Voyage to the Center of the Earth

by Jacques Collin de Plancy

  One day, when I was taking about all those disorders to a native of the land, he told me: “The country is running to its ruin; morals are entirely lost; the laws are corned; the population, morality and wellbeing will only recover their glory when we have adopted the Alburians’ law regarding marriage. The magistrates are occupied with it; I’d like to believe that they will be fortune enough to pull us out of the abyss into which we have hurled ourselves.”

  The exterior of the Noladans announces happiness. They spend their nights and balls and feasts; all their view are directed toward luxury; a hundred spectacles open every day occupy, in a thousand forms, the ennuis of the evening. Entertainments, gaming and fashions raise the revenues of the state. The country would have offered us a thousand pleasures if we had gone there before knowing the kingdom of Albur, but we could not stay long among a people where brief scenes of pleasure were suddenly effaced by hideous spectacles. Debauchery, vice, multiple executions and sins without number all reminded us of the civilization of a few European countries, and after a four-month sojourn we left the republic of the Nolandans for the Felinois realm.

  If those we had just quit were only occupied in enjoying material life, those we now found ourselves among almost went to the opposite extreme, involving themselves with nothing but theology and lawsuits.

  Codes and books of jurisprudence under all titles were profuse there, and it would have been impossible to count the books of Felinois religion. We were witness there to several lawsuits as bizarre as they were deplorable.

  A Felinoise lady infatuated with a young man who passed for a friend of the family, and unable to satisfy at her ease the passion that she had conceived for him, in a town where her every step might be observed, used the pretext of a voyage to see her family, who lived two days’ journey away in the capital. The trip was due to last several months. The husband, who was a merchant, was traveling in the provinces, as he often did when he wife was absent.

  One day, when he was in a frontier town seven days journey away from the city where his wife had promised to go, to his great surprise, he found his faithful wife before him, walking openly arm in arm with the friend of the family.

  The husband, amazed by the sight of his wife, whom he believed to be elsewhere, and who presented herself there with a man he believed to be his friend, rubbed his eyes and doubted at first that he was awake. Finally, though, he heard the voices of the two guilty parties. He asked them what hazard had brought them to such a distant town.

  The wife and the friend stammered at first, then sought to reassure him; the husband did not give them time, and quit them, warning them to be ready to appear the following day before a judge.

  When the adulterous woman found herself alone with her accomplice she reproached him for his timidity in defending her, and told him that she would regard him as an incompetent if he could not get them out of the difficulty in which they found themselves.

  The lady’s companion’s honor was at stake, and he wrote a letter to the outraged husband:

  You insulted me yesterday in a public street; I therefore enjoin you to leave the town as soon as possible, if you value your shoulders, warning you that if you are here tomorrow you will receive fifty strokes of the cane, and as many on the days that follow until you have evacuated the town. You have threatened me with a complaint to a judge; I am confident in warning you that my case is good, and that if you have the injustice of accusing me, you will receive a double dose of the treatment I am preparing for you, with other accessories. Signed, etc.

  The husband was not frightened by this amicable missive. He immediately went to lodge his legal complaint, and deposited the letter in question with the clerk of the court.

  The woman, although she was young and pretty, was apprehended bodily an hour later, along with her accomplice. They were tried the following day. An act of divorce was granted at the request of the husband; the seducer was oblige to pay a large fine; the husband was authorized to take a quarter of his wife’s dowry as compensation, which he had the grace to refuse, and the two guilty parties were sentenced conjointly to sent six months in separate prisons and then to marry in the public dock. They were to live as they wished thereafter, but without ever being able to return to the capital, where the husband lived, or to the town where their sentence had been pronounced.

  That case appeared to us to be so singular that we kept the printed record of it, and it is a simple translation that I have just reported here. In Europe, a volume could have been written on such a subject.

  The Felinois have a great penchant for the vain superstitions that are so widespread in the sublunar world. Dreams, especially, have great credit with them, with the difference that they are explained in Europe in the inverse sense that they announce, and there they are taken quite naturally, unless they are too complicated.

  Thus, the charlatans and madmen who decree themselves in Europe to be capable of explaining dreams claim that one will have chagrins when one dreams of bonbons, poverty when one dreams of riches and joy when one dreams of sad things. There on the contrary, one expects to weep when one dreams than one was weeping, to laugh when one dreams of joy, and credulous imaginations sometimes accomplish those ridiculous predictions, which does not fail to accredit them.

  There is also a kind of public gambling there, similar to our lotteries, and seekers of dupes have published, as in Europe, books that explain dreams in favor of that gaming, with the consequence that good women, cobblers and credulous men gamble their money on the fragile hope of a dream. As the imagination cannot go far enough to persuade the gamblers that they have won when they have lost, that mania of self-ruination should have vanished of its own accord, but people cherish chimeras too much to abandon them, and it would be impossible to count the number of Felinois whom public gaming and dreams have thrown into indigence.

