of course, the picture does not bear a date ―one must conclude that Sahhafbashi was away from Iran at least during 1904, and that the reopening of his cinema can therefore not have taken place before 1905.

The reopening of Sahhafbashi‘s theater is obscure and no contemporaneous written source concerning this event and the subsequent activity of this theater has yet come to light. As the present article does not intend to enter a long discussion on this reopening, we limit ourselves to a description of it as it was narrated by the late Abdollah Entezam, who attended Sahhafbashi‘s theater in his childhood, and another by Jamalzadeh, which may be related to
the same cinema. Neither Entezam nor Jamalzadeh gives any date, but Farrokh Ghaffari‘s inference from Entezam‘s description was that it was situated around 1905.

Entezam recounted his memories of Sahhafbashi‘s cinema to Farrokh Ghaffari in Bern, Switzerland, in October and November 1940. To his relation of this event to the author, Ghaffari added that Entezam had repeated these words in Tehran in 1949-1950), in the presence of the late Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh and himself, and that Jamalzadeh had confirmed to them. Jamalzadeh himself has been more cautious in his interview with Shahrokh Golestan, believing it ―very, very likely‖ that the cinema to which he had gone in his childhood was Sahhafbashi‘s, and adding that he could no more be sure about it See the full text of Jamalzadeh‘s account, reproduced a few lines below. He also spoke of Sahhafbashi‘s house on Lalehzar Avenue in a brief article he wrote on him in 1978 on the occasion of the reiterated notice of the sale of his chrome plating factory and theater equipment Jamalzadeh, but made no mention of the theater‘s reopening on Cheragh-e-Gaz Avenue or its connection with Sahhafbashi. Neither did Sahhafbashi‘s son, Jahangir Qahremanshahi, or Malijak, that professional sloth, ever mention any such reopening.

Despite these obscure points, doubting the reopening of Sahhafbashi‘s theater on Cheragh-e Gaz Avenue is not justifiable either, and for the present, in view of Entezam‘s solid testimony, the reopening in question should be considered as having taken place, and Jamalzadeh‘s memories of going to that cinema should be taken into consideration. Of course, it is much more probable that Jamalzadeh visited another, lesser, cinema on the same avenue. During the chaotic days of Mohammad-Ali Shah’s reign, others had begun setting up cinemas. They included Aqayoff, whose film shows were also held on Cheragh-e-Gaz Avenue but in the coffee-house of Zargarabad, and Russi-Khan, who had contrived a small cinema next to his photo shop.


Shahryar Adle (1944-2015) was a noted French-Iranian historian and art historian, who is recognized as one of the foremost scholars of Iranian studies. This article is an extract from a much larger study.


Tocsin of the Absolute: Armel Guerne

Armel Guerne (1911-1980) was a French poet and translator. A friend of Mounir Hafez, Georges Bernanos and Emil Cioran, he is the author of numerous translations, including those of Kawabata, Hölderlin, Novalis, Woolf, The Book of a Thousand and One Nights and Moby Dick, to name only the most famous. The fame of his work as a translator has somewhat obscured his own immense poetic work. Yet, according to his own admission, he had no other ambition “than to be welcomed and received as a poet, to be able to count myself one day among the holy number of those divine ruffians of love.”

In the midst of an indigent modernity, dominated by the “absurd and monstrous accumulation of the things without souls,” Armel Guerne knew how to tear open an irredentist breach—a breakthrough “against the world” to sound the tocsin of the Absolute. From his first arrow to his final salvo, his work never deviated from its outgrowth—all were charitably oriented towards a poetic star, the only herald of a “truth that lasts, that begins at the ground level and goes to the sky, and that remains.” And as a cliff carries its other side, his work as a translator and poet are rooted in the same mythical Vale of Tempe—that land of the German Romantics, on which they silently set the “very seal of eternity” on poetry.

Of Armel Guerne’s critical writings (collected in Le Verbe nu [The Naked Word] and L’Ame insurgée [The Insurgent Soul]), chanted at the edge of inner constellations, one could say what Bettina von Arnim said of Hölderlin’s poetry: they are “in the eternal fermentation of restless poetry.” Without ever feeding on any “flavor of the day”—whose constant frenzy is only a proof of its latent paralysis—Armel Guerne watched over a branch of speech, which it is up to each generation to revive in a “grace of living charity” (Lettres Dom ClaudeLetters Dom Claude). Like a guardian of the Pyrenees, like the crypt where the Mazdean priests maintained a sacred fire for a thouysand years, Armel Guerne praised and preserved this heritage of “incessant orations”—thus re-establishing the preeminence of the poem, this “brazen shaft of all words, this axis around which all the worlds revolve and all the ages turn.” (La Nuit veilleNight Watch).

