Last year I was chosen to succeed the venerable K-Z -- who had it in his mind
to die, that is, to join Them in Venus, as one of the Seven Heirs of Atlantis,
and I have been appointed to declare, so far as may found possible, the truth
about that mysterious lost land. Of course, no more than one seventh of the
wisdom is ever confided to one of the Seven, and the Seven meet in council but
once in every thirty-three years. But its preservation is guaranteed by the
interlocked systems of ``dreaming true'' and of ``preparation of the
antinomy.'' The former almost explains itself; the latter is almost
inconceivable to normal man. Its essence is to train a man to be anything by
training him to be its opposite. At the end of anything, think they, it turns
out to be its opposite, and that opposite is thus mastered without having been
soiled by the labours of the student, and without the false impressions of
early learning being left upon the mind.
I myself, for example, had unknowingly been trained to record these
observations by the life of a butterfly. All my impressions came clear on the
soft wax of my brain; I had never worried because the scratch on the wax in no
way resembled the sound it represented. In other words, I observed perfectly
because I never knew that I was observing. So, if you pay sufficient attention
to your heart, you will make it palpitate.
I accordingly proceed to a description of the country.
_Aleister Crowley_
I
OF THE PLAINS BENEATH ATLAS, AND ITS SERVILE RACE.
Atlas is the true name of this archipelago -- continent is an altogether false
term, for every ``house'' or mountain peak was cut from its fellows by
natural, though often very narrow waterways. The African Atlas is a mere
offshoot of the range. It was the true Atlas that supported the ancient world
by its moral and magical strength, and hence the name of the fabled globe-
bearer. The root is the Lemurian _Tla_ or _Tlas_, black, for reasons which will
appear in due course. _A_ is the feminine prefix, derived from the shape of the
mouth when uttering the sound. ``Black woman'' is therefore as near a
translation as one can give in English; the Latin has a closer equivalent.
The mountains are cut off, not only from each other by the channels of the
sea, but from the plains at their feet by cliffs naturally or artificially
smoothed and undercut for at least thirty feet on every side in order to make
access impossible.
These plains had been made flat by generations of labour. Vines and fruit-
trees growing only on the upper slopes, they were devoted principally to corn,
and to grass pastures for the amphibian herds of Atlas. This corn was of a
kind now unknown, flourishing in sea-water, and the periodical flood-tides
served the same purpose as the Nile in Egypt. Enormous floating stages of
spongy rock -- no trees of any kind grew anywhere on the plains so wood was
unknown -- supported the villages. These were inhabited by a type of man
similar to the modern Caucasian race. They were not permitted to use any of
the food of their masters, neither the corn, nor the amphibians, nor the vast
supplies of shellfish, but were fed by what they called ``bread from heaven,''
which indeed came down from the mountains, being the whole of their refuse of
every kind. The whole population was put to perpetual hard labour. The young
and active tended the amphibians, grew the corn, collected the shell-fish,
gathered the ``bread from heaven'' for their elders, and were compelled to
reproduce their kind. At twenty they were considered strong enough for the
factory, where they worked in gangs on a machine combining the features of our
pump and treadmill for sixteen hours of the twentyfour. This machine supplied
Atlas with its _ZRO_{*}or ``power,'' of which I shall speak presently. Any worker
showing even temporary weakness was transferred to the phosphorus works, where
he was sure to die within a few months. Phosphorus was a prime necessity of
Atlas; however, it was not used in its red or yellow forms, but in a third
allotrope, a blue-black or rather violet-black substance, only known in powder
finer than precipitated gold, harder than diamond, eleven times heavier than
yellow phosphorus, quite incombustible, and so shockingly poisonous that, in
spite of every precaution, an ounce of it cost the lives (on an average) of
some two hundred and fifty men. Of its properties I shall speak later.
