_Saturicae, cujus os erat os vulvae, res horribiles atque ridiculosa. Ferunt_
_similia de virorum membris, quae fingunt sicut imagines homunculorum fuere._
_Lege -- Judice -- Tace._
Many of the men had ossified extensions of the frontal process which
amounted to horns, and the formation was occasionally found in the higher
types of women. Curiously carven head-dresses of gold were worn by both sexes,
and those of priestly rank adorned these with living serpents, and the High
Priests yet further with feathers or with wings, such being not the spoils of dead birds, but the blossoms of the live gold of the crowns. Some tradition of
this custom is found in the pictures of the ``Gods'' of Egypt, these gods
being merely the Atlanteans whose mission civilized the country. The names of
some of the earlier gods confirm this. _Nu_ (Hebrew _Noah_) is Atlantean for arch,
_Zu_ (Egyptian _Shu_) for many ideas connecting with wind, _Asi_ means _'cum quasi_
_serpens,'_ obviously the name of an actual High Priestess. _Ra_ is pure Atlantean
for Sun, and _'Mse_ is that of a strong woman (_'M_) closing the mouth of a
Serpent (_S_) or dragon, and from this we have the XIth card of the Bohemian
Tarot, and the legend in the _Apocalypse._ In the mystic Greek used by the
Gnostics we find similar traces, Sofia being for _S Ph,_ giving the idea of
``serpent breath'' _i.e._ wisdom, IAO is PHALLOS, KTEIS, PROKTOS. The word LOGOS
means Boy (_G_) naturally engendered of the Virgin (_L_) and the Serpent (_S_).
THEOS (root _O,_ first written _O_) means the Sun in his strength and also the
Lingam-Yoni conjoined. CHRISTOS is ``The love of passion of the Rising Sun (_R_)
and the Serpent'' (_S_). The _I_ and _T_ indicate certain details which are foreign
to the present discussion. NEUMA (Atlantean _NM_) is the ``Arch of the Woman,''
MARIA, the Woman of the Sun. The words MEITHRAS and ABRAXAS are again derived
from Atlas. ``The woman entered, Lingam being conjoined with Yoni, bears the
Sun from her serpent womb'' and ``From the womb's mouth the Sun (cometh
seeking) a womb for his desire, even the womb of a serpent,'' the course of
the year being signified in this manner, as usualy with the ancients. This
plain of an idea corresponding to each letter was carried out very strictly:
thus _TLA,_ black, means the stigma or mark of the virgin's womb, _IA_ (Hail!
Greeting!) ``Face to Face,'' from the other peculiarity described above. These
few examples will suffice to indicate the singular character of the language,
and the way in which its essential dogmatic symbols have been incorporated by
the heirs of Atlas in the inmost sanctuaries of races which they deemed worthy
of such assistance.
I must not pass over in silence the question of sacrifice to the gods, to
which a passing reference has already been made. Such sacrifices were not very
frequent; the victims were the ``failures,'' those who were useless to the
social economy. As they represented capital expenditure, the object was to
recover this, at least, since no interest could be expected. The victim was
therefore handed over to a High Priest or Priestess, who extracted the life by
an instrument devised for and excellently adapted to the purpose, so that it
died of exhaustion. The life thus regained was given to ``the gods'' in a
manner too complex to be described in this brief account.
The early age at which puberty occurred was due to design. The normal
period of gestation had also been shortened to four months. This was all part
of the scheme to economize time. Old age had been almost done away with by the
great readiness of the Atlanteans to ``go and see'' at the first sign of
failing power. No doubt, further improvements would have been made but for the
loss of interest in the matter, all generations being regarded as ``the old
experiment,'' not likely to repay the trouble of further research. In the 200
or 300 years of a man's full vigour, only 8 years on the average was the
wastage of childhood, and even this was not all waste, since some time at
least must be necessary for the experts to discover and direct the tendencies
of the mind. The body ought therefore to be regarded as an engine, the
theoretical limit of whose efficiency had been reached.
So much I mention of the customs of the Atlanteans with regard to marriage,
education and religious sacrifices.
VIII
OF THE HISTORY OF ATLAS, FROM ITS EARLIEST ORIGINS TO THE PERIOD IMMEDIATELY
PRECEDING THE CATASTROPHE.
