Voyage to the Center of the Earth

by Jacques Collin de Plancy

  Williams manifested a desire to pursue them and catch a few of them; we made him see that it would be a poor means of gaining the affection of the people to employ violence. In any case, the enormity of our fall and the fatigue of the journey we had just made to descend from the magnetic rock on to the plain had exhausted us to such an extent that it would have been impossible to run for a hundred strides. We therefore stayed in repose, waiting until it pleased Heaven to enable us to find a good welcome among the little people.

  At the same time, we began a long conversation, and made grand conjectures about what we had just seen. I shall not weary the reader with them. I shall only say that the little men we had just seen were clad in animal skins, and that the color of their skin was olive green. Their faces seemed to us to be extremely long, and some of us doubted that they were really human. They had arms and legs conformed almost exactly like ours. As for their voices, they did not resemble human voices.

  We did not see them again that day, and night fell, if one can call night a temporary obscurity caused by fog.

  We went into a little wood, where each of us hid as best he could in order to sleep, while one of us stood watch, relieved by the hour.

  The next morning we experienced a surprise that it is quite impossible for me to express; and I believe that the reader will be at least as astonished as us. I mean that we were woken up by the sun...

  That prodigy threw us into a further embarrassment and universal doubt. Again we were tempted to believe what we were the victims of the chimeras of a dream—but how could we all be having the same dream? In any case, the dream had already gone on too long.

  “However,” Edward said to us, “We’re buried inside the globe; the surface of the Earth is above our heads; the sun is n longer illuminating the pole, but we can see it almost overhead, far from the polar opening. Is the Earth that we’ve quit transparent?

  “I don’t think it’s that at all,” said the Manseau, “and this is the means of according ourselves with the probability. We were mistaken when we thought that we’d descended into the center of the Earth. Fear persuaded us that we were falling when the whirlwind lifted us up instead of casting us down, as we thought at first. I therefore believe that instead of being in a subterranean land, which is impossible, if we consult our sensations and everything that’s happening around us, we’re on the Moon. So, it’s natural that we can see the sun from here, since the Moon is in space. It’s also natural that we find people here who are smaller than us, since the Moon is fifty-five times smaller than the Earth from which we’ve come.”

  “Your error seduced me at first,” Clairancy interjected, “but after reflecting momentarily, I can prove to you that your theory has no foundation. First of all, if we’d been transported to the Moon, as you contend, we’d have died en route, since that heavenly body is ninety thousand leagues from the Earth at its most distant point and sixty-seven thousand at its nearest. Secondly, since the Moon illuminates the Earth in the absence of the Sun, the Earth ought to render the Moon the same service, and in the more than twenty hours that we’ve been here, we’ve only seen the sun that has just appeared. Then again, yesterday we enjoyed a pure light for a long time without knowing how it was produced. If we were on the Moon, as you suggest, we would have seen the sun throughout the time that we had its light. Finally, even supposing that fear had prevented us from seeing anything at the moment of our fall, I’d raise doubts about our situation if he had all experienced different sensations—but how could we have been going up when we’re all convinced that we were descending?

  “Now, this is the most plausible of all the hypotheses that we can form. The surface of our world is pierced, in certain places, by volcanoes, mountains with openings and bottomless precipices; it might be that those volcanoes and those precipices traverse the entire thickness of the ground, and when the sun darts its rays on our globe, when it passes over one of these openings, it casts its light and warmth thereinto, which reach all the way here by that means. If what I suppose is true, perhaps it’s also to that cause that we ought to attribute the source of volcanic flames, subterranean exhalations, and so on.”

  Although these conjectures appeared to us to be extravagant at first, we yielded to them when we saw that, after having shone for an hour above us, the sun suddenly disappeared, and showed itself six hours later at another point of the sky. There were no clouds that could have hidden it from our eyes, and it vanished in the middle of the sky. During the entire time we spent on the subterranean globe, we saw the same thing continually. In some places the sun showed itself twice a day; in others, it only appeared once, but always for an hour, and it never failed to appear. And yet, in spite of the absence of the sun, we enjoyed the softest radiance all day long, either because the star cast luminous waves through the two openings of the poles in great enough abundance to illuminate the small globe continually, or because, as it launched its rays during the day through the pores of the Earth, the sky of the country conserved enough reflections for night only to come in its turn.

  But I would get lost if I extended myself any longer in these thorny discussions, and perhaps I already have. None of us was a great physicist, and Clairancy, who mingled a little astronomy and physics, nevertheless only raised doubts, without daring to conclude anything. We shall therefore leave the judgment to people more knowledgeable about these matters than us.

  I ought not to forget, either, to mention another phenomenon, which caused us no less embarrassment than the sight of the sun. We were expecting to find the days and nights distributed as on our globe, but everywhere, and constantly, on that central planet the days are about eighteen hours and the nights approximately six. The seasons there are always temperate, and one can scarcely distinguish winter from spring and autumn. Only the summer—which is to say, the season of great harvests—is a little warmer. Furthermore, there are fruits and vegetables in the country at all times. Clouds are very rare during the day, but very thick at night. During that time one perceives nuclei of light in the sky, which we would have taken for stars if we had not known that the Earth was above us. It therefore seemed reasonable to us to think that those stars were the roots of volcanoes, or igneous particles, or meteors unknown to us.