The people were left in utmost slavery and ignorance by the wise counsel of
the first of the philosophers of Atlas, who had written: ``An empty brain is a
threat to Society.'' He had consequently instituted a system of mental
culture, comprising two parts:
*hbl
1. As a basis, a mass of useless disconnected facts.
2. A superstructure of lies.
*hbl
Part 1 was compulsory; the people then took Part 2 without protest.{*}
The language of the plains was simple but profuse. They had few nouns and
fewer verbs. ``To work again'' (there was no word for ``to work'' simply), ``to eat again,'' ``to break the law'' (no word for ``to break the law
again''), ``to come from without,'' ``to find light'' (_i.e. _to go to the
phosphorus factory) were almost the only verbs used by adults. The young men
and women had a verb-language yet simpler, and of degraded coarseness. All
had, however, an extraordinary wealth of adjectives, most of them meaningless,
as attached to no noun ideas, and a great quantity of abstract nouns such as
``Liberty,'' ``Progress,'' without which no refined inhabitant could consider
a sentence complete. He would introduce them into a discussion on the most
material subjects. ``The immoral snub-nose,'' ``the unprogressive teeth,''
``lascivious music,'' ``reactionary eyebrows'' -- such were phrases familiar
to all. ``To eat again, to sleep again, to work again, to find the light --
that is Liberty, that is Progress'' was a proverb common in every mouth.
The religion of the people was Protestant Christianity in all essentials,
but with an even closer dependence upon God. They asserted its formulae,
without attaching any meaning to the words, in a manner both reverent and
passionate. Sexual life was entirely forbidden to the workers, a single breach
implying relegation to the phosphorus works.
In every field was, however, an enormous tablet of rock, carved on one side
with a representation of the three stages of life: the fields, the labour
mill, the factory; and on the other side with these words: ``To enter Atlas,
fly.'' Beneath this an elaborate series of graphic pictures showed how to
acquire the art of flying. During all the generations of Atlas, not one man
had been known to take advantage of these instructions.
The principal fear of the populace was a variation of any kind from
routine. For any such the people had one word only, though this word changed
its annotation in different centuries. ``Witchcraft,'' ``Heresy,''
``Madness,'' ``Bad Form,'' ``Sex-Perversion,'' ``Black Magic'' were its
principal shapes in the last four thousand years of the dominion of Atlas.
Sneezing, idleness, smiling, were regarded as premonitory. Any cessation
from speech, even for a moment to take breath, was considered highly
dangerous. The wish to be alone was worse than all; the delinquent would be
seized by his fellows, and either killed outright or thrust into the compound
of the phosphorus factory, from which there was no egress.
The habits of the people were incredibly disgusting. Their principal
relaxations were art, music and the drama, in which they could show
achievement hardly inferior to that of Henry Arthur Jones, Pinero, Lehar,
George Dance, Luke Fildes, and Thomas Sidney Cooper.
Of medicine they were happily ignorant. The outdoor life in that equable
climate bred strong youths and maidens, and the first symptoms of illness in a
worker was held to impair his efficiency and qualify him for the phosphorous
factory. Wages were permanently high, and as there were no merchants even of
alcohol, whose use was forbidden, every man saved all his earnings, and died
rich. At his death his savings went back to the community. Taxation was
consequently unnecessary. Clothes were unnecessary and unknown, and the
``bread from heaven'' was the ``free gift of God.'' The dead were thrown to
the amphibians. Each man built his own shelter of the rough stone sponge which
abounded. The word ``house'' was used only in Atlas; the servile race called
its huts _Hloklost_ (equivalent to the English word ``home''). Discontent was
absolutely unknown. It had not been considered necessary to prohibit traffic
with foreign countries, as the inhabitants of such were esteemed barbarians.
Had a ship landed men, they would have been murdered to a man, supposing that
Atlas had permitted any approach to its shores. That it hindered such, and by infallible means, was due to other considerations, whose nature will form the
subject of a subsequent chapter.
This then is the nature of the plains beneath Atlas, and the character of
the servile race.
