Mount Munch
CHAPTER 1
On the east edge of the Land of Oz, in the Munchkin Country, is a big,tall hill called Mount Munch. On one side, the bottom of this hill justtouches the Deadly Sandy Desert that separates the Fairyland of Oz fromall the rest of the world, but on the other side, the hill touches thebeautiful, fertile Country of the Munchkins.
The Munchkin folks, however, merely stand off and look at Mount Munchand know very little about it; for, about a third of the way up, itssides become too steep to climb, and if any people live upon the top ofthat great towering peak that seems to reach nearly to the skies, theMunchkins are not aware of the fact.
But people _do_ live there, just the same. The top of Mount Munch isshaped like a saucer, broad and deep, and in the saucer are fields wheregrains and vegetables grow, and flocks are fed, and brooks flow andtrees bear all sorts of things. There are houses scattered here andthere, each having its family of Hyups, as the people call themselves.The Hyups seldom go down the mountain, for the same reason that theMunchkins never climb up: the sides are too steep.
In one of the houses lived a wise old Hyup named Bini Aru, who used tobe a clever Sorcerer. But Ozma of Oz, who rules everyone in the Land ofOz, had made a decree that no one should practice magic in her dominionsexcept Glinda the Good and the Wizard of Oz, and when Glinda sent thisroyal command to the Hyups by means of a strong-winged Eagle, old BiniAru at once stopped performing magical arts. He destroyed many of hismagic powders and tools of magic, and afterward honestly obeyed the law.He had never seen Ozma, but he knew she was his Ruler and must beobeyed.
There was only one thing that grieved him. He had discovered a new andsecret method of transformations that was unknown to any other Sorcerer.Glinda the Good did not know it, nor did the little Wizard of Oz, norDr. Pipt nor old Mombi, nor anyone else who dealt in magic arts. It wasBini Aru's own secret. By its means, it was the simplest thing in theworld to transform anyone into beast, bird or fish, or anything else,and back again, once you knew how to pronounce the mystical word:"Pyrzqxgl."
Bini Aru had used this secret many times, but not to cause evil orsuffering to others. When he had wandered far from home and was hungry,he would say: "I want to become a cow--Pyrzqxgl!" In an instant he wouldbe a cow, and then he would eat grass and satisfy his hunger. All beastsand birds can talk in the Land of Oz, so when the cow was no longerhungry, it would say: "I want to be Bini Aru again: Pyrzqxgl!" and themagic word, properly pronounced, would instantly restore him to hisproper form.
Now, of course, I would not dare to write down this magic word soplainly if I thought my readers would pronounce it properly and so beable to transform themselves and others, but it is a fact that no one inall the world except Bini Aru, had ever (up to the time this storybegins) been able to pronounce "Pyrzqxgl" the right way, so I think itis safe to give it to you. It might be well, however, in reading thisstory aloud, to be careful not to pronounce Pyrzqxgl the proper way, andthus avoid all danger of the secret being able to work mischief.
Bini Aru, having discovered the secret of instant transformation, whichrequired no tools or powders or other chemicals or herbs and alwaysworked perfectly, was reluctant to have such a wonderful discoveryentirely unknown or lost to all human knowledge. He decided not to useit again, since Ozma had forbidden him to do so, but he reflected thatOzma was a girl and some time might change her mind and allow hersubjects to practice magic, in which case Bini Aru could again transformhimself and others at will,--unless, of course, he forgot how topronounce Pyrzqxgl in the meantime.
After giving the matter careful thought, he decided to write the word,and how it should be pronounced, in some secret place, so that he couldfind it after many years, but where no one else could ever find it.
That was a clever idea, but what bothered the old Sorcerer was to find asecret place. He wandered all over the Saucer at the top of Mount Munch,but found no place in which to write the secret word where others mightnot be likely to stumble upon it. So finally he decided it must bewritten somewhere in his own house.