  A good bourgeois reduced to beggary because his wife had spent his whole fortune in the hope that dreams might put her in clover; an artisan who could have made an honest living but forgot that a silver coin in the purse is worth fifty pieces of gold in the sea-mist; a father of a family, seduced by the idea of enriching himself; a drunkard full of the sweet illusion that his dreams would supply him with drink; an immense quantity of women, in order to have fine clothes, put their money in the gabling pot, and grew old in indigence, without being put off by the thousand failed attempts that, far from giving them the superfluous, have deprived them of the necessary.

  There are no astrologers among the Felinois, nor any other people of the small globe, for the very good reason that there are no stars above their heads and the sources of light that are seen here and there in what they call the sky are motionless and invariably the same. In recompense, there are sorcerers, diviners, enchanters, demons and a multitude of other rascals of the same sort.

  The religion of the Felinois is very elaborate, full of ceremonies, rigorous and terrible. The number of theologians, monks and priests forms at least a quarter of the nation, including female theologians, priestesses and women who predict the future in covens. That religion appeared to us so singular that we wanted to know a few details of it; the reader will find the summary in the following chapter.

  XXXII. The religious dogma of the Felinois;

  or, The story of the great prophet Burma.

  The earth was plunged in darkness, and the Felinois only rendered divine honors to the beasts of the forest and the birds of the air, when the prophet Burma descended from the sky in order to extract humans from barbarity.

  He appeared in our fields like a luminous spirit, and said to our fathers: “Felinois, follow Burma and you will be happy.” Our fathers followed Burma, and the prophet, having assembled them around an old oak, had them sit down on the grass; then he took from his bosom an ostrich egg, and broke it; a little bird emerged, which took flight toward the sky.

  “Felinois,” said Burma, “you have seen a prodigy. That prodigy ought to explain to you the nature of humans. You h
ave believed until now that you were born to live, and then to die entirely. You were in error. God has sent me among you and has commanded me to open your eyes. The egg that you have just seen is your body. I have broken it as death will break you when the time comes. The bird that emerged from the broken egg is your soul, which will escape from the body to rise into the plains of the air when death passes over you.

  “Listen, therefore, to what I have come to tell you. When God, in whose name I am speaking, had ordered the world to take its place in the void, he made the animals, the plants and the humans that inhabit it emerge. He gave the plants an immobile existence, the beasts a material existence, and the humans a mental existence, so that plants would have life, animals life and movement, and humans life, movement and mind. He permitted the plants to nourish themselves on the dew of heaven and the juices of the earth, the beasts to nourish themselves on plants and grass, and humans to nourish themselves on plants and animals.

  “Thus plants are made for animals, animals and plants for humans, and humans for themselves and for God.

  “Felinois, some ferocious beasts eat other animals in order to live, but they do not have reason and are not culpable. Some of you eat your brothers, but they have reason, and they are criminals. Lions do not eat lions, and dragons do not strangle their fellows.

  “The beasts of the forests are made for our usage; you may nourish yourselves on them, as well as the fruits of fruit trees and the plants of the earth. But those vile and inferior beings, you have worshiped, because you have feared them. God has made you to reign over nature, to command the animals, but you have trembled before them, while it is God alone to whom you ought to offer homage, erect altars, address prayers and offer sacrifices. The beasts of the forest do not build huts and cannot think any more than they can talk. You have the faculty of consciousness; you possess the gift of thought; your intelligence is the soul that God has given you, to distinguish you from other creatures. That soul cannot die.”

  Burma then explained how those who had adored the great God and loved their brothers would pass, on emerging from this world, into a place of delights, where they would live on ready-roasted meat and enjoy all kinds of pleasures; whereas the wicked would be precipitated into a bottomless pit, where they would toil continually without eating anything but rotten fruits and boiled vegetables.

  And when our fathers asked Burma who had told him these things, the prophet replied that God himself had taught him those great marvels. At the same time he predicted everything that would happen to the nation for a thousand years; and his prophesies were accomplished three thousand years ago. Then, seeing that some people refused to believe him, he commanded the oak tree that was beside him to reenter into the earth. The oak immediately disappeared, and in its place a spring of roe-water was seen to gush incontinently.

  Our astonished forefathers prostrated themselves before Burma and adored his God. Afterwards they erected an altar next to the rose-water spring.

  That marvelous spring had been flowing for a few hours when an impious individual dared to challenge the prophet and shouted at him that he was an impostor. Immediately, the spring ceased to gush, and when it resumed its course, it no longer produced anything but ordinary water. The indignant people begged Burma to punish the incredulous individual. The holy prophet extended his hand, and a rain of stones fell from above on to the impious man and killed him.

  Then our fathers asked Burma to return the rose-water fountain to them. Burma replied: “Build a temple in the middle of a city; live in society, and I will give you three marvelous springs.” So the people assembled in a big city, which is now the capital of the Felinois; the temple was built. Burma chose sixty priests, and at the foot of the altar he caused three springs to flow, one pink, another blue and the third the color of gold. Those three springs have gushed for an hour per day for four thousand years, and the priests sell the lustral water they produce to the people.