The origin of Atlas is lost in the obscurity of antiquity. The official
religious explanation is this: ``We came across the waters on the living
Atla,'' which is pious but improbable. A mystic meaning is to be suspected.
The lay historian says ``We came, escaping from destruction, eight persons in
a ship, bearing the living Zro.'' This reminds me one of later legends of
presumably equal value. Poets frankly claim ``We descended from heaven,'' and
it has been seriously urged that seafarers would have preferred the plains to
the rocks. The law of contrariety to Nature explains this away. Others
maintain that the earliest settlers came ``by air,'' or ``through air.'' This
must mean balloons or airplanes, as flying was not known until centuries
after. What is definitely known is that the earliest settlers were of a purely
fighting race.
An Atlantean Homer, Ylo, has described the first battle in such detail as
to leave no doubt that he is retelling facts -- a marked contradiction to his
earlier books. There appear to have been but few Atlanteans, unless the names
given are those of chiefs, which internal evidence contraverts. The natives
were aremed with every possible instrument of precision, having cavalry and
artillery in abundance, as well as weapons that must have been as superior to
the modern rifle (unless Ylo exaggerates) as that is to the arquebus. In spite
of this the men of Atlas ``smote them with rods'' or ``fell upon them with
their cones,'' and routed them utterly. This mention of rods and cones has
absurdly suggested to commentators that the Atlanteans used their eyes, and
hypnotized the enemy. To state such an opinion is sufficient to expose its
author to the contempt of the thoughtful. Altogether 86 battles were fought,
extending over five years, before the natives were reduced to sue for peace.
This was granted on generous terms, which the colonists broke, as soon as they
dared to do so, in accordance with the invariable rule of colonists, then as
much as today. However, it was nigh on a hundred years before the first
college of Magic was established. Previously the Atla had been carried about
as occasion demanded. It was now enshrined with some decency of ceremonial
upon a mountain. About three hundred years later we find ourselves face to
face with the first great Mystery of Atlas. This is a translation of the
record of that most strange event.
``Now it came to pass that all men turned black and died, and that the
living Atla abode alone, bearing Mercury, whereof the Sun knoweth. Thus came
again the true men of Atlas, and their women, bearing gods and goddesses. And
the void suffered nothing, and the Earth was at peace. Now then indeed arose
Art, and men builded, being blind. And there was light, and some of the light
wrought mischief. Wherefore the wise men destroyed them with their Magic, and
there is no record because it is written in that which is.'' A sort of _Si_
_monumentum quaris, circumspice_ seems here implied. In any case there were
clearly two gaps unbridgeable between the early struggles of the settlers, the
period of great buildings, and the modern period, which proved stable of
``houses.'' The ``houses'' were only made possible by the perfecting of Zro,
and this helps considerably to fix the date. The next 2500 years were years of peaceable progress; the labour-mills were run without a hitch, and the next
event was the discovery of black phophorus. It had been the custom to worship
the Atla with lights, and these lights had been candles of yellow phosphorus
in golden sheathes. At that time the Atla was veiled. At one festival of
Spring the veils were burnt up, the lights extinguished, and the yellow
phosphorus was found to have been turned into the black powder. The Magicians
examined this, and brought Zro to its ninth stage. This revolutionized the
condition of things: old age and disease were no more, and death voluntary.
Strangely enough this led directly to the Great Conspiracy.
At the end of this period of 2500 years the system of ``houses'' was well
established. There were over 400 such ``houses,'' each of perhaps 1000 souls
on an average. These were governed by 4 ``houses of houses'' whose rulers took
orders from the High House, at the head of which was the living Atla. The
plain principle of Atla was revolution; and like all revolutionary bodies, was
obliged to adopt the strictest form of autocracy. A democracy is always
soddenly conservative. The only hope is to catch it in one of its moments of
crazy enthusiasm, and crush it before it has time to recover. Caesar and
Napoleon both did this as far as they could: Cromwell and Porfirio Diaz did
the same within narrower limits.
