Voyage to the Center of the Earth

by Jacques Collin de Plancy

  XIX. Journey to the isle of Sanor.

  The seas of the small globe.

  An honorable reception.

  The next day, we were informed that we would be leaving for the capital in a month. Although we had almost nothing to desire in Silone, we were beginning to get bored with the uniform life that we led there, and like the Hebrews in the desert who regretted the onions of Egypt, we were weary of eating nothing but vegetables, and we thought sometimes about our former nourishment.

  We took care, every day, to instruct ourselves regarding the customs of the country in which we were living. Many things there were different from what is known in Europe, but I did not notice anything that seemed to me to be utterly remarkable. Perhaps minds more observant than ours would have obtained a greater profit from the sojourn we made in the realm of Albur, but for myself, I only took note of singular things.

  Our host had told us that several other people as well as the Alburians abstained from meat, and he had exhibited enough scorn for human carnivores; however, there was, fifty leagues from Silone, a civilized population who lived on meat as well as vegetables. From the moment that we heard mention of that nation, where we hoped to eat meat, we had conceived the project of spending some time there.

  As we were to remain for another month in Silone before setting out for the capital of Albur, and ennui was overtaking us, we decided, two days after the festival of the great O to pay a short visit to the neighboring nation. We asked our host what sort of people we would find there.

  “Giants,” he told us. “Not as tall as you, in truth, but as tall again as Alburians. Their country is a large island surrounded by rocks; it is called the island of Sanor. The men live under the absolute government of an emperor, the women under the despotism of an empress. The high priest of the country has a limitless power over the dead. Strangers are well-received on the island, because its people are traders and lovers of pleasure.”

  A few further items of information we were given about the Sanorlians only served to excite our curiosity. We told our host that we wanted to see the island of Sanor, which was so close to us, before going to the capital, but we promised to return before the end of the month.

  The governor of the town, to whom we went thereafter to make the same declaration, gave us letters of recommendation for the authorities of the land whether we were going, and we left Silone the following day. The recommendations were unnecessary, as you shall see.

  As the day was long and we were good enough walkers, we covered before nightfall the twelve leagues there were between Silone and the sea. We had only seen the rivers of the small globe as yet, which could easily have passed for streams; we thought we had been transported to Europe on contemplating the three leagues of sea that separated us from the large island of Sanor, except that the water was paler and more limpid that the water of the seas of the sublunar globe.

  That sea, which contains in its bosom three powerful states and an innumerable quantity of islands, is, we were told, two hundred and eighty leagues broad by a hundred and sixty-three long. It is the ocean of the subterranean world.

  It was necessary for us to wait for the following day to embark. Then a ship from Sanor, which was returning to the island, took us aboard; it was as large as our launches for thirty or forty men, and passed for one of the largest cargo vessels one could see on the small globe. It had two decks large enough for us to visit them by lowering our heads slightly; its entire construction was elegant, and the gleam of copper was everywhere—needless to say, iron was unknown there.

  As the winds there are almost always very gentle, we did not see any use made there of sails; ships were made to move with fiery engines, and boats with wheels fitted with oars, which two men could easily set in motion.17

  The captain of the ship had welcomed us very amicably; he rejoiced in taking us to his homeland, and would have great pleasure in introducing us to the emperor and empress, who would undoubtedly be charmed to see us.

  The crew was composed of Sanorlians, so we were able to get an idea of the people we were going to see. The tallest were three and a half feet in height; their faces were regular enough, but less dainty than those of the Alburians. They spoke the same language, with an accent that confused us for a few days; their clothing was extremely rich and their hair perfumed. We judged in consequence that a short distance from Silone we would find other mores.

  The crossing was serene, and only took four or five hours. During that interval, we conversed with the captain of the ship about various subjects that we were keen to know; then we told him about the pleasure we would have in eating meat.

  “Oh, so much the better!” he exclaimed. “I feared that you might come from a country where people only live in vegetables and fruits, as in the realm of Albur, and I confess that I was somewhat embarrassed regarding the means of nourishing you honorably during the sojourn who were about to make on our island; but since you eat the same kind of food as the Sanorlians, we’ll have a little snack together.”

  As he spoke, he struck a kind of little drum that was beside him. A domestic appeared, who hastened to bring two roasted suckling pigs, some poultry and an abundant dessert.

  If we were joyful to be with people over three feet tall, who at least seemed to us to be human by comparison with the Alburians, we were no less satisfied to see meat on the table. We tucked into the “snack” cheerfully, and we entered the island’s main port as we were eating our dessert.

  We darted attentive glances around us to look for the launches that would take us to the shore; we saw the harbor filled with fishing-boats, but the ship did not stop. A narrow bay had been hollowed out in the depths of the port. Vessels went into it in order to unload, by means of a number of mobile bridges that were disposed on the dock. After that, the vessel went back into the harbor by another opening, turning around a hill that formed an island in the port, equipped with fortifications.