II
OF THE RACE OF ATLAS.
In the city or ``house'' which was formed from the crest of every mountain,
dwelt a race not greatly superior in height to our own, but of vaster frame.
The bulk and strength of the bear is not inappropriate as a simile for the
lower classes; the higher had the enormous chest and shoulders and the lean
haunches of the lion. This strength gave an infallible beauty, made monstrous
by their most inexorable law, that every child who developed no special
feature in the first seven years should be sacrificed to the Gods. This
special feature might be a nose of prodigious size, hands and wrists of
gigantic strength, a gorilla jaw, an elephant ear -- or any of these might
entitle its owner to life:{*} for in all such variations from the normal they
perceived the possibility of a development of the race. Men and women were
hairy as the ourang-outang and all were closely shaven from head to foot. It
had been found that this practice developed tactile sensibility. It was also
done in reverence to the ``Living Atla,'' of which more in its place.
The lower class were few in number. Its function was to superintend the
servile race, to bring the food of the children to the banqueting-hall, to
remove the same, to attend to the disposition of the ``light-screens,'' to
ensure the continuance of the race by the begetting, bearing and nourishing of
the children.
The priestly class was concerned with the further preparation of the Zro
supplied by the labour-mills, and its impregnation with phosphorus. This class
had much leisure for ``work,'' a subject to be explained later.
The High Priests and High Priestesses were restricted in number to eleven
times thirty-three in any one ``house.'' To them were entrusted the final
secrets of Atlas, and to them was confided the conduct of the experiments in
which every will was bound up.{*}
The colour of the Atlanteans was very various, though the hair was
invariably of a fiery chestnut with bluish reflections. One might see women
whiter than Aphrodite, others tawny as Cleopatra, others yellow as Tu-Chi,
others of a strange, subtle blue like the tattooed faces of Chin women, others
again red as copper. Green was however a prohibited hue for women, and red was
not liked in men. Violet was rare, but highly prized, and children born of
that colour were specially reared by the High Priestesses.
However, in one part of the body all the women were perfectly black with a
blackness no negro can equal; from this circumstance comes the name Atlas. It is absurdly attributed by some authors to the deposit of excess of phosphorus
in the Zro. I need only point out that the mark existed long before the
discovery of black phosphorus. It is evidently a racial stigma. It was the
birth of a girl child without this mark which raised her mother to the rank of
goddess, and ended the terrestrial adventure of the Atlanteans, as will
presently appear.
Of the ethics of this people little need be said. Their word for ``right''
is _phph_ made by the blowing with the jaw drawn sharply across from left to
right, thus meaning ``a spiral life contrary to the course of the Sun.'' We
may assume it as ``contrary.'' ``Whatever is, is wrong'' seems to have been
their first principle. Legs were ``wrong'' because they only carry you five
miles in the hour: let us refuse to walk; let us ride horseback. So the horse
is ``wrong'' compared to the train and the motor-car; and these are ``wrong''
to the aeroplane. If speed had been the Atlantean's object, he would have
thought aeroplanes ``wrong'' and all else too, so long as the speed of light
was not surpassed by him.
Curious survivals of these laws are found in the Jewish transcript of the
Egyptian code, which they, being a slave race, interpreted in the reverse
manner.
``Thou shalt not make any graven image.'' Every male child on attaining
manhood, had a graven image given him to worship, a miracle-working image,
whose principle exploits he would tattoo upon it.
``Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.'' The Atlantean kept one day
in seven for all purposes unconnected with his principle task.
``Thou shalt not commit adultery.'' Though the Atlanteans married,
intercourse with the wife was the only act forbidden.
``Honour thy father and thy mother.'' On the contrary, they worshipped
their children, as if to say: ``This is the God whom I have made in my own
likeness.''
Similarly, there is one exception and one only to the rule of silence. It
is the utterance of the 'Name' which it is death to pronounce. This word was
constantly in their mouths; it is _Zcrra_, a sort of venomous throat-gargling.
