The Manatitlans
R. Elton Smile
35 chapters
11 hour read
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35 chapters
PREFATORY INTRODUCTION. BY THE HISTORIOGRAPHER
PREFATORY INTRODUCTION. BY THE HISTORIOGRAPHER
In the following record of the explorations of the Teutonic corps of the R. H. B. Society of Berlin, dispatched for the classification of parasitical animalculæ peculiar to the vegetable productions of the tropics, I shall confine myself exclusively to the revelations of the day until the culmination of the corps discoveries, and then to Manatitlan dictation, either direct or through the medium of thought dictation. The discoveries, as verified, will undoubtedly tax “public credulity” to its utm
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
In the month of January, 187-, M. Hollydorf was selected to conduct an exploring corps of the R. H. B. Society to the head waters of the Paraguay and its tributaries, for the purpose of observing the habits and classifying the different species of animalcular life native to the trees and plants appertaining to those regions. The Royal Society had supplied him with able assistants, and the most complete set of instruments ever constructed for botanical or other research in the fields of natural s
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
At early dawn on the 29th all were on the alert, anxious to recommence their gold-gathering labor, but obedient to the captain’s request the steamer was first supplied with its full allotment of wood. This was accomplished with a despatch that betokened an earnest desire to resume their yesterday’s toil in the sands. The captain and padre explained the most approved methods for the economical saving of the smaller particles, which brought into requisition the steward’s and cook’s wares. The tabl
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
While the events related in the preceding chapter were in progress, which gave advent to the new era, the manacled savages would have fared poorly but for the ever mindful benevolence of Padre Simon, who ministered to their relief after depositing with his traps his godsend, which he averred came from the source of their misfortunes. His arm warned him to be cautious in his approach to the old savage, but he could not refrain from the pitying exclamation “It’s a shame,” when he saw him bound to
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
Notwithstanding the confirmed assurance of the sufficient efficacy of the antidote applied by Waantha for counteracting the poisonous inoculation of the padre’s arm, he still continued the use of whiskey with the thoughtless lack of consideration that fosters habits of indulgence and self-imposed penalties. In verification of the advanced statement, that artificial stimulation gave birth to war and the three curative professions, the padre, in common with his paternal ancestors, became polemical
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
The constantly increasing perils of the voyage from the pertinacity of our savage foes, recalled the warning words of an old priest of Santa Anna who had engaged in one of the Jesuitical expeditions. He advised us to keep at a safe distance from the shore, and never attempt to hold friendly intercourse with the savages, or endeavor to conciliate them with presents, as it would expose us to their deadly treachery. “You must be constant in your guard or they will board you in the night, for they a
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
Cleorita Arcos, at the request of her grandfather, the mayorong, gave the following relation of the causes that led to their exile:— “As Aabrawa has informed you, our people have received the name of Bamboyles from the Aurancanoes. This was derived from the noise of our workmen’s hammers in mending their utensils. But our transmitted, and more pleasing name of designation, which we hold in reverence as an evidence of remote ancestry, is Kyronese. Our late place of residence is called Pompolio, w
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
While Mr. Welson was engaged in listening to the rehearsal of the proposed plans of Correliana for the speedy rescue of her people, a falcon in the act of stooping from its poise attracted the quick eyes of Mr. Dow, who raised his rifle, but before he could secure his aim the Heraclean maid uttered an exclamation of alarm which arrested his destructive purpose. In explanation and apology for her impetuous words and act, the falcon settled from his waft upon her shoulder with a flutter of glad re
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
Long before daylight on the morning succeeding the narration of Correliana Adinope, the busy sound of preparation was heard on board of the Tortuga , and on shore. Food and clothes for raiment were bestowed in hampers and bales, by the Kyronese, in quantity sufficient for the easy carriage of the mules; while Captain Dow and his subalterns, Jack and Bill, marshaled the Kyronese guard in preparation for rifle, pistol, and howitzer, defensive and offensive practice. At sunrise, when nearly ready f
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
At daybreak, of the morning following our entry into Heraclea, the prætor and Correliana paid us a visit. After salutations of renewed welcome the prætor addressed us, in substance, as follows:— “You are already partially aware of the means of communication which have been employed to advise us of your presence, and the deliverance of our daughters’ rescuers from their extreme peril! Through the same source we have been advised of your daily progress for our relief, now happily consummated. When
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
While the chiefs of the valley tribes of Indians were entertained in the city, one from the Vermejo petitioned the prætor for permission to settle with his tribe on the vega of the lake expanse of the Boetis below the temple grove. This petition awakened a pleasing smile in the expression of the prætor’s face, who, without consulting his associates, requested his daughter to proffer his fealty to the united chiefs and their tribes of the valleys, in behalf of the citizens of Heraclea, with the h
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
M. Hollydorf after morning salutation mustered his assistants for the inauguration of the legitimate duties entailed by his commission; as he had become fully impressed with the necessity of “working up” a sufficient number of experimental proofs for the basis of a preliminary despatch of intention. Selecting a retired portion of the latifundium for his field of operations they commenced their labors in good earnest. Of all the civilized nations of the world, we can claim for the Germans a just