  As soon as news of our arrival was known on the island, a large multitude of people came to see us, and we were escorted, as if in triumph, to the capital, which was only half a league distant from the port. On the way, we noticed that the women of the country were as tall, and much more beautiful, than the men. They had, in addition, sufficient coquetry to heighten by means of adornment the gifts that nature had lavished upon them.

  The vegetation of the island grew almost as tall as that of Europe, and we had difficult in conceiving that, so close to the Alburians, there were people twice as tall as them, considering the fine soil of the land and its prodigious force. So, the island of Sanor is the most beautiful country of the small globe. Festivals there are very frequent, and luxury is permitted there, as in every country where despotism is customary, because a people under the yoke require a few pleasures, to console them for the loss of their liberty.

  Our eyes were habituated only to seeing miniature houses. When we entered the capital of Sanor, it appeared to us to be extremely imposing. The houses ordinarily had only two stories, but those stories were sometimes ten feet high, and we could pass freely under all the doors. There was not one regular architecture, as in Silone; the streets were, in fact, rectilinear, but they were all populated with palaces, temples, towers and various public constructions of great magnificence.

  Immediately after entering the capital, we were introduced to the Emperor, before whom it was necessary for us to set one knee on the ground. The monarch received us with open arms. He had a pleasant appearance and expressed himself very well. He did not keep us for long, reserving the pleasure, he told us, of conversing with us one day at his ease, and we were taken to the Empress.

  She was a woman of about thirty, extremely beautiful, and of an extraordinary height, since she was almost four feet tall. I had seen few persons as gracious in Europe.

  It was the custom on the island to prostrate oneself before the august face of the Empress and to strike one’s forehead on the white carpet that was always extended at the foot of the throne. We h
ad been told about that and we made it a duty to perform the ceremony ordered by the etiquette of the court, but the amiable princess stopped us. She came toward us as soon as she saw us and made us sit down beneath her, after offering her cheek to us to kiss. That favor seemed to us to be very agreeable. Clairancy, who was the last to receive it, also wanted to kiss her hand, believing he would signify by that greater submission, but he was prevented by one of the Empress’ officers, who, seeing our astonishment, told us that only the emperor had the right to kiss the hand of the Princess.

  After we had sat down, the Empress asked us to recount our adventures. Clairancy acquitted that commission on behalf of us all. The beautiful sovereign appeared to take the keenest interest in our misfortunes, and promised to make us forget them if we wanted to settle in Sanor. Then she gave us for lodgings a palace that was without a master, by virtue of the death of a prince of the imperial blood, which had occurred three months before our arrival on the island.

  We were taken there immediately; a sumptuous dinner was waiting for us. As we were about to go to the table, we remembered the captain of the vessel that had brought us, and sent him an invitation to come and dine with us. He hastened to arrive, and congratulated us on the good fortune that awaited us in Sanor, if we were able to profit from it.

  At the same time, we sat down at table; the wine had sap and strength; the dishes were excellent; the meal was extremely merry. A further incident augmented our delight: while we were drinking to the health of the Emperor and Empress of Sanor, an officer of the court arrived and handed to the mariner an imperial edict, which he hastened to read after having stood up and kissed the seal respectfully.

  The sovereign’s edict gave him the vessel in which he had brought us from Albur. The pleasant surprise that he experienced was so great that he looked at us all, without being able to speak at first, but eventually exclaimed: “Fortunate children of Heaven, you bring good fortune everywhere that you appear. Good fortune also comes in visiting you, since you have gained the good graces of our august Princess.”

  You shall see how that prediction was fulfilled.

  When evening came, we got ready to go to bed. We each had a separate apartment, which had been prepared for us in a matter of hours, and yet lacked nothing.

  “Hurrah for the country where luxury reigns!” exclaimed Tristan. “One enjoys all the pleasures of life there!”

  We were all habituated to sleeping in the same room, and it seemed painful to us to split up. It was necessary to resolve to do it, however, so we wished one another goodnight and each went to bed, in order to see our companions the next day with greater pleasure. A thousand enchanting dreams came to cradle us during our sleep, and we built a thousand castles in Spain that there is no need to report here.

  We spent a week in that fashion, in pleasure and amusements, for we had the honor of being invited to all the parties at the court. In one hunt in which we took part, Clairancy had the privilege of killing a kind of bear that was pursuing the Empress. The urgent manner in which she thanked him, and the gratitude she promised him for such a simple action, caused us to divine the secret cause of the generosity that was being shown to us in so much profusion. The fortunate Clairancy had spoken to the heart of the sovereign of Sanor.