In fidelity to this stellar decree, one finds in each of Armel Guerne’s poems the destined reflection of the “infinite Silentiary” (JournalDiary), which gave his poetry a vesperal and definitive character—in the image of the burnt sky which culminated above Tourtrès, where Guerne sat with his mill, like a watchman on an inalterable Acropolis. It is from this “mill of miracles,” rooted in “the mineral of the wind and forgotten times” that Armel Guerne wrote his greatest poetic work, including Les Jours de l’Apocalypse [The Days of Apocalypse], Le Jardin colérique [The Angry Garden], or the Rhapsodie des fins dernières [Rhapsody of the End Times].

In spite of the overwhelming confidentiality in which his work remains walled up, Guerne remains a sentinel in our night, reminding us of the imperative necessity of poetry, this “Ravenous hunger of the Holy Spirit” which never gives up its weapons to any world, and only gives its eyes to the expectation of a Word—without ever dimming its “purple wing” (St. John of the Cross).

If the poets are immutable and that they alone “found what remainsm” as Hölderlin said, the conservation of their voices seems however to be endangered by the modern pandemonium, which does not cease to reduce the range of their insolent brisures. Guerne hurled in particular violent anathemas at the prolific critical logorrhea which, contrary to its initial mission of “passer-by,” is now happy to palaver blissfully, by assembling and disassembling the great texts upon a mechanical and inert frame. In this necropolis of the word, erected by these merchants of contraband, we find “Nothing true. Nothing alive. Nothing lived. Death put in tomes. Death. Easy to recognize: it cannot be silent, since it exists only in its chatter” (Le Verbe nu). By thus spatulating its plaster of quibbles, this “necrophilic literature of professors, doctors, commentators, exegetes, analysts, biographers, historiographers, anecdotists, nomenclators” proves in the same gesture that it does not actually reside in the poem—its learned objectivity was thus only a scarecrow, upon which it leaned its disarmament—its escape before a sovereign Word. According to Guerne, this denial is the very sting of this pantomime modernity, which, by fear or by cowardice, gesticulates ceaselessly on its own rubble: “For there is a modern thought… clothed in a barbaric or zany language, caught in a corset, a thought without breath; its circle has been reduced to the dimensions of a tiny circus… without ever risking a glance outside” (Le Verbe nu). From then on, we have to consider, following Guerne, that this tropism to the dismantling of the poets is only an umpteenth modality of the “technical Moloch” demystified by Bernanos—this specter of orphaned ashes, which voluntarily forgets as its corruption of the world advances, the vital ferments which made it get born.

Drained and brutalized, the modern soul—whose each edges seems dedicated to the countable osculation of the world—does not know how to measure itself with this sibylline and elusive truth deposited by poetry. It is against this seated deciphering that Guerne crystallizes his rock of insurgency: his anger has no other aim than the fight against all these debilitating deadlocks—tightened every day by the modern dementia, “whose characteristic is to never think, but to turn in circles, faster and faster, in the sawdust and the dung of the time, with the other civil servants, without ever risking a glance outside” (Le Verbe nu).

It is thus against the grain that Guerne reveals to us the dawn of an interior vox cordis, that of poetry—since it is “the only language still alive enough, still armed enough, still powerful and whole enough, close enough to the mystery also of the word, to carry away the fortresses of the inertia and to burst the concrete of the lie, carrying in it a grain of human truth which can still germinate, a seed of beauty which will bloom in the hideousness” (L’âme insurgée).

“All true language is silence”

In response to this deadlocked language, padlocked in its own corrosion, Guerne enjoins us to scrutinize the incandescent hearth of poetry, where only “silence” crackles—this pneuma of an unconquerable breath that whispers its “Unavowable absence impossible to grasp” (Le Jardin colérique). This absence—unavowable because unforgivable—is not this withdrawn mutism that a certain poetry obscure to itself claimed in a self-sufficient glory. On the contrary, with Guerne, silence is an immemorial tear to be safeguarded, a mythical Palladium which guarantees to the world the perpetuation of an island of freedom: “Silence is not what one believes, an extinction, an immobility, a not closed in a yes wide open. Silence is a movement that contains itself, of such power and intensity that to move beside it becomes a grotesque caricature, a stunning simulacrum. The movement of movement, the universal source… The hand of all caresses, of all pains, beyond evil and good, of all acts” (Fragments).