  But I repeat, we are content to affirm the existence of these phenomena, without reaching any decision as to their nature and causes. The continuation of our adventures might perhaps be even more surprising.

  XIV. The savages of the small globe.

  A singular reception.

  While we were arguing about the various surprises we had just experienced, hunger made itself felt. We advanced into the plain, and ate the first fruits that we came across. After walking for a good hour in search of some village, however, without having found the smallest hut, we perceived before us a kind of grassy altar. We headed toward it.

  The altar was on the edge of a rather deep ditch. Six grey animals, a little smaller than European cats, with their throats cut, had been placed there. They were six of the local pigs. At the foot of the altar there were a few burned herbs.

  We were busy trying to figure out what the altar and the half-consumed sacrifice signified when we perceived, on the other side of the ditch, an innumerable troop of little people, like those we had seen the day before. Some detached themselves and advanced to within twenty paces of us.

  They were only twenty inches tall, and we realized, on seeing them at close range, that it had been impossible for us to distinguish them in the distance, because they were as green as the trees and bushes. What had made us think that they had such long faces was that they all had long beards that hung down over their beasts, and which were very nearly the same color as the rest of their face. We could only see their women at a distance; they seemed to us to be well enough made.

  As soon as the detachment of little men that was coming toward us arrived on the other edge of the ditch that separated us, they knelt down and kissed the ground. The most apparent among them h
ad enormous brown bonnets and belts of the same color.

  We were not mistaken in taking them for the local priests. They began to mutter a few prayers, striking the earth with their foreheads from time to time—which did not do them any great harm, because of the cushions of animal hide that lined their turbans. Then they got up, and made signs indicating that we should take the six victims that were on the altar. We did as we were instructed; we noticed that the six pigs had been emptied of their entrails and that they had been cooked in their skin. Those circumstances gave us some pleasure, because they promised us a good meal. Each of us, therefore, took possession of the pig destined for him.

  I ought to say here, to clarify what is about to follow, that the color of joy among that primitive people, is green, and the color of sadness dead-leaf gray; that they mistook us or malevolent spirits because we were tall and pale; that they were offering us six victims in expiation in order to appease us; and that the prayers that the priests had said before us were supposed to ward us off and oblige us to depart as soon as we had taken our prey. We discovered all that a short time later.

  For the moment, far from thinking of retiring, after taking the six pigs, we were only intent on thanking the little men. As they saw that we were not beating a retreat, they began to utter howls, and to subject us to a rain of stones. That treatment appeared to us to be so inconceivable that we drew away as quickly as possible; that was what they expected.

  Williams, however, who was not very tolerant, shouted that he wanted to know what those people were up to, and at the same time, in spite of the shouts we addressed to him to stop him, he rapidly crossed over the ditch that separated us from the little men, and ran after them in order to catch one.

  The assembled people had no sooner seen one of the giants they feared as much at their heels, taking such long strides, that everyone took flight. Williams took it into his head, in order to stop them, to utter a terrible howl with all the force of his lungs. Then the little people lay flat on the ground, and the priests, seeing that the evil spirit was irritated, stopped abruptly, in order to engage the people to appease his anger.

  A few of the most fearful, thinking that we would be satisfied if they gave us a victim, seized one of the priests and presented him, in spite of his cries of protest, to Williams. As that was all our companion wanted, he took the poor priest under his arm, and hastened to bring him to us. In the meantime, the entire crowd disappeared, as quickly as possible.

  We then sought to reassure the little green man that Williams had brought us, by means of caresses. It took us more than an hour to calm the fears that had put him in agony, and he subsequently gave us to understand that he had expected, when he fell into our hands, to be eaten alive.

  When we had dissipated his fears somewhat, we commenced our meal before asking him any questions. He refused to take his share, because the animals we were eating were of an impure color. If the good procedures that we employed in his regard had been able to persuade him that we were not malevolent beings, those ideas were destroyed in his mind by the pleasure we took in eating those expiatory animals. So he watched us devour, with amazement, what he judged only fit or the mouths of demons. However, he might have been hungry. We asked him by means of signs what he wanted to eat. He showed us the fruits of a nearby tree. Tristan immediately brought him an abundance of them. He took a few and dined very soberly. Our own meal was delicious, because the expiatory flesh was extremely tender, and tasted quite good.

  After that, Edward had a long conversation in pantomime with our little man. We learned from him that the population of which he was a part lived in the woods, without huts or any fixed abode—in brief, that they were savages far from any civilization. The horde admitted divinities and another life.

