The Coming Race - Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton (free ereaders txt) 📗

the body
waste within the earth or is reduced by that awful mechanism,
worked, no doubt by the agency of vril, into a pinch of dust?"

"You answer well," said my host, "and there is no arguing on a
matter of feeling; but to me your custom is horrible and
repulsive, and would serve to invest death with gloomy and
hideous associations. It is something, too, to my mind, to be
able to preserve the token of what has been our kinsman or
friend within the abode in which we live. We thus feel more
sensibly that he still lives, though not visibly so to us. But
our sentiments in this, as in all things, are created by
custom. Custom is not to be changed by a wise An, any more
than it is changed by a wise Community, without the greatest
deliberation, followed by the most earnest conviction. It is
only thus that change ceases to be changeability, and once made
is made for good.

When we regained the house, Aph-Lin summoned some of the
children in his service and sent them round to several of his
friends, requesting their attendance that day, during the Easy
Hours, to a festival in honour of his kinsman's recall to the
All-Good. This was the largest and gayest assembly I ever
witnessed during my stay among the Ana, and was prolonged far
into the Silent Hours.

The banquet was spread in a vast chamber reserved especially
for grand occasions. This differed from our entertainments,
and was not without a certain resemblance to those we read of
in the luxurious age of the Roman empire. There was not one
great table set out, but numerous small tables, each
appropriated to eight guests. It is considered that beyond
that number conversation languishes and friendship cools. The
Ana never laugh loud, as I have before observed, but the
cheerful ring of their voices at the various tables betokened
gaiety of intercourse. As they have no stimulant drinks, and
are temperate in food, though so choice and dainty, the banquet
itself did not last long. The tables sank through the floor,
127and then came musical entertainments for those who liked them.
Many, however, wandered away:- some of the younger ascended in
their wings, for the hall was roofless, forming aerial dances;
others strolled through the various apartments, examining the
curiosities with which they were stored, or formed themselves
into groups for various games, the favourite of which is a
complicated kind of chess played by eight persons. I mixed
with the crowd, but was prevented joining in the conversation
by the constant companionship of one or the other of my host's
sons, appointed to keep me from obtrusive questionings. The
guests, however, noticed me but slightly; they had grown
accustomed to my appearance, seeing me so often in the streets,
and I had ceased to excite much curiosity.

To my great delight Zee avoided me, and evidently sought to
excite my jealousy by marked attentions to a very handsome
young An, who (though, as is the modest custom of the males
when addressed by females, he answered with downcast eyes and
blushing cheeks, and was demure and shy as young ladies new to
the world are in most civilised countries, except England and
America) was evidently much charmed by the tall Gy, and ready
to falter a bashful "Yes" if she had actually proposed.
Fervently hoping that she would, and more and more averse to
the idea of reduction to a cinder after I had seen the rapidity
with which a human body can be hurried into a pinch of dust, I
amused myself by watching the manners of the other young
people. I had the satisfaction of observing that Zee was no
singular assertor of a female's most valued rights. Wherever I
turned my eyes, or lent my ears, it seemed to me that the Gy
was the wooing party, and the An the coy and reluctant one.
The pretty innocent airs which an An gave himself on being thus
courted, the dexterity with which he evaded direct answers to
professions of attachment, or turned into jest the flattering
compliments addressed to him, would have done honour to the
128most accomplished coquette. Both my male chaperons were
subjected greatly to these seductive influences, and both
acquitted themselves with wonderful honour to their tact and
self-control.

I said to the elder son, who preferred mechanical employments
to the management of a great property, and who was of an
eminently philosophical temperament,- "I find it difficult to
conceive how at your age, and with all the intoxicating effects
on the senses, of music and lights and perfumes, you can be so
cold to that impassioned young Gy who has just left you with
tears in her eyes at your cruelty."

The young An replied with a sigh, "Gentle Tish, the greatest
misfortune in life is to marry one Gy if you are in love with
another."

"Oh! You are in love with another?"

"Alas! Yes."

"And she does not return your love?"

"I don't know. Sometimes a look, a tone, makes me hope so; but
she has never plainly told me that she loves me."

"Have you not whispered in her own ear that you love her?"

"Fie! What are you thinking of? What world do you come from?
Could I so betray the dignity of my sex? Could I be so un-Anly-
so lost to shame, as to own love to a Gy who has not first
owned hers to me?"

"Pardon: I was not quite aware that you pushed the modesty of
your sex so far. But does no An ever say to a Gy, 'I love
you,' till she says it first to him?"