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
The prætor and his family, including Cleorita and Oviata Arcos, with the Four, awaited, on the morning succeeding the eventful day of Manito’s animalculan introduction, the coming of the Dosch of Manatitla in the audience chamber of the house, dedicated by Correliana in aptitude to the developing powers of the tympano-microscope, “the auriculum.” After a short delay of expectation, the courier falcon appeared at poise, from which in swift descent it came in downward incline direct to its perch o
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
At this stage, M. Hollydorf interrupted the Dosch, with the assurance that he was fully convinced not only of the actual existence of animalculan humanity, but of the tangible wisdom of Manatitlan providence, shown in their inauguration of rational system for educational discernment, necessary for the fulfillment in life of happy intention. “But the difficulty of making the home society realize by letter the multiplying wonders in the course of our discoveries, puzzles my invention for a credibl
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
Having given you, by quotation from our chroniclers, a synoptical view of two important discoveries which facilitated our communication with your race, I will now, continued the Dosch, refer you to your own impressions, and the eccentricities of the uninitiated from thought substitution, for the clear demonstration of our auramental powers. Or if, in review, you can recall examples of instinctive spiritual manifestations, you will be able to judge of our method in dealing with the instinctively
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
While Gnipho was rehearsing the wonders of his marvelous interview with the Dosch of Manatitla, to his mother and sisters, as he was about closing he became suddenly silent, with his eyes drawn attentively to his right ear. The strabismic impulse startled his mother and sisters, but a bright smile on Gnipho’s face relieved their fears. In a few seconds he held out his hand, and presented, with an introduction, the Dosch and his wife, with their companions. When female curiosity had subsided the
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
During the interim of letter writing in readiness for the anticipated opening of courier communication with St. Lucia and Anelcoy, Captain Greenwood had advised Correliana of his wish that the padre and sailors Jack and Bill should meet the steamer at the latter place. His despatch urged haste, as he was about to leave the gold spit, which they were then working; its deposits had become nearly exhausted. When she made the wishes of the captain known, Abdul Nycaster, the son of the mayorong, volu
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
The sons and daughters of Indegatus had become so well instructed in the art of propagating and training falcons, and withal so much interested under the direction of the volantaphs, that little danger was apprehended of another interruption in the supply. When all the preliminaries required for the voyage across the Atlantic had been well matured, Soartus, with a fleet of five well equipped falcons, and fifty giantesco companions with their families started from Maniculæ on their adventurous fl
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Revered Advisor :—In accordance with your request, I send you an account of a visit, which in company with the chief and our associates, was made to the temporal dominions of the Mouthpat pope, Innocent First, for the rescue of Roman tits, who had been kidnapped on their return from the monthly visitation of the Coliseo schools. The object of the pope, prompting this human theft, was to effect intimidation by offering them as a public sacrifice, or burnt offering to the god of their worship, aft
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CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
After matin song on the morning of the 9th of December, Correliana announced the near approach of couriers with letters. At noon the train arrived having in charge Padre Simon as a special envoy from Captain Greenwood. His convoy brought letters from Europe and Montevideo in answer to those despatched by M. Hollydorf and Mr. Welson, also to the other members of the corps. The padre, although looking jaded with fatigue, was in his usual happy state of mental confusion, to which the affectionate g
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CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
After the letters of M. Baudois and Don Pedro had been read aloud to the Prætor’s family, the Dosch remarked that the Animalculan Mouthpats furnished confirmatory evidence of the provincialism of the Asiatic Heraclean emigrants, as they were undoubtedly parasitic companions of the involuntary voyage across the ocean. Their Scythio-Celtic jargonic idiom corresponds with the Latins’ incursive invasions into the Klappish and Celtic territories, while in habits and customs they show the marked impre
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CHAPTER XXI.
CHAPTER XXI.
To M. Hollydorf , Director of the Animalculan Corps of the R. H. B. Society, at present conducting their explorations in the newly discovered city of Heraclea Doweri, in the country of the wild hordes in the Andean region of La Plata. —Greeting, in behalf of our patrons and members of the Society, with personal congratulations! Wonder and surprised amazement are terms of too weak invention to express the emotional excitement caused by your letter of discovery, which reached us with unaccountable
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CHAPTER XXII.
CHAPTER XXII.
As the four were returning from the auriculum to the quarters of the corps, a week or more after the padre’s return, he overtook them and listened to their conversation unperceived. As each entertained one or two Manatitlan aura-lists in his ear, the conversation was strangely diversified in irrelevancy, which would have caused a stranger to the events transpiring, possessed with the least taint of superstition, to have supposed them insane or bewitched. The padre listened with wondering attract
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CHAPTER XXIII.
CHAPTER XXIII.