To be disposed to this poetic grammar, it is necessary to imagine that poetry shelters in its torn center a baptistry of silence, where is imperially maintained the forefinger of Angerona, that ancient goddess whose finger affixed to lips—symbol of an ordered silence—is an insolence opposed to all the noises of the world, be they the sweetest. And it is from this preserved archipelago—where the eternal and the temporal intersect—that Armel Guerne composed his Adamic alphabet, wherein culminates in its summit “the unique human voice that stands behind the words and that resounds, mysteriously, each time man reaches out to himself… Sometimes open to the heavy night and echoing in the depths of the abyss, sometimes torn by supernatural gleams, this authentic voice of man, which reappears suddenly at the crucial hours, pierces and disperses his languages” (L’Ame insurgée). For Guerne, perhaps even more than an inapparent heart or a founding axis, silence is the very strength of the poet—indeed, the only one he truly possesses. [“That the most sublime poetry is really, in the end, only the learning of silence” (Le Verbe nu)].

And to connect the corolla of the diamond cutters, who set poetry with an aura of silence, it is appropriate to quote Max Picard and his Monde du silence (World of Silence), in which he writes that “Poetry comes from silence and for the nostalgia of silence.” [Max Picard wrote of Hölderlin that his words “seem to come from a space that existed before creation” (Le Monde du silence)].This echo without return acts thus in the manner of a liturgical screen, by which the poet sifts the relics of a word which precedes the creation, to collect the deposit of a new clarity—opened in the immobile one. This is what Guerne’s poem Le Poids vivant de la parole (The Living Weight of the Word) evokes, in which he dips his hieratic blade, ever more deeply into the “amassed” powers of silence [“The most difficult thing is still to gather the silences, all the silences of the most diverse kinds, and to bring them back intact, one by one, by the dozens, by the thousands, the smallest and the largest, to collect them carefully as they pass and to bring them home delicately. Without breaking them, without tarnishing them, without crumpling them” (La nuit veille)]:

You can write, and you write;
You can be silent, and you are silent.
But to know that silence
Is the great and only key,
One must pierce all the symbols.
To devour the images,
To listen in order not to hear,
To undergo until death
Like a crushing
The living weight of the word.

It is thus about poetry as about an asceticism: a constant and heroic “mine of will” which arms itself in a column of silence. In these two secret nobilities, the same language of oracle is whispered: an awakener of the Spirit who goes “to seek behind the noise; who picks it up and who collects it for all those who are exiled from it. In such a poetic alchemy, there is no place for embellishment or ornament: each word, however simple, is chanted at its “maximum flavor“—thus crystallizing this concretion of the poem into a secret pearl, which testifies before its living weight: “The silent meditation of the most silent of monks is, in this sense, a listening of the word until the finest of the ineffable. Almost perfection” (Fragments).

The Abyss of Time

For Guerne, much more than a simple aggregate of captious and scattered words, the poem is a tension—torn at the two points of the infinite, between the previous Word and the words that seek it. This caesura of abyss, as violent as a “silent storm,” reminds us of the famous letter of the American poet William Carlos Williams [1913 letter to Harriet Monroe, editor of Poetry magazine], where he, after having written that ” Now life is above all things else at any moment subversive of life,” indicates that it is the same for the poem: ” Verse to be alive must have infused into it something of the same order, some tincture of disestablishment, something in the nature of an impalpable revolution.” With Guerne, it is a question of the same perseverance of the poem in a stellar conatus, of the same light accentuating itself in a coruscating force—all these ardent powers concur to this “oxidation of the infinite, of the eternity or of the things” carried by the poetry.

Detecting then a “source of all fires,” the poet fans the mythical remains of it to the point of setting his own word ablaze in a burning firebrand—to be able to welcome “the deposit of a truth” which is not his own. It is this lightning rearrangement that the poem Soudain [Suddenly] encloses, spurring even more deeply this “urge for renewal is gaining ground in the aftermath of monstrous destruction,” of which the poem is only one meteor:

Words, just to put them down
One next to the other,
That say more and go further
Than we go; words
Suddenly no longer ours
And stand so close
Close to a supreme truth.
Words that cease to be said
To better come, suddenly, to become again.
Words of the word.
(Le Poids vivant de la parole)