Now a certain sophist -- for philosopher one cannot call him -- tried to
enunciate a magical law to the effect that the present standard of life was
all that could be desired; that further progress would be harmful, that Venus
was not worth attaining, and that the sole endeavour of the Magicians should
be to preserve things as they were. That such a proposition could be supposed
a ``law'' reflects no credit on its author or its supporters. Yet of these it
found many. The ninth stage of Zro was a leap calculated to unsettle the
calmest mind. Its reality had begared the optimist's daydream. Poets had
thrown down their stilettos. High Priests who had spent decades in hopeful
experiment saw their results attained of the people were infected with the
heresy, and hoped to hear it promulgated as a Law of Magic.
It should here be explained that every Law of Magic had its turn as the
principal law of practical working, and the school supporting any law, or
insisting on it, became prominent with it. Every dominant law in all history
had always been made insignificant by a new discovery about Zro, or matter of
practical importance, just as the ``Peace with Honour'' battle-cry of Disraeli
was drowned by the calculation of the cost of warships, soldiers and
patriotism. Each step in Zro had consequently implied the rise to power of a
new school; and the sophist was ambitious, and yet the law he wished to
establish was the ruling law of the servile races.
The ``law'' was accordingly sent to the High House for approval. Some
opposition may have been forseen, but no one was prepared for the blackness of
disapproval which actually radiated, striking hearts cold. A course without
precedent, no answer was vouchsafed. On the contrary, even normal
communication was suspended. The houses which favoured the innovation -- 333
in numbers -- took d. On the contrary, even normal communication was
suspended. The houses which favoured the innovation -- 333 in numbers -- took
counsel, came to the decision that it was useless to oppose the High House,
and were about to acquiesce, when a woman who had once been in the presence of
``To Her'' rose and thought vehemently ``The Living Atla is the head of our
conspiracy.'' In other words, they were the loyalists, the Magicians of the
High House the rebels. This was why they had cut themselves off, because their
own head was against them. It was instantly resolved to go to the High House,
and demand the custody of ``To Her.'' Nearing the goal, however, a remnant of
the ancient reverence half cowed even the ringleaders -- I may mention that five of every six of the heretics were women -- when they saw a stern phalanx
of Magicians, its point threatening their centre. As they wavered, a woman
cried ``They are only men such as we are.'' The ranks stiffened; on all sides
the army closed upon the tiny phalanx, which only numbered 66 all told. It was
then that the truth was known. Ere a blow could be struck, the attacking party
vanished; it was instantaneous and complete annihilation. From that moment it
was certain that the ruling power in Atlas was Something infinitely more awful
than the Living Atla. In order to avoid any possible repetition of such a
disaster -- for the Magicians of the High House knew that any manifestation of
the Supreme must undo the work of centuries -- they gave out that they had
become too terrible to look upon, and for the future they always appeared with
heavy veils, or rather masks, since for the most part they were carven
fantastically by the wearers in their leisure hours. A further alteration was
made in the system of government. The head of one of the ``houses of houses''
was made supreme: the High House took no part in affairs of state. Thus the
Atla was to all intents and purposes deposed, although the same reverence and
sacrifice were paid to it as formerly. It became a ``constitutional monarch,''
in our modern jargon.
The next thousand years were years of serious trial in other ways. The toil
of repopulation was excessive, and there was a revolt or rather strike of the
servile races, which was ended by the substitution of ``bread from heaven''
for those products of the earth on which they had formerly been fed, a diet
which proved so adapted to their natures that no labour troubles ever
recurred.
The Greek legends of the wars between gods, giants, Titans are traditional
of a real war or series of wars which continued with intervals over 200 years.
The enemy had developed naval armament to an extreme. Their tactics were
these:
*hbl
1. To wipe out the servile races and so to interfere with the production
of Zro.
2. To rush and destroy the High House.
*hbl
The first of these met with a great deal of success, the floating rock
being struck with projectiles and sunk. This occurred chiefly on the outlaying
islands, where they were not too much afraid to make raids in force. They also
sent epidemic disease of many kinds. Atlas was reduced to such extremity in
these ways that at one time the waterways were forced and the assault on the
High House was actually carried out, bombardment continuing day and night for
months together. Through a misunderstanding of well known magical law,
Atlanteans at that time considered themselves prohibited from employing any
other defence than the rods and the cones of their forefathers; and these, it
appears, were useless against machinery, or against men protected by
fortification in such a way that they could not be got at from any quarter.