Hence, possibly the Gaelic _Scurr_ ``speak,'' English _Scaur_ or _Scar_ in Yorkshire
and the Pennines. _Zcrra_ is also the name of the ``High House,'' and of the
graven image referred to above.
Others traces may be found in folklore; some mere superstitions. Thus the
correct number for a banquet was thirteen, because if there were only one more
sign in the Zodiac, the year would be a month longer, and one would have more
time ``for work.'' This is probably a debased Egyptian notion. Atlanteans knew
better than anyone that the Zodiac is only an arbitrary division. Still it may
be laid down that the impossible never daunted Atlas. If one said, ``Two and
two make Four'' his thought would be ``Yes, damn it!''{*}
I now explain the language of Atlas. The third and greatest of their
philosophers saw that speech had wrought more harm than good, and he
consequently instituted a peculiar rite. Two men were chosen by lot to
preserve the language, which, by the way, consisted of monosyllables only, two
hundred and fourteen in number, to each of which was attached a diacritical
gesture, usually ideographic.
Thus ``wrong'' is given as _phph_ moving the jaw from right to left. Wiping
the brown with _phph_ means ``hot,'' hollowing the hands over the mouth
``fire,'' striking the throat ``to dié' so that each ``radical'' may have
hundreds of gesture-derivatives. Grammar, by the way, hardly existed, the
quick apprehension of the Atlanteans rendering it unnecessary.
These two men then departed to a cavern on the side of the mountain just
above the cliff, and there for a year they remained, speaking the language and
carving it symbolically upon the rock. At the end of the year they returned;
the elder is sacrificed and the younger returns with a volunteer, usually one
who wishes to expiate a fault, and teaches him the language. During his visit
he observes whether any new thing needs a name, and if so he invents it, and
adds it to the language. This process continued to the end. The rest of the
people abandoned altogether the use of speech, only a few years' practice
enabling them to dispense with the radicle. They then sought to do without
gesture, and in eight generations the difficulty was conquered, and telepathy{*}
established. Research then devoted itself to the task of doing without
thought; this will be discussed in detail in the proper place. There was also
a ``listener,'' three men who took turns to sit upon the highest peak, above
the ``light-screens,'' and whose duty it was to give the alarm if any noise
disturbed Atlas. On their report that High Priest charged with active
governorship would take steps to ascertain and destroy the cause.
The 'light-screens' spoken of were a contrivance of laminae of a certain
spar such that the light and heat of the Sun were completely cut off, not by
opacity, but by what we call ``interference.'' In this way other subtle rays
of the Sun entered the ``house,'' these rays being supposed to be necessary to
life. These matters were the subjects of the deepest controversy. Some held
that these rays themselves were injurious and should be excluded. Others
considered that the light-screens should be put in position during moonlight,
instead of being opened at sunset, as was the custom. This, however, was never
attempted, the great mass of the people being devoted to the Moon. Others
wished full sunlight, the aim of Atlas being (they thought) to reach the Sun.
But this theory contradicted the prime axiom of attaining things through their
opposites, and was only held by the lower classes, who were not initiated into
this doctrine.
The ``houses'' of Atlas were carved from the living rock by the action of
Zro in its seventh precipitation. Enormously solid, the walls were lofty and
smoother than glass, though the pavements were rough and broken almost
everywhere for a reason which I am not permitted to disclose. The passages
were invariably narrow, so that two persons could never pass each other. When
two met, it was the law to greet by joining in ``work'' and then going away
together on their separate errands, or passing one above the other. This was
done purposely, so as to remind every man of his duty to Atlas on every
occasion on which he might meet a fellow-citizen.