  As soon as the religion was established, Burma told the people that he was going to make a voyage to the sky that is over our heads, and that he would soon reappear. He did, indeed, return after three years of absence.

  “Felinois,” he said to our forefathers, “after I left you, I went to the highest mountain, where a winged elephant was waiting for me. I placed myself on its back and it took me to the sky, which you can see from here, illuminated during the night by a few torches. I soon found myself at the gates of the eternal dwelling. The sacred elephant approached the eagle that guards the entrance to the sky and told him what I was. The eagle uttered a loud screech. The golden gates opened, and I entered into a shady garden laden with fruits, where spirits and angels were amusing themselves under God’s gaze.

  “The dances and games ceased when I appeared. An angel, as beautiful as light, came toward me, flying through the air, and conducted me to his brothers, who gave me a sumptuous feast.

  “After two days of amusements and feasts, the spirit that protects humans came to me and gave me the sacred book that I have brought you. It is by following the laws that it prescribes for you that you will go to that sky, where all the joys for which mortals can wish can be found at every moment.

  “The elephant then brought me back to you.”

  (There are a host of other prodigies attributed to the prophet that it would be tedious to relate here. One need only take note that the sky in question is our earth.)

  Burma gave his book to the priests, who had it read to the people.

  However, there were among our forefathers incredulous men who did not want to receive the great Burma as their legislator, or adopt the code of religion that he proposed o them. The priests reminded them of his voyage to the sky in vain; they refused to believe it.

  Burma, informed of these impieties, assembled the people and said: “Listen to me, Felinois; last night I saw the great eagle that guards the entrance of the sky; he said these words to me: ‘Some of those whom you were to lead to the sky refuse to believe in your voyage; let ten of the most virtuous of your people go with you to the sterile mountain that is at the end of the globe; a divine wind will lift them from the earth and I shall open the abode of happiness to them.’ After having said these words, the eagle disappeared.

  “Follow me, O chosen people, and you will see a great miracle.”

  Then the prophet led the multitude to the sterile mountain that forms one of the extremities of the globe. The ten most virtuous Felinois were chosen. Burma coiffed them with bonnets of the sacred metal in order to protect their heads from the insults of the air, and within the sight of the people the ten Felinois flew up to the sky, where they enjoyed a torrent of happiness. That miracle, made within the sight of a hundred thousand people, confounded the incredulous, and all the people adored the God of the prophet.

  A temple was built on the art of the mountain where the prodigy had occurred; there, after the worship of the great God, people go to honor the elephant and the eagle to whom God has given the power to approach the paradise; there also, every year, the priests sell to good people who want to quit the earth miraculous bonnets that carry them up to the sky.

  After a thousand other prodigies, Burma said farewell to the people and disappeared from our midst, to go up again among the angels on the celestial elephant.

  XXXIII. Hope of returning to the terrestrial globe.

  The priests of Burma’s mountain. The celestial elephant. The phoenix.

  The sacred book of the Felinois gave us a lot to think about. We did not pause to consider the merit and the bizarreries of Burma’s laws; we glimpsed, in the prophet’s miracles, a means of returning to Europe; and that hope, full of charms, caused the balm of the sweetest illusions to flow in our hearts.

  In the seven years that we had been living in the subterranean world we had sought to habituate ourselves to the idea of dying there, but we always regretted not being able to bring back to our compatriots the news of our voyage, so surprising and so singular. However, although we had freque
nt fits of sadness, we were continuously healthy. It is true that there were few maladies on the small globe, either because of the even temperature or the simplicity of the medicines that are employed there.

  But in the final analysis, if the miraculous bonnets of the priests of Burma had the effect that the people supposed, we might be able to see our globe again, or sky and the sun that we no longer saw except for brief intervals.

  We asked Clairancy what he thought about the hopes that were delighting our imagination.

  “I think they’re well-founded,” he said. “The mountain that terminates this globe, and also forms the frontier of the Felinois estates, must be a magnetic mountain like the one that neighbors the realm of Albur, on to which we fell, and which is at the opposite extreme of the subterranean world. Now, if the sacred mountain of the Felinois is magnetic, it is directly below the south pole of our world. That opening, like the northern one, must be surrounded by mountains of iron that attract the magnetic vapors and sustain the equilibrium of the small globe. In consequence, I’m convinced that the priests’ bonnets, which are said to be metal, are magnets detached from the mountain, and it’s by that means that good people, weary of terrestrial life, believe that they are being lifted up to heaven, whereas they are transported to our world, where Burma saw such beautiful things.

  “One could even draw, from the theory I’ve just established, important conclusions that explain several embarrassing points of antiquity. It’s four thousand years since the Felinois rose up into the sky. There is mention of pygmies who existed in the heroic times of Greece, and who were only a foot and a half tall. Who knows whether a few Felinois might not have appeared in certain countries of our world? They were small in number, perhaps all of the same sex; they would not have multiplied, and their extinct race has left us in uncertainty. The tales of poets have, in any case exaggerated the number of those little men, as they have doubtless diminished their height, since the Felinois are more than two feet tall.