Thus the sharklike submarines of the enemy were unassailable. The war was
therefore at first entirely one-sided. A certain youthful Magician, however,
resolving to die for his country if need were, decided to retaliate. He had
found that Zro in its nascent state (_i.e._ between the globes) had the power of
bringing about endothermic reaction, seawater for example, becoming caustic
soda and hydrochloric aglobes) had the power of bringing about endothermic
reaction, seawater for example, becoming caustic soda and hydrochloric acid; and further that this acid thus produced was many thousand times more active
than in its normal state. For example, the rock basins in which he conducted
his first experiment dissolved as rapidly as butter under boiling oil. He then
prepared a number of pairs of receiver-globes, and dropped them in the
vicinity of the enemy's submarines by night. In this manner he destroyed the
hulls of almost the whole fleet in a single night; and the remainder fled in
panic at dawn. They returned the following year, carrying out daylight raids
only and devoting themselves chiefly to destroying the labour-mills. The young
Magician had been rewarded for his services by being presented to the Atla,
and this example encouraged others to find means of attacking the invaders.
Artificial darkness was therefore invented, and combined with the former
method; but this was only partially successful, the tremendous pace of the
``sharks'' enabling them to evade any threatening clouds. They did enormous
damage, and the supplies of Zro were seriously curtailed. Things now went from
bad to worse, and culminated in the attack on the High House, the besiergers
keeping their battleships surrounded by rafts of fire, so that attack was
impossible even by night. It was then that the High House called on the
heorism of its sons. Armed with long swords of Zro, they plunged into the sea,
to perish under the tooth of the _Zhee-Zhou,_ but not before they had time to
hack the invading battleships to shreds. Their floating torch-rafts only
assisted the attack by directing the swimmers to their quarry. The attack on
the High House had aroused Atlas at last. A counter invasion was plotted and
carried out with immediate and complete success, the enemy being exterminated,
and their country not merely ravaged but destroyed by arousing the forces of
earthquake. All activity of this kind however was deprecable, a recurrence was
guarded against by removing the High House to the lofty mountain previously
described, and a ``house'' was chosen to cultivate the art of war, and
entrusted with the duty of destroying any living thing that might approach
within a hundred miles of Atlas.
Only one other adventure of historical importance remains to be recorded.
It is the attempt of some foolish Atlanteans to found an ``Empire,'' and so to
be entirely distinguished from the missionary effort referred to previously.
The original settlement of Atlas, as has been the case with all flourishing
colonies, was made by a few hardy pioneers, who strengthened themselves
gradually by growth. But Atlas in her momentary madness poured out blood and
treasure in the fatuous attempt to impose alien domination on lands utterly
unsuited to the genius of the people. The idea, of course, was to increase the
supply of labour and consequently of crude Zro. In the first place the
adventure was expensive. It was uneconomical (in the scientific sense) to send
ships with les than 1000 fighting men. The Zro required for these meant the
employment of at least 7000 serviles, and the naval construction was therefore
of a colossal order. But although little difficulty was found in conquering
the country in the military sense, the natives had to be almost exterminated,
and the labour of the survivors proved difficult to enforce. It was even then
not a tenth as efficient as that of the serviles at home. The imported
serviles moreover caught native diseases, and died in hundreds; and though by
prodigious sacrifices the West African Empire was kept going for nearly 200
years, it had to end at last no less ingloriously than the French adventure in
Mexico, or the English in India, and South Africa.
The main causes were the impossibility of breeding children in a climate so
unsuitable, even of maintaining their own women, and above all the fact that
the crude Zro was not of a quality equal to that obtained in Atlas, and that
the Zro generated by the Atlanteans themselves was not to be made at all
outside their own country. The lesson was learnt. Until the end no further
attempt was made to advance in any but the true direction. The great majority
of the colonists returned to Atlas; but many, degenerating as is the fashion with colonists of this conquering kind, abandoned Zro for gross food,
intermarried with the natives, and have generally degenerated yet further to
race inferior even to the present descendants of those who were in those days
the equivalents of the serviles of Atlas.
IX
OF THE CATASTROPHE, ITS ANTECEDENTS AND PRESUMED CAUSES.