The Banqueting-Hall of the children was usually very large. The furniture,
which had been brought by the first colonists, and gradually disused by
adults, never needed repair. A vast open doorway facing North opened on the
mountainside on to the vineyards and orchards, the meadows and gardens, in
which the children passed their time. Suckled by the mother for three months
only, the child was then already able to nourish itself on the bread and wine,
and on the flesh of the amphibious herds, of which there were several kinds;
one a piglike animal with flesh resembling wild duck, another a sort of amatee
tasting like salmon, its fat being somewhat like caviar in everything but
texture, and a sure specific for any of childhood's troubles. A third, an
ancestor of our hippopotamus, was really tamed, and was employed by the serviles for preparing the ground for the corn, trampling through the fields
while they were covered with sea-water, and thus leaving deep holes in which
the seeds were cast. Its flesh was not unlike bear, but more delicate.
Notable, too, was the great quantity of turtle; also the giant oysters, the
huge deep sea crabs, a kind of octopus whose flesh made a nutritious and
elegant soup, and innumerable shell-fish, added to the table. The waterways
were haunted by shoals of a small and poisonous fish,{*}whose bite was immediate
death to man, a fact which altogether cut off communication between one island
and another except by air, as the hippopotamus-animal, although immune to its
bite, was unable to swim.
Of the sleeping chambers I shall tell more particularly in the course of my
remarks on Zro.
III
OF THE AIM OF THE MAGICIANS OF ATLAS: OF ZRO; AND ITS PROPERTIES AND USES: OF
THAT WHICH COMBINED WITH IT: AND OF BLACK PHOSPHORUS.
It was the most ancient tradition of the Atlantean Magicians that they were
the survivors of a race inhabiting a country called Lemuria, of which the
South Pacific archipelago may be the remains. These Lemurians had, they held,
built up a civilization equal, if not superior to their own; but through a
misunderstanding of magical law -- some said the 2nd, some the 8th, some the
23rd -- had involved themselves and their land in ruin. Others thought that
the Lemurians had succeeded in their magical task, and broken their temple. In
any case, it was the secret Lemurian tradition that they themselves
represented the survivals of a yet earlier race who lived on ice, and they of
yet another who lived in fire, and they again of earlier colonists from Mars.
The theory, in fine, was that the aim of man is to attain the Sun, whence,
according to one school of cosmology, he was exiled in the cosmic catastrophe
which resulted in the formation of Neptune. His task on any given planet was
therefore to overturn the laws of Nature on that planet, thus mastering it
sufficiently to enable him to make the leap to the next planet inward. Exactly
how and in what sense the leap was made remains obscure, even to the heirs of
Atlantis.{*}
The men of Atlas could fly, it is true, and that by a method so simple that
men will laugh outright when it is rediscovered; but they needed air to
support them; they could not confront the cold and emptiness of space. Was it
in some subtler body that they conveyed the Palladium? Or, content to die,
could they project some vehicle across so great a distance? The answer to such
questions probably lies in the recovery by mankind of the knowledge of Zro and
its properties.
Beneath the labour mills{*} run troughs{*} in which the sweat of the workers
collects and drains off into an open basin without the mill. In this basin
churns with immense rapidity--through multiple bevel gearing -- a sort of
paddle with knife edges. The sweat is thus churned into froth, and gradually disappears, and is as continually replaced. The workers toil in shifts --
eight hours work, four hours repose, eight hours work, four hours rest and
recreation. The mills never cease day or night.
The basin is of polished silver and agate, and is set at an angle, facing
two enormous spheres of crystal, encased in a sort of trellis made of a
certain greenish metal, its optical focus at a point midway between the two.
The only sign of activity is that out of this focus a spark crackles unless
the air be dry, a condition difficult to secure in this part of the world,
although fans blow air, dried over chloride of calcium and sulphuric acid,
over the globes and their focus. These fans are worked by tidal power, human
labour being appropriated solely to the one use.