And if “the ark of the world is on the waters of time,” as Guerne writes in his Jours de l’Apocalypse, it is because it is the poet’s responsibility to go up the tubular corridors of time—themselves linked to the “pillar of Eternity”—to ring the bell of the unalterable. Split between these two temporal poles, his own and that of the word, the poet condenses a “hurricane above the deserts” and breaks the anthropic bodice by a ray of lightning—such as the “interior blood and its irrevocable mystery, until then contained in the night of the body” (La Nuit veille). For, contrary to a modern taxonomy, which requires of the poet a hectic inventiveness turned towards artifice or imagination, Guerne teaches us that the “clairvoyance” of the poet is above all an inclination of the soul towards itself—a sovereign expectation of the living Weight of the word: “The true mystery of all poetry, it is that the poet is in us; the other one, the one who speaks, doesn’t speak; it’s not true: it’s not him, it’s just the Word. Thus, it is by an august gesture of allegiance that the poet makes himself Sphinx, by putting himself in tune with an anterior sovereignty—being able thus only “to give his voice—even if it is breathless—to the voice which calls” (Au bout du tempsAt the end of time).

And it is in this beginning of a rediscovered word that we detect the first strain of Guerne’s thought—the vital point from which all its foliage branches out. It is based on the intuition that poetry should not “second the world” as Kafka said about the novel, but that it aspires to be a mirror of the Apocalypse, taken in its primary sense of “revelation” and “unveiling”: “We have passed the threshold of the Apocalypse and, in my opinion, we are mistaken when we want to look at or read the Apocalypse as a prophecy. In reality we should read and understand it as a lived history, already past in part, and in the depths of which we are charitably engaged. This is what is happening every day. It is more than at our doors; it has entered our lives, we are living it, absolutely.” This apocalyptic bottom generates a deep caesura in his poetic thought—it calls him to a conversion, which carries the word on the imperious way of necessity. As if, by the tear that it would impose, the Apocalypse definitively breaks the vitiated fabrics of the babble, so that poetry finds its innocence of the aerolith. It is with this breaking star that Armel Guerne hoped to hang poetry, as shown in one of his confessions, written in the beating of a revealed abyss: “About poetry, I have ambitious and clear ideas which put it a little higher than the ditty: I want to say, today, vigil of the end time” (Letter to his editor).

The Open Palms

“On a sinking ship, panic comes from the fact that all the people, and especially the sailors, obstinately speak only the language of navigation; and no one speaks the language of shipwrecks. Only prophets and poets know how to use this language of meltdown panic, according to Guerne. In a disoriented universe, where dissolution and siltation seem to be the only avenues of the future, these two passers-by of the absolute raise the lost by only their glances “turned right side up.” It is one of the multiple possible meanings that we give to the Apocalypse evoked by Guerne—beyond a material state of the world, it is an interior accentuation by which the poet does not write any more for himself, nor for the others, but in front of the end of times. Howling thus his Rhapsodie des fins dernières, under the porch of the agony of the world, his verses are consumed in an irrevocable detonation, which tremble with equal intensity with all the “revelations”—”For the poet, the universe is an incandescent drama. Its tragedy enlightens” (Fragments).

Guerne initiates us then into a blessing by the desert—understood as the voluntary desiccation of the poet where the waiting and the attention become his only prayers, his only consoling sources. In these latitudes—dug in an unfathomable abyss that summons all the chasms of silence and night—the freedom of the poet is strangled by the very power of the word: “The word speaks; and I listen to it speak. It sings; and I listen to it sing. It commands; and I listen to it obey and I see it obey. This is the School of the Seer.” And it is from these specular sighs, which reflect even more deeply the received light, that the poet abandons his lower maneuvers to receive the break of a superior verb: “The writing is only a bark of which one makes a divine cup; remains the One who fills it and the one who is thirsty and who takes it to drink. Begging before the one and begging before the other, the poet is between the two ” (Rhapsodie des fins dernières). It is this hieratic snatch of which each poem is the palpitating witness that makes Guerne’s poetic thought so necessary. It reminds us that beyond the dislocation of the poet, between supplications and thundering, it is the simple word carried by poetry which bequeaths to us an effulgent crystal—”The poet did nothing but open his blood, source of word” (Le Verbe nu).

It is up to the poet alone to hold out this open palm of the beggar—whose bruised phalanxes are only the pulverized reflection of his own charity—to pick up this immemorial tear of the word. Like a herald, the poet then remembers this mythical needle by affixing it on all the ruins of the world—and carries in front of a new Axis Mundi, like an Atlas armed with the sword of the Archangel: “All set their traps for you, scholars, politicians, bankers; the traps in which they themselves are caught. The poet holds out to you his buoy, and if he can, his hand”. (Preface to his translation of the Disciples at Sais, Hymns to the Night, religious songs of Novalis).


Henri Rosset writes from France. “Everyone wants to own the end of the world.” This articles through the kind courtesy of PHILITT.