In my remarks on Zro I have a necessarily somewhat diffuse account of the
properties of this remarkable substance. It must now be made clearer that the
crude Zro in its nine stages produced by the serviles, and consumes in the
``houses'' was in each stage of inferior quality to that of the same degree
produced by the Atlanteans, and consumed by the High House. For example, the
crude Zro was made in a labour-mill with all sorts of insulations. The first
stage of the priest's Zro could be made anywhere and at any time, and
naturally directed itself to the receptable for it without any precautions. It
must, I think, be presumed that the Zro generated in the High House was again
of far greater purity and potency. Very little of it can have been used in the
experiments of the Magicians, and it is therefore necessary to account for
enormous quantities, produced during many centuries of uninterrupted labour. I
have, however, no data of any kind for this investigation; the mysteries of
the High House have ever been inscrutable, and were not wholly delivered to
the Heirs of Atlas. They must be rediscovered by the Magicians of the new
race. It may be that in some form or other the Zro had been made stable, and
used to impregnate the column which is alleged to have been driven ``through
the Earth''; perhaps, and less improbably, only to the depth of a few hundred
miles. This column, however long it may have been, had certainly its top
immediately beneath the reservoir of the High House. It had been completed
about 70 years before the ``catastrophe'' but apparently no effort was made to
utilize it in any way. To me it appears probable that in some one mind the
whole ``catastrophe'' was brooding, that the column was part of the device,
and that the event which I shall now describe was the other part.
This event was the birth of a child in the High House, a child without the
distinguishing mark of the daughters of Atlas. That any child at all should
have been born there is so incredible that I am inclined to suspect an
improper use of the word ``born.'' I think rather that a Magician brought Zro
to its eleventh stage, when it takes human form, and lives! The alternative
theory is that of the ``Angel of Venus'' described in the chapter on the
Underground Gardens of Atlas. The supporters of this theory hold that the
child was not born of a Priestess, but of the Living Atla.
In any case, the whole country gave itself up to unbridled rejoicing. Work
was carried on at a greater speed than ever before: one might say a delirium
of labour. For eleven years this continued without cessation, and then without
warning came the order to repair to the High House -- every man, woman and
child of Atlas. What was then done, I know not, and dare not guess; that same
day seven volunteers, heroic exiles from the reward of so many centuries of
toil, voluntary maroons on the discarded planet, the Heirs of Atlas, turned
their faces from the High House, and severally sought distant mountains, there each to guard his share of the Secrets of the Holy Race, and in due time to
discover and train up fit children of other races of the Earth so that one day
another people might be founded to undertake another such task as that now
ended.
Hardly had the pinnacle of Atlas melted into the sea behind them, than the
``catastrophe'' occurred. The High House and the column beneath it, with all
the inhabitants of Atlas, shot from the Earth with the vehemence of a million
lightnings, bound for that green blaze of glory that scintillated in the West
above the sunset.
Instantly the Earth, its god departed, gave itself up to anguish. The sea
rushed unto the void of the column and in a thousand earthquakes Atlas,
``houses'' and plains together were overwhelmed forever in the ocean. Tidal
waves rolled round the world; everywhere great floods carried away villages
and towns; earthquakes roocked and tempest roared; tumult was triumphant. For
years after the catastrophe the dying tremors of the Event still shook mankind
with fear. And the eternal waves of the great mother rolled over Atlas, save
where Earth in her agony thrust up gaunt pinnacles, bare masts of wreckage to
mark the vanished continent. Save for its heirs, of whose successors it is my
highest honour to be the youngest and the least worthy, oblivion fell, like
one last night in which the Sun should be forever extinct, upon the land of
Atlas and its people.
Shall such high purpose fail of emulation, such achievement and example not
excite us to like striving? Then let Earth fall indeed from her high place in
heaven, and mankind be outcast forever from the Sun! Men of Earth! Seek out
the heirs of Atlas; let them order you into a phalanx, let them build you into
a pyramid; that may pierce that appointed which awaits you, to establish a new
dynasty of Atlanteans to be the mainstay and mainspring of the Earth, the
pioneers of their own path to heaven, and to our lord and Father, the Sun! And
he put his hand upon his thigh, and swore it.
By the ineffable , _Tla,_ and the holy Zro, did he swear it, and
entered into the body of the new Atla that is alive upon the Earth.
