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 Manicul? on their adventurous flight, and on the evening of the third day arrived at Corvo without accident, and were overjoyed, in their descent to perch on the Corcovado, to observe signals of welcome as if their coming had been anticipated by premonition. In explanation, after a joyful welcome, the Corcovadians said, that a watch had been kept constantly on the alert in expectation of their reappearance, during the interval of the many centuries which had elapsed since the last falcon departure. From whatever cause the delay, their confidence had grown in strength, that it would be overcome in time by the enterprise of their parentcedors.

This reunion of the Manatitlans with their Corcovadian colonistic outposts occurred on or about the 17th day of August, 1071 of your era. The voyage had been well sustained by the novice falcons, notwithstanding their recently acquired art of taking flying fish, and feeding while beating support with their wings under the favoring aid of the parachute. But 194hunger is an apt teacher of method with available means for its appeasement. The first warning the aeronauts received of their near approach to the land of their destination was the invasion from the windward of a suffocating odor, of the most disgusting taint, that pervaded the howdahs and assailed their olfactories, causing a violent retching, that made them apprehend pending calamity. But the pilots, when sufficiently recovered from the sudden invasion, consulted their charts of odor currents “laid down” by old navigators, and found that the nauseating cause of alarm proceeded from the confluent waft of Celtic and Congo exhalations from humanity, with the conjunctive loom of garlic odor in eructation from the inhabitants of Portugal, Spain, and south of France conveyed seaward by the evening land breeze, marked F?disima allium exhalata ab homine. After giving vent to humorous instinctive comparisons referring to the gross habits necessary for the production of odors so foul in their distant waft, the old peak of rendezvous on the island of Corvo saluted their glad vision.

Our reception by the Corcovadians was affectionate beyond comparison, fully enlisting our utmost resources in reciprocation. When the exuberance of our mingled congratulations had subsided into the calm current of sympathetic inquiry, we soon became aware of their loving troth to Manatitlan habits and customs. In evidence of the lealty of their alliance they had diminished a third in numbers, as they averred, with a marked improvement in all the essentials of affectionate purity and goodness, manifest alike in the conservation of physical and thoughtful development. In answer to our solicitous inquiries with regard to the welfare of the Animalculan and Giga population of the islands and mainland, they answered that the inhabitants of the islands had become more barbarously enlightened and destructive in tendency than they were in our ancestors’ time; our 195Mouthpat deportations having added fuel to the degenerative tendency of the islanders. Still the good example of the colonists had attracted a desire on the part of parents that their children should be educated under their instruction.

After a week’s sojourn with the Corcovadians, Soartus continued his flight to Rome, taking with him as many of the islanders as the howdahs could accommodate. “Soaring to our first poise above the peaks of the Asturian mountains, we hailed with matin song of praise the broad disc of the sun as it reflected, in ascendency from the horizon, the inequalities of the countries beneath in panoramic light and shadow. As it rose in the full splendor of its mellowed morning beams, dispelling with sparkling reflection the dewy mists of night, a scene of surpassing beauty greeted our vision. From north to south, on the western confines of the Iberian peninsula, a lofty range of intervaled mountains formed an inviting attraction for the mist clouds, which dispensed their moisture as an ever replenishing source of rivers and streams, that in descent received tributary contributions rendering with their water supply the valleys fertile. In continuation from the extreme south, a sea-coast range of lesser height formed an interior basin, by circle inclosure to the east and north. Within this, cities and hamlets were scattered with seeming indications of peaceful repose. Our eyes were held entranced with the beautiful scene; and we wondered how man, gifted with rational powers of discernment, could fail to discover in the lovely blendings Creative indications designed for his direction in the paths of peace and purity. The falcons, left to the guidance of their own pleasurable instincts, just cleared the topmost sprays of the trees in their gliding circuits, but in soaring above villages and cities the volantaphs raised their flight beyond the reach of missile weapons. While passing over the city of Leon from north to south, we 196saw men, women, and children, flocking in crowds to the western gate. Curious to learn the cause of this early commotion, so unwonted from the descriptions we had read of Iberian habits, the falcons were directed over the point of attraction. Clearing in circling descent the spires and towers of the cathedral church, our ears were saluted with the mingled bellowings of a seemingly enraged animal, and loud shouts arising from a multitudinous collection of voices pitched in range from the shrill stridency of childhood, through the medium grades of maturity, to the vacuous piping tones of senility. Over-reaching the gate towers, we beheld collected in an amphitheatre within wooden barriers, a large concourse of people, intently gazing with boisterous plaudits upon an encounter between a horned animal of the quadruped species and armed men with garments covered with tinsel. The sides of the enraged beast were dabbled and trickling with gore, from the many wounds inflicted by the knives and spears of the “sportsmen.” In quick apprehension of the effect of this cruel pastime, which had caused our wives to give utterance to a cry of pitying horror, the volantaphs suddenly depressed the falcon’s tail from the “bishop’s run to the pope’s nose” causing it to fan-spread, intercepting the view of objects beneath from the howdah; then soaring to a poise, soon left the revolting scene and arbiters of cruel instinct beyond the compass of eyes and ears. One of our Corcovadian correlatives then explained the nature and origin of the amusement. He said that it was styled by the Spanish a taurista, and when it commenced at sunrise it was styled “taurista hiquete para almuerzo.” The practice was said to have been derived originally from a race inhabiting an island in the northern ocean, who utilized the flesh of the slain brutes, and as a sequence assimilated their pugnacious characteristics.

