roleplaying:munchausen:chapter_xviii
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+ | ====== TRAVELS OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN ====== | ||
+ | ===== CHAPTER XVIII ===== | ||
+ | A SECOND TRIP TO THE MOON | ||
+ | |||
+ | //A second visit (but an accidental one) to the moon--The ship | ||
+ | driven by a whirlwind a thousand leagues above the surface of the | ||
+ | water, where a new atmosphere meets them and carries them into a | ||
+ | capacious harbour in the moon--A description of the inhabitants, | ||
+ | and their manner of coming into the lunarian world--Animals, | ||
+ | customs, weapons of war, wine, vegetables, &c.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | I have already informed you of one trip I made to the moon, in search | ||
+ | of my silver hatchet; I afterwards made another in a much pleasanter | ||
+ | manner, and stayed in it long enough to take notice of several things, | ||
+ | which I will endeavour to describe as accurately as my memory will | ||
+ | permit. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I went on a voyage of discovery at the request of a distant relation, | ||
+ | who had a strange notion that there were people to be found equal in | ||
+ | magnitude to those described by Gulliver in the empire of BROBDIGNAG. | ||
+ | For my part I always treated that account as fabulous: however, to | ||
+ | oblige him, for he had made me his heir, I undertook it, and sailed | ||
+ | for the South seas, where we arrived without meeting with anything | ||
+ | remarkable, except some flying men and women who were playing at leap- | ||
+ | frog, and dancing minuets in the air. | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the eighteenth day after we had passed the Island of Otaheite, | ||
+ | mentioned by Captain Cook as the place from whence they brought Omai, | ||
+ | a hurricane blew our ship at least one thousand leagues above the | ||
+ | surface of the water, and kept it at the height till a fresh gale | ||
+ | arising filled the sails in every part, and onwards we travelled at a | ||
+ | prodigious rate; thus we proceeded above the clouds for six weeks. At | ||
+ | last we discovered a great land in the sky, like a shining island, | ||
+ | round and bright, where, coming into a convenient harbour, we went on | ||
+ | shore, and soon found it was inhabited. Below us we saw another earth, | ||
+ | containing cities, trees, mountains, rivers, seas, &c., which we | ||
+ | conjectured was this world which we had left. Here we saw huge figures | ||
+ | riding upon vultures of a prodigious size, and each of them having | ||
+ | three heads. To form some idea of the magnitude of these birds, I must | ||
+ | inform you that each of their wings is as wide and six times the | ||
+ | length of the main sheet of our vessel, which was about six hundred | ||
+ | tons burthen. Thus, instead of riding upon horses, as we do in this | ||
+ | world, the inhabitants of the moon (for we now found we were in Madam | ||
+ | Luna) fly about on these birds. The king, we found, was engaged in a | ||
+ | war with the sun, and he offered me a commission, but I declined the | ||
+ | honour his majesty intended me. Everything in //this// world is of | ||
+ | extraordinary magnitude! a common flea being much larger than one of | ||
+ | our sheep: in making war, their principal weapons are radishes, which | ||
+ | are used as darts: those who are wounded by them die immediately. | ||
+ | Their shields are made of mushrooms, and their darts (when radishes | ||
+ | are out of season) of the tops of asparagus. Some of the natives of | ||
+ | the dog-star are to be seen here; commerce tempts them to ramble; | ||
+ | their faces are like large mastiffs', | ||
+ | end or tip of their noses: they have no eyelids, but cover their eyes | ||
+ | with the end of their tongues when they go to sleep; they are | ||
+ | generally twenty feet high. As to the natives of the moon, none of | ||
+ | them are less in stature than thirty-six feet: they are not called the | ||
+ | human species, but the cooking animals, for they all dress their food | ||
+ | by fire, as we do, but lose not time at their meals, as they open | ||
+ | their left side, and place the whole quantity at once in their | ||
+ | stomach, then shut it again till the same day in the next month; for | ||
+ | they never indulge themselves with food more than twelve times a year, | ||
+ | or once a month. All but gluttons and epicures must prefer this method | ||
+ | to ours. | ||
+ | |||
+ | There is but one sex either of the cooking or any other animals in the | ||
+ | moon; they are all produced from trees of various sizes and foliage; | ||
+ | that which produces the cooking animal, or human species, is much more | ||
+ | beautiful than any of the others; it has large straight boughs and | ||
+ | flesh-coloured leaves, and the fruit it produces are nuts or pods, | ||
+ | with hard shells at least two yards long; when they become ripe, which | ||
+ | is known from their changing colour, they are gathered with great | ||
+ | care, and laid by as long as they think proper: when they choose to | ||
+ | animate the seed of these nuts, they throw them into a large cauldron | ||
+ | of boiling water, which opens the shells in a few hours, and out jumps | ||
+ | the creature. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nature forms their minds for different pursuits before they come into | ||
+ | the world; from one shell comes forth a warrior, from another a | ||
+ | philosopher, | ||
+ | fifth a farmer, from a sixth a clown, &c. &c., and each of them | ||
+ | immediately begins to perfect themselves, by practising what they | ||
+ | before knew only in theory. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When they grow old they do not die, but turn into air, and dissolve | ||
+ | like smoke! As for their drink, they need none; the only evacuations | ||
+ | they have are insensible, and by their breath. They have but one | ||
+ | finger upon each hand, with which they perform everything in as | ||
+ | perfect a manner as we do who have four besides the thumb. Their heads | ||
+ | are placed under their right arm, and when are going to travel, or | ||
+ | about any violent exercise, they generally leave them at home, for | ||
+ | they can consult them at any distance; this is a very common practice; | ||
+ | and when those of rank or quality among the Lunarians have an | ||
+ | inclination to see what's going forward among the common people, they | ||
+ | stay at home, //i.e.//, the body stays at home, and sends the head only, | ||
+ | which is suffered to be present //incog.//, and return at pleasure with | ||
+ | an account of what has passed. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The stones of their grapes are exactly like hail; and I am perfectly | ||
+ | satisfied that when a storm or high wind in the moon shakes their | ||
+ | vines, and breaks the grapes from the stalks, the stones fall down and | ||
+ | form our hail showers. I would advise those who are of my opinion to | ||
+ | save a quantity of these stones when it hails next, and make Lunarian | ||
+ | wine. It is a common beverage at St. Luke' | ||
+ | circumstances I had nearly omitted. They put their bellies to the same | ||
+ | use as we do a sack, and throw whatever they have occasion for into | ||
+ | it, for they can shut and open it again when they please, as they do | ||
+ | their stomachs; they are not troubled with bowels, liver, heart, or | ||
+ | any other intestines, neither are they encumbered with clothes, nor is | ||
+ | there any part of their bodies unseemly or indecent to exhibit. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Their eyes they can take in and out of their places when they please, | ||
+ | and can see as well with them in their hand as in their head! and if | ||
+ | by any accident they lose or damage one, they can borrow or purchase | ||
+ | another, and see as clearly with it as their own. Dealers in eyes are | ||
+ | on that account very numerous in most parts of the moon, and in this | ||
+ | article alone all the inhabitants are whimsical: sometimes green and | ||
+ | sometimes yellow eyes are the fashion. I know these things appear | ||
+ | strange; but if the shadow of a doubt can remain on any person' | ||
+ | I say, let him take a voyage there himself, and then he will know I am | ||
+ | a traveller of veracity. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | Go to [[CHAPTER XIX]] |
roleplaying/munchausen/chapter_xviii.txt · Last modified: 2005/11/22 18:00 by 127.0.0.1