Bini Aru had a wife named Mopsi Aru who was famous for making finehuckleberry pies, and he had a son named Kiki Aru who was not famous atall. He was noted as being cross and disagreeable because he was nothappy, and he was not happy because he wanted to go down the mountainand visit the big world below and his father would not let him. No onepaid any attention to Kiki Aru, because he didn't amount to anything,anyway.
Once a year there was a festival on Mount Munch which all the Hyupsattended. It was held in the center of the saucer-shaped country, andthe day was given over to feasting and merry-making. The young folksdanced and sang songs; the women spread the tables with good things toeat, and the men played on musical instruments and told fairy tales.
Kiki Aru usually went to these festivals with his parents, and then satsullenly outside the circle and would not dance or sing or even talk tothe other young people. So the festival did not make him any happierthan other days, and this time he told Bini Aru and Mopsi Aru that hewould not go. He would rather stay at home and be unhappy all byhimself, he said, and so they gladly let him stay.
But after he was left alone Kiki decided to enter his father's privateroom, where he was forbidden to go, and see if he could find any of themagic tools Bini Aru used to work with when he practiced sorcery. As hewent in Kiki stubbed his toe on one of the floor boards. He searchedeverywhere but found no trace of his father's magic. All had beendestroyed.
Much disappointed, he started to go out again when he stubbed his toe onthe same floor board. That set him thinking. Examining the board moreclosely, Kiki found it had been pried up and then nailed down again insuch a manner that it was a little higher than the other boards. But whyhad his father taken up the board? Had he hidden some of his magic toolsunderneath the floor?
Kiki got a chisel and pried up the board, but found nothing under it. Hewas just about to replace the board when it slipped from his hand andturned over, and he saw something written on the underside of it. Thelight was rather dim, so he took the board to the window and examinedit, and found that the writing described exactly how to pronounce themagic word Pyrzqxgl, which would transform anyone into anythinginstantly, and back again when the word was repeated.
Now, at first, Kiki Aru didn't realize what a wonderful secret he haddiscovered; but he thought it might be of use to him and so he took apiece of paper and made on it an exact copy of the instructions forpronouncing Pyrzqxgl. Then he folded the paper and put it in his pocket,and replaced the board in the floor so that no one would suspect it hadbeen removed.
After this Kiki went into the garden and sitting beneath a tree made acareful study of the paper. He had always wanted to get away from MountMunch and visit the big world--especially the Land of Oz--and the ideanow came to him that if he could transform himself into a bird, he couldfly to any place he wished to go and fly back again whenever he caredto. It was necessary, however, to learn by heart the way to pronouncethe magic word, because a bird would have no way to carry a paper withit, and Kiki would be unable to resume his proper shape if he forgot theword or its pronunciation.
So he studied it a long time, repeating it a hundred times in his minduntil he was sure he would not forget it. But to make safety doubly surehe placed the paper in a tin box in a neglected part of the garden andcovered the box with small stones.
By this time it was getting late in the day and Kiki wished to attempthis first transformation before his parents returned from the festival.So he stood on the front porch of his home and said:
"I want to become a big, strong bird, like a hawk--Pyrzqxgl!" Hepronounced it the right way, so in a flash he felt that he wascompletely changed in form. He flapped his wings, hopped to the porchrailing and said: "Caw-oo! Caw-oo!"
Then he laughed and said half aloud: "I suppose that's the funny soundthis sort of a bird makes. But now let me
try my wings and see if I'mstrong enough to fly across the desert."
For he had decided to make his first trip to the country outside theLand of Oz. He had stolen this secret of transformation and he knew hehad disobeyed the law of Oz by working magic. Perhaps Glinda or theWizard of Oz would discover him and punish him, so it would be goodpolicy to keep away from Oz altogether.
Slowly Kiki rose into the air, and resting on his broad wings, floatedin graceful circles above the saucer-shaped mountain-top. From hisheight, he could see, far across the burning sands of the Deadly Desert,another country that might be pleasant to explore, so he headed thatway, and with strong, steady strokes of his wings, began the longflight.
The Magic of Oz Page 3