“Here the volantaph directed our attention to the 197cultivated beauties of the Apuljarras of the Sierra Constantina, glowing in the morning sun with the brightest tints of verdure. Wooded and vine-covered slopes in ever varying contrast with the colored transitions of Moslem taste in the adornment of their dwellings, offered the strongest evidence of peaceful desire, notwithstanding minarets indicating fanatical worship abounded in cities, villages, and hamlets. As we neared these scenes, citizens and busy cultivators were seen engaged in their varied occupations, their forms reduced by distance from giga size to tits, reminded us of our own happy Manatitlan homes. The swift flight of the falcons conveyed the impression, from change in perspective, of gliding transitions of the same persons into varied employments, as if endowed with illimitable versatility. These pleasing illusions, which in slower flight, and nearer approach, would have truthfully depicted the miserable realities of servile selfishness, so much dreaded in foreboded encounter with the Giga races of Europe and Asia, caused Uffea, the wife of Soartus, to exclaim, with a long drawn sigh—“If they could only see and know us, I am sure they could not resist our happy example that would make this scene a reality? They surely would not refuse a joyous boon that would make these blooming valleys and verdant hills echo with songs of gladness raised in morning and evening praise? What joy for the future Manatitlan voyagers while floating over these lovely creations, if our people could be made the means of making these groves and hill-sides resound with songs of praise to unite in their fullness, with our peoples, in mid air responses?” Our hopeful sighs united with the desire that her vision might prove prophetic. But alas, our falcons had scarce attained their poise for descent to the Valentinian shore, when fierce human cries, and the loud clangor and blasts from cymbals and trumpets, resounded from the plain below. The volantaphs 198reverse in the direction of the falcons for descent, brought into view two hosts engaged in battle encounter, each in defiant utterance shouting their war cries, one, “Dios y Santiago,” and the opposed “Allah é Profeta.” No persuasion could induce our wives to venture a glance toward the fearful scene, and at their request the volantaphs changed the falcon’s course to shut out the view.

Our Corcovadian correlative in defining the casus belli, said, that those fighting under the standard that bore the device of a grotesque head covering, supported by crossed keys, were styled Christians, and the words, God and Saint James, which they ejaculated with their blows, were the names of the alleged author and favorite supporter of their creed, which theoretically inculcated peace and goodwill among men. While those arrayed under the crescent banner, who were as vehemently calling upon their god and prophet, were enjoined by their creed to destroy all who denied the divinity of the prophet. Both alike, in practice, upheld the absurd inconsistency of their creeds with the destructive fanaticism of instinctive passion. “As you will in Rome be forced to give heed to the brutal enactments practiced under the style of religion, and opposing variations in Constantinople and Jerusalem, it will be well to advise you of the texts that are quoted in train by the Christian sect, who are exhorted, in the battle cry, to strike for the God of Israel, and Saint James,—kill and spare not! The grateful teeth of the saws read in this wise, Do good to those who despitefully treat thee! He that smiteth thee on one cheek turn to him the other also! He that gives to the poor, lendeth to the Lord. Cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days it will return to you increased an hundred fold. These renderings of implied selfishness in mild vapory language, you have seen exemplified in enactments this morning; but you have 199still to undergo the painful infliction of sympathy for physical torments that priestcraft imposes, with the anticipation of ‘hellish’ power, for the punishment of dissenting heretics. The Moslems, who are fighting under the crescent standard, advocate sensual lunacy, with the prescribed belief in a heavenly haram peopled with houri,—a name that they bestow upon sensuously beatific women, who in Christian terms are styled angels,—these are used as lures for inciting the lusts of the faithful in blind subserviency to the commands of their leaders. Like their Christian opponents, the masses depend solely upon priestly interpretation for the reconciliation of contradictory passages in their creed, openly bestowing their reverential fealty upon the sensually mad, who are called saints or santons, esteeming the touch of their lewd filthiness as a vise for heavenly reward. Their priests, who are styled dervishes, wear the same hermaphrodite vestments in ceremonial enactments that distinguish their Christian counterparts, deriving oracular inspiration from dizziness invoked by rapid whirling gyrations. But as I see that you are oppressed with sorrowful disgust, in view of the rank stupidity you are about to encounter, we will allow you, with these premonitions, to verify the construction we give of the ancient giga Roman senator’s apothegm, which should have been, ‘whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make sensually mad.’ With the instinctive example of destructive hatred inculcated as a morning lesson for appetizing the kindred germ of children’s passions, in the bloody struggle between inhuman art aids and brute strength, exhibited in the bull’s blind rage, we can easily fill the intervening space in life with occupations in qualification for the battle enactments of the meridian.”

With the volantaph’s announcement that he was about to bring the falcon to a poise which would afford the occupants of the howdah an equidistant 200view of the peninsulas of Spain and Italy, a retrospective glance was cast backward. The keen Manatitlan sight, intensified with ardent admiration for the glowing beauties of the Iberian landscape, soon became absorbed in tracing the rare combinations of mountain and valley verdure, merging and varying in blending tints from the sun’s declining cast of light and shadow, until startled with Uffea’s sudden call, Alew! (look!) Recalled by her startled cry, our attention was attracted by her steadfast look, to the Valentian shore, and there beheld the victorious Christians in pursuit of the vanquished Moslems, vindicating the cry of their priests, “Kill and spare not.” “Alas,” tearfully sighed Uffea, “is it not enough that they yield the victory? of what avail the bodies of the flying, living or dead, that the victors still ruthlessly pursue and slay?”