In the temple of the ``house'' are two globes similar to those upon the
plains, and the mysterious force generated below is transferred to those
above, collecting within them. Now the name of this substance is always Zro,
but in its first state the gesture is a twiddling of the thumbs. In its
second, it is a rapid twittering of the fingers, and in its third state of
distillation it is a screwing of the hands together. Within the spheres it
sublimes suddenly in the air as a snaky powder (4) of silver, which
immediately turns to an iridescent fluid (5) that is forced up, by its own
need of expansion, through a fountain into the temple, on whose floor it lies
(6) in a semi-solid condition. Expert Priests gather this in their hands, and
rapidly shape it into its seventh state, when it is a knife of diamond, but
alive. An instrument like a Mexican machete is used to carve rocks. The edge
shears them, the back smooths them. The rock behaves exactly like wax,
responsive to the lightest touch. What is not used for weapons is then
gathered up swiftly and kneaded by women of the rank of High Priestess. It is
not known even to the High Priests with what they knead it, but in its eighth
stage it is a substance solid enough to support great weight, but eternally
heaving of its own force. Of this they make beds, so that the sleeping
Atlantean is (as it were) continually massaged. To this they attribute the
fact that Atlanteans sleep never more than half an hour, though they do so
four times daily. These beds remain active only for a few days, and they are
then thrown into the ninth stage by being taken into a room where is a
cauldron of great size. They are thrown into this and sprinkled with black
phosphorus.{*} The Zro then divides into two parts, one liquid, one solid.
Neither of these has any ascertainable properties, for it is absolutely
passive to the will of the user, who may taste therein his utmost desire,
whether for food or drink. Among adults there is no other food or drink than
this. The children are not allowed to taste it.
The black phosphorus is always added by a High Priestess, and it is not
known in what matter she does this. The Zro that may remain is the subject of
eternal experiments by the Magicians. It is generally thought by the greatest
of them that an error was committed in bringing it to a ninth stage of
division into two, and many openly deplored the discovery of black phosphorus.
All however strive in harmony to produce a tenth stage that shall surpass the
virtues of the ninth.
Theoretically it is possible to reach an eleventh stage wherein the Zro
takes human form, and lives! Opinion is divided as to whether this was not
actually done by a certain Magician at the time of the passing of Atlas. In
any case, I beg the reader to remember that I have only described one seventh
of the virtues of Zro, and I have even omitted this, that in its ninth stage
it is not only food and drink, but Universal Medicine, if properly understood.
For Zro is also a vision and a voice!
Now the muscles of the people of Atlas are the muscles of giants, and yet
they do one thing only. And this thing is combined by the wisdom of the
Magicians, so that it is at the same time work, exercise, sport, game,
pleasure, and all else that may fulfill life.
This work never ceases. It has these parts:
*hbl
1. Working _at_ Zro, _i.e. _bringing it from the first stage to the ninth.
2. Working _with_ Zro, _i.e. _for one's own particular purpose.
3. Working _for_ Zro. This is the common and most honourable task, the Zro
eaten and drunken being worked into a Quintessence of higher power, though
identical in property with the common Zro. This new Zro (Atlas Zro) goes
through the same stages as the common Zro of the serviles. But it is the
result of free and joyful labour, and so serves the Magicians in their
experiments, and the Governor of all for his sustenance. None by the way is
ever wasted. For example, a tunnel was drilled completely through the Earth
and filled with Zro, and it is said that by this tunnel the Atlanteans
escaped.
*hbl
This working, whether _with_ or _for_ Zro, requires two persons at least at any
one time and place. Great heat is generated in the working, and the bodies of
the workers are therefore sprinkled heavily with the black phosphorus, which
is incombustible. This black phosphorus, poisonous to the servile race,
becomes innocuous to anyone who has been in any way impregnated with Zro. This
itself, in its first stage, is as dangerous as electricity of high voltage.