The padre on his return to the quarters of the corps, found Mr. Dow alone, and questioned him upon the sincerity of Mr. Welson’s revelation. “You know,” he said, “that I am a sort of orphan waif among you, in the matter of science, which Mr. Welson, Dr. Baāhar, and others, with the exception of yourself, have taken advantage for their amusement; not that they have treated me unkindly or disrespectfully; but when they saw me really anxious from fear, which they could have relieved, it was hard th
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CHAPTER XXIV.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The prætor and his family called at the quarters of the corps shortly after breakfast on the following morning, to escort the members to the Adolescentium. Instead of proceeding up the foræ avenue to the temple gate, the prætor conducted them to the edificos sacerdotium , and from the court of the centre building led them to an intermural stairway, that commanded the only means of ascent to the temple walls, which were higher and distinct from those of the cinctus enclosure. The prætor in ascend
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CHAPTER XXV.
CHAPTER XXV.
On their way from the temple school, Correliana invited the padre and members of the corps to pay a twilight visit to her garden. Passing through her father’s into her own garden, while yet the upward slant of the sun’s rays reached above the Andean peaks, the party were surprised and startled by the winged hoverings of a cloud of birds of every feather, accompanied with the vocal salutation,—“Well, my goodness gracious, if here ain’t the padre! well, I declare, aha, aha!”—pronounced in variatio
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CHAPTER XXVI.
CHAPTER XXVI.
When the family of the prætor called in the morning to escort us to the scholia puellulitas, Correliana received the attentions of M. Hollydorf with marked pleasure; indeed, the happiness of the prætor and her mother was so joyfully exultant, that it attracted the attention of the Kyronese as well as our own. The temple on the north, occupying the esplanade of the second foræ, was the counterpart of the southern in architectural design. But its site was more commanding, embracing in the view obt
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CHAPTER XXVII.
CHAPTER XXVII.
After the evening song of salutation, on the day following the members of the corps’ visit to the school of the “ninyetas” they accepted the prætor’s invitation to join with his family in listening to the recital of the Dosch, which we transcribe. During the ravages of the “coast” and yellow fever in Rio Janeiro in the year 18—, it made sad havoc among our provincial offshoots of Brazilian parentage, owing to a lack of means for provisionary precautions, so that I felt it a special duty and priv
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
On the third morning after our visit to the school of the ninyetas, the prætor and the tribune teachers with Correliana and her mother called at the quarters of the corps, to escort M. Hollydorf to the prætorial colonnades, as the husband elect of Luocuratia, for the fulfillment of his probationary term. After receiving the congratulations of adoption from the Heracleans, all joined in the matin song of thanksgiving in the lower fora. While the prætor and his wife were absent, aiding Luocuratia
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CHAPTER XXIX.
CHAPTER XXIX.
The process of ablution having been completed, before the sun reached its meridian, not only the new arrivals, with resident intention, but the members of the corps, appeared in the lower fora dressed in Manatitlan costume, which had been prepared for the occasion by the Heracleans in commemoration of full adoption. The effect produced by the change can be comprehensively expressed in the whispered announcement of Lovieta and Lavoca as they regarded with admiring eyes the improvement made in the
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CHAPTER XXX.
CHAPTER XXX.
Dear Don Guillermo : You will be very much surprised, notwithstanding the forewarning of intention, to find yourself unexpectedly greeted in Heraclea by your little favorites Lovieta and Lavoca. It has cost us a painful struggle to part with them; but we should have been unmindful of our privilege and duty as conservators for their future welfare, in joyous transmission, if we had consulted the disposition of our selfish feelings. Even if our household was of the most suitable description known
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CHAPTER XXXI.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Cleorita and Oviata, with intuitive susceptibility, detected the new phase of attraction to which Mr. Welson had become subject, and assumed the entertainment of his adopted children until evening song, although they were inclined to hold padre carita in attendance on the plea that they should not see him from to-morrow for a whole month. With the canopied shadows cast by the sun’s decline over the city, the eyes of Lovieta and Lavoca, under the reactive weight of unusual excitement, began to fl
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CHAPTER XXXII.
CHAPTER XXXII.
For some weeks subsequent to the arrival of Captain Greenwood, the daily avocations of the corps were assimilated with those of the Heracleans, if we except the erratic disposition of Dr. Baāhar, which seemed to have become more enamored with entomological pursuits. In apology, he said, that the great beauty and ephemeral existence of the butterfly declared its special intention for the accomplishment of a transient purpose; and as angels’ terrestrial visits were few and far between, he had come
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Dr. Baāhar, acting in accordance with the suggestion of the Dosch, given a few months previous, had devoted his attention to the cultivation of fruit-bearing plants, shrubs, and trees, but his success from a lack of objective constancy and discriminative judgment, was inclined to be enigmatical in practical results. Instead of studying the practical adaptation of productive vegetation for the requirements of healthful subsistence, he was quite content with transplanting rare growths, obtained fr
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CONCLUSION.
CONCLUSION.
Having, with advisorial aid, completed the historical part of my delegated labor, designed for the initial elaboration of Manatitlan habits and customs in design for Giga adoption, I am directed to urge for any lack of perspicuity, in addition to my own defects, the limited variety of words and terms embodied in the languages and idioms of civilized races, for the expression of affectionate purity and goodness, with the impress of reality, independent of the selfish distinctions imposed by the a
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