"I can't say that no An has ever done so, but if he ever does,
he is disgraced in the eyes of the Ana, and secretly despised
by the Gy-ei. No Gy, well brought up, would listen to him; she
would consider that he audaciously infringed on the rights of
her sex, while outraging the modesty which dignifies his own.
It is very provoking," continued the An, "for she whom I love
has certainly courted no one else, and I cannot but think she
likes me. Sometimes I suspect that she does not court me
because she fears I would ask some unreasonable settlement as
129to the surrender of her rights. But if so, she cannot really
love me, for where a Gy really loves she forgoes all rights."

"Is this young Gy present?"

"Oh yes. She sits yonder talking to my mother."

I looked in the direction to which my eyes were thus guided,
and saw a Gy dressed in robes of bright red, which among this
people is a sign that a Gy as yet prefers a single state. She
wears gray, a neutral tint, to indicate that she is looking
about for a spouse; dark purple if she wishes to intimate that
she has made a choice; purple and orange when she is betrothed
or married; light blue when she is divorced or a widow, and
would marry again. Light blue is of course seldom seen.

Among a people where all are of so high a type of beauty, it is
difficult to single out one as peculiarly handsome. My young
friend's choice seemed to me to possess the average of good
looks; but there was an expression in her face that pleased me
more than did the faces of the young Gy-ei generally, because
it looked less bold- less conscious of female rights. I
observed that, while she talked to Bra, she glanced, from time
to time, sidelong at my young friend.

"Courage," said I, "that young Gy loves you."

"Ay, but if she shall not say so, how am I the better for her love?"

"Your mother is aware of your attachment?"

"Perhaps so. I never owned it to her. It would be un-Anly to
confide such weakness to a mother. I have told my father; he
may have told it again to his wife."

"Will you permit me to quit you for a moment and glide behind
your mother and your beloved? I am sure they are talking about
you. Do not hesitate. I promise that I will not allow myself
to be questioned till I rejoin you."

The young An pressed his hand on his heart, touched me lightly
on the head, and allowed me to quit his side. I stole
unobserved behind his mother and his beloved. I overheard
their talk.
130
Bra was speaking; said she, "There can be no doubt of this:
either my son, who is of marriageable age, will be decoyed into
marriage with one of his many suitors, or he will join those
who emigrate to a distance and we shall see him no more. If
you really care for him, my dear Lo, you should propose."

"I do care for him, Bra; but I doubt if I could really ever win
his affections. He is fond of his inventions and timepieces;
and I am not like Zee, but so dull that I fear I could not
enter into his favourite pursuits, and then he would get tired
of me, and at the end of three years divorce me, and I could
never marry another- never."

"It is not necessary to know about timepieces to know how to be
so necessary to the happiness of an An, who cares for
timepieces, that he would rather give up the timepieces than
divorce his Gy. You see, my dear Lo," continued Bra, "that
precisely because we are the stronger sex, we rule the other
provided we never show our strength. If you were superior to
my son in making timepieces and automata, you should, as his
wife, always let him suppose you thought him superior in that
art to yourself. The An tacitly allows the pre-eminence of the
Gy in all except his own special pursuit. But if she either
excels him in that, or affects not to admire him for his
proficiency in it, he will not love her very long; perhaps he
may even divorce her. But where a Gy really loves, she soon
learns to love all that the An does."

The young Gy made no answer to this address. She looked down
musingly, then a smile crept over her lips, and she rose, still
silent, and went through the crowd till she paused by the young
An who loved her. I followed her steps, but discreetly stood
at a little distance while I watched them. Somewhat to my
surprise, till I recollected the coy tactics among the Ana, the
lover seemed to receive her advances with an air of
indifference. He even moved away, but she pursued his steps,
131and, a little time after, both spread their wings and vanished
amid the luminous space above.

Just then I was accosted by the chief magistrate, who mingled
with the crowd distinguished by no signs of deference or
homage. It so happened that I had not seen this great
dignitary since the day I had entered his dominions, and
recalling Aph-Lin's words as to his terrible doubt whether or
not I should be dissected, a shudder crept over me at the sight
of his tranquil countenance.

"I hear much of you, stranger, from my son Taee," said the Tur,
laying his hand politely on my bended head. "He is very fond
of your society, and I trust you are not displeased with the
customs of our people."

I muttered some unintelligible answer, which I intended to be
an assurance of my gratitude for the kindness I had received
from the Tur, and my admiration of his countrymen, but the
dissecting-knife gleamed before my mind's eye and choked