The reverence attached to Zro is unbounded. At one time it was hymned as
the father of the gods, and till the end all children were thought to be
``begotten of Zro,'' though everyone might know who was the father.{*} All such
conception was however held indignity. Its official name was ``the old
experiment.'' It was carried on simply because the new methods of continuing
the race were not perfected. Childbirth was therefore in one way accident;
although a duty, everyone shrank from it. For though no pain or discomfort
attached to the process, it was a sort of second-best achievement from which
proud women turned contemptuously. This was in part the reason why the
father's name was never mentioned.
On several occasions in the history of Atlas the Zro ``failed.'' Although
not changed in appearance, its properties were lost or diminished. In such a
case young men and maidens in great numbers were captured on the plains,
brought into Atlas, and offered in sacrifice to the Gods. Their blood was
mingled with Zro in its third stage, and the latter recovered its potency.
Their flesh was eaten by the High Priests and Priestesses in penance for the
unknown wrong. It was subject to other and terrible scourges, being the most
sensitive as well as the strongest thing on Earth. On one occasion it had to
be treated with a fox-like perfume prepared by the chief Magician; on another
it was subjected to streams of moonlight from parabolic mirrors.
The most serious crisis was some two thousand years before the destruction
of Atlas. One of the serviles, riding his ``hippopotamus'' to the ploughing,
fell off and was instantly bitten by the poisonous fish previously described.
Through an accident of boyhood he had, however, for a reason too obscure to
describe here, no such vulnerable spot as suited the Zhee-Zhou. He survived and went to work, as it chanced, the next day. The Zro was poisoned; a third
of Atlas died within the hour; the plants on the affected island had to be
destroyed, and all its people. It was only repopulated some three hundred and
eighty years later, and then for particular reasons of magical economy
impossible to dwell upon in this account.
Marriage was compulsory on all those whose passion had been so exclusive
and enduring as to produce two children. Further intercourse between the pair
was barred. The Magicians thought it was inimical to variation for a woman to
have more than one child (_a fortiori_ two) by the same father; and the custom
further prevented those stupid sporadic outbursts of burnt-out lust which make
so many modern marriages intolerable.
Closely connected with marriage, the close of the reproductive life, is
that of death, the close of the little that remains. Death hardly threatened
the Atlantean; he would decide to ``go and see,'' as the old phrase ran, and
take an overdose of a particular preparation of black phosphorus mixed with a
very little Zro in the ninth stage, which ensured a painless death. That none
ever returned was taken as proof of the supreme attractiveness of death.
The ghoulish and necromantic practices with which Atlanteans have been
unjustly reproached never occurred. A little vampirism, perhaps, in the early
days before the perfecting of Zro; but no Atlantean was ever so stupid or so
ignorant as to confuse death with life.
Beside this voluntary death only one danger existed. As the use of Zro
guaranteed life and health and youth -- a centenarian High Priest was no
better than a kitten! -- so did its abuse spell instant corruption of those
qualities. As mentioned above, now and then the Zro itself was at fault, and
caused epidemics; but from time to time there were deaths in a particularly
loathsome form caused by what they called ``misunderstanding'' the Zro.{*} Such
mistakes were particularly common in the early days of its discovery, and
before its use had become well nigh a worship. The first symptom was a crack
in the skin of the temple, or sometimes of the bridge of the nose, more rarely
of an eyelid or cheek. Within a few minutes this crack became one open sore,
of horrid foetor, and within twenty-four hours, the patient was completely
rotted away, bone and marrow. A circumstance of singular atrocity was that
death never occurred until the spinal column collapsed. No treatment could be
found even to prolong the agony by an hour. This being recognized, sufferers
were thrown from the cliffs at the first sign of the malady. In this way too
were all other corpses disposed. It was the most honourable death possible,
for becoming ``bread from heaven'' for the serviles, they were again worked up
into Zro itself, a transmutation which in their view would be well worth all
the ``resurrections of the body'' and ``immortalities of the soul'' of the
theoretical, dogmatic, hearsay religions. So much then concerning Zro, and the