  This is their theory, to the best of our comprehension. In the beginning there was a good genius or a god, whose origin was unknown. He lived with his wife in the elevated part of the land. His power was limitless, but it was counterbalanced by the power of an evil genius or demon, who spread evil beneath the steps of the good genius. That demon also had a wife, who was his equal in wickedness. The good genius had no children, but the evil genius had a great many because his wife had never ceased making them since the commencement of the world.

  When humans had been created, they worshiped the good genius and did not think at first of gaining the good graces of the evil genius. The evil genus was jealous, and vowed an implacable hatred against them. The humans, frightened, then erected altars to the evil genius, his wife and heir numerous children. The worship of the good genius, which was only a religion of love, was gradually neglected, and priests were instituted in order to maintain lavishly the altars of the evil genius, who was served by dread, and consequently well-served.

  Now, the peoples of that country, finding themselves more unfortunate than fortunate, soon no longer saw the good genius, and believed that they had been abandoned by him, because their imagination only presented to them the troubles that their forefathers had had. On the contrary, they found the evil genius everywhere, since they believed that they were surrounded by nothing but evils. They expected another life, which they embellished with all the sensual pleasures. In the meantime, they sought as much as possible to protect themselves from the traps of the evil spirits, who showed themselves from time to time, never in the place where the story was told, but always in a neighboring locale.

  When they saw us, they regarded us as a detachment of those evil spirits of which there was so much talk; our stature was approximately that attributed to them. They sought to appease us, but as they observed that we did not withdraw after having taken what was offered to us, they pursued us with a hail of stones, in accordance with an old belief of the region that held that evil beings could be chased away by force when it had not be possible to do so by means of sacrifices and conjurations. Finally, when they saw that Williams, instead of fleeing, was running after the inhabitants, they had thought that the priests had carried out the conjurations wrongly, and they had delivered us the first one that came to hand.

  We understood then, from the little man’s gestures, that we would constantly find primitive people on our route as we advanced away from the pole, for ten days, and then we would find towns. Then, having found out all that we wanted to know, we explained to the poor priest, as best we could, that we were not malevolent spirits, that we came from another world, where humans were giants, and that we had no evil intention. After that, we gave him a few caresses, and sent him away. He seemed as surprised as he was joyful at our conduct in his regard, and returned to his companions.

  For our part, we set forth to discover a less fearful people. Everyone fled before u; we could not understand why the inhabitants of that country had imaginations so black; the sky there was always pure, and nature fertile.

  We covered the ten days’ journey that the little man had announced to us in order to reach a more civilized land in two days. Then we entered a region of peoples less primitive, who had heard mention of our approach, and who were already wise enough not to be frightened of us in advance.

  We soon saw those little men; their color was brighter than those of their neighbors; it was a pale yellow-green. They came to met us in a body and asked us who we were. We made them understand that we came from above, and that we were part of a tall people. We also explained to them that we only wanted to live, and not to do any harm whatsoever to anyone.

  With that, the people took us into their town. It was simply a forest surrounded by a ditch. The houses were little wooden huts built at the foot of trees. We could not go into them, but at least they gave us food, and animal skins on which to pass the night.

  XV. A civilized nation. Binoculars, etc.

  The next day we were made to understand that we had to go: that they were not sufficiently certain as to whether we were human beings, or good or evil spirits, to keep us for more than one night; that if we were human, our nourishment was too considerable; if we we
re good spirits, it would require even greater expense and religious ceremonies; and if we were evil beings they had no need of us.

  We therefore departed, since we had no option; and in all the habitations we passed through for seven days, we were only received for one night; but the people became more enlightened and more tractable the further we went.

  When we had arrived in the last of those petty primitive nations, we were told that after traversing extended and uninhabited heaths, we would arrive in a great kingdom, extremely populous, flourishing and devoid of religion. That last circumstance appeared to us to be so singular and so incompatible with a flourishing state that we refused to believe it—and we were right, as you shall see in due course. Moreover, Clairancy observed to us that it is common practice among superstitious peoples to regard as impious those whose religion is simple.

  At any rate, we quit the region garnished with forests, fruits and useful plants and populated with animals of every sort. We found none of the latter that resembled those we knew on the sublunar globe, with the exception of the local horses, which were reminiscent of the mules and sheepdogs of Europe, and were no larger than sheep.

  As we traversed the heathlands, we amused ourselves by hunting. We pursued animals on foot and occasionally caught them. We had also made slings of a sort, like those we had seen in the hands of the savages, and were beginning to make use of them passably. The heaths must have been five or six leagues across; they only produced bushes, and passed on that world for a desert. We found eggs there as big as pigeon’s eggs; they were the largest in the land, and the birds that laid them resembled the ostriches of the sublunar world.

  On emerging from the heaths we were obliged to climb a small mountain that formed the frontier of the realm we were about to enter. When we reached the summit we thought we had been transported by enchantment into an imaginary world. Behind us were uncultivated lands, and in front of us the most benevolent nature deployed her greatest riches: rivers, lively springs, florid meadows, crops, villages and farms. In brief, the most agreeable of all spectacles was presented to our eyes.