  That discovery filled him with joy, and gave birth to the thought that the rest of us might also seek some conquest. Those among us who were of medium height, especially, could flatter themselves quite easily with the hope that the women of Sanor might look at them with pleasure. Clairancy, Edward and Martinet were no taller than five feet two, and Tristan was even shorter. As for Williams, apart from the fact that he was tall and stout, he had never been able to make love, and I had a complexion too cold to construct other knots than platonic liaisons—for which I was often mocked by my companions.

  XX. Government. The library. Singular justice.

  While the others were thinking of the pleasures that amour offered them on the island of Sanor, and forgetting their promise to return, at the end of a month, to the realm of Albur, I made a few observations on the mores of the country where we were living. This, in brief was the form of its government.

  The Emperor had a limitless power over the property and liberty of men. He nominated the judges that rendered them justice; he alone had the right to grant them mercy when they were condemned; in sum, his power resembled that of sultans, with the exception that with regard to women, he was merely the husband of their sovereign.

  The Empress had the same rights over the fair sex that the Emperor had over men; she gave them their judges, who were women, and she alone had the power to grant mercy to female criminals.

  The High Priest could grant or refuse a sepulcher to the dead, and he ordered the circumstances at his whim; his power extended in that regard as far as that of the Emperor and Empress.

  It is necessary to say, too, in praise of that country, that the women there are raised like the men, with the unique difference that the women take care to conserve their seductions and the men to opt a slightly cavalier attitude. In addition, there are often two parties in the state when it is a matter of important affairs, and the party of men does not often have the upper hand.

  Polygamy is tolerated there, but it excludes one from any public function. The responsibilities that require ease in those who exercise them, like the ministry of judges, are venal. Sciences are in great credit there, but there is great difficulty regarding books, which are severely censored, not for their political or religious opinions, but for method and style. However, although one is free to write about religion, one does not have the same liberty to speak of it irreverently, as you shall see in due course.

  One day, I went with Clairancy and Martinet to visit the great public library of Sanor. It is composed of about a hundred thousand volumes, lodged in a vast and magnificent palace. All the vaults are in neatly jointed stone, and all the doors in bronze. We asked the librarian to show us the distribution of the different works, which he did with the best grace in the world.

  In the first hall, which was not very spacious, were books of theology. They were placed, as everywhere, at the head of the library, but they only occupied the twentieth part of it.

  “Your theology isn’t very extensive,” said the Manseau. “It appears that you’re lightly occupied with it.”

  “You judge us wrongly,” replied the librarian, “if you think that we give less care to books that talk about God than to profane works, but we only allow sage authors to enter here; it is not embarrassed by the discussion that hinder worship and give false ideas of the Divinity, nor any of the polemic writings that form sects and divide hearts. This is the whole of our theology: the sacred book of the religion, in all languages known to us; poems that celebrate and praise the greatness of God; books of morality; natural history, which teaches us to bless the father of nature; and everything that treats the various works of the Creator.”

  “That theology is better than ours; let’s look elsewhere.”

  I ought to say in passing, however, that if the theology of the Sanorlians was beautiful in books, it was very dark in practice, as you shall see.

  “In the gallery that follows,” the librarian continued, “books of history are disposed. You see first of all an abridged history of the empire of Sanor, over seven thousand years and more, in ten folio volumes; after that, the memoirs of each year since the invention of printing; further on, the particular histories of our great princes, our sages, our famous generals, our illustrious poets, and tyrants who have weighed upon the nation. On the other side are the histories of the other countries of the globe that we inhabit.

  “In the cabinet that serves as a passage to the second gallery you see the various writings of our philosophers, those respectable men who spent their lives in search of wisdom, and showing people the way to happiness.

  “This room of immense size that succeeds the philosophy cabinet contains books of science, the elements of the fine arts, the dome
stic arts, books on education, economy, research, politics, amusement, and so on. It also contains the memoirs of remarkable voyages and the history of our inventions.

  “After that you see belles-lettres, poetry in various genres, the theater of all known nations, novels, fables, etc.

  “Finally, in this closet at the back, is all our jurisprudence.” As he spoke, the Sanorlian opened the closet, and we saw twenty volumes there set on cushions.

  “What! Those are all you books of law?” queried the Manseau.

  “Yes,” the Sanorlian replied, “and don’t think that we have twenty volumes on that subject; we only have one, which you can see in twenty languages; that’s the sacred code of our laws, the only book that needs to be consulted in order to render justice.”

  “And what do you do with political works?”

  “We place them elsewhere; but this one ought to terminate the order of our books, as the sacred book commences it.”

  We were surprised again to see that library so well arranged, and in an order quite similar to ours, and we asked the Sanorlian how many public libraries there were in the capital.

  “There are ten,” he replied, “and two in very large town. The books that are here are also found in all the others, so that if, in spite of all our precautions, the palace containing them caught fire, all would not be lost.”

  “But I’ve wanted to know for a long time,” Clairancy said, “how many years you’ve known printing.”