登陆注册
5009600000014

第14章

It was not for some time, and until, by repeated trances, if they are to be so called, my mind became better prepared to interchange ideas with my entertainers, and more fully to comprehend differences of manners and customs, at first too strange to my experience to be seized by my reason, that I was enabled to gather the following details respecting the origin and history of the subterranean population, as portion of one great family race called the Ana.

According to the earliest traditions, the remote progenitors of the race had once tenanted a world above the surface of that in which their descendants dwelt. Myths of that world were still preserved in their archives, and in those myths were legends of a vaulted dome in which the lamps were lighted by no human hand. But such legends were considered by most commentators as allegorical fables. According to these traditions the earth 32itself, at the date to which the traditions ascend, was not indeed in its infancy, but in the throes and travail of transition from one form of development to another, and subject to many violent revolutions of nature. By one of such revolutions, that portion of the upper world inhabited by the ancestors of this race had been subjected to inundations, not rapid, but gradual and uncontrollable, in which all, save a scanty remnant, were submerged and perished. Whether this be a record of our historical and sacred Deluge, or of some earlier one contended for by geologists, I do not pretend to conjecture; though, according to the chronology of this people as compared with that of Newton, it must have been many thousands of years before the time of Noah. On the other hand, the account of these writers does not harmonise with the opinions most in vogue among geological authorities, inasmuch as it places the existence of a human race upon earth at dates long anterior to that assigned to the terrestrial formation adapted to the introduction of mammalia. A band of the ill-fated race, thus invaded by the Flood, had, during the march of the waters, taken refuge in caverns amidst the loftier rocks, and, wandering through these hollows, they lost sight of the upper world forever. Indeed, the whole face of the earth had been changed bythis great revulsion; land had been turned into sea- sea into land. In the bowels of the inner earth, even now, I was informed as a positive fact, might be discovered the remains of human habitation- habitation not in huts and caverns, but in vast cities whose ruins attest the civilisation of races which flourished before the age of Noah, and are not to be classified with those genera to which philosophy ascribes the use of flint and the ignorance of iron.

The fugitives had carried with them the knowledge of the arts they had practised above ground- arts of culture and civilisation. Their earliest want must have been that of supplying below the earth the light they had lost above it; and at no time, even in the traditional period, do the races, of which the one I now sojourned with formed a tribe, seem to have 33been unacquainted with the art of extracting light from gases, or manganese, or petroleum. They had been accustomed in their former state to contend with the rude forces of nature; and indeed the lengthened battle they had fought with their conqueror Ocean, which had taken centuries in its spread, had quickened their skill in curbing waters into dikes and channels. To this skill they owed their preservation in their new abode. "For many generations," said my host, with a sort of contempt and horror, "these primitive forefathers are said to have degraded their rank and shortened their lives by eating the flesh of animals, many varieties of which had, like themselves, escaped the Deluge, and sought shelter in the hollows of the earth; other animals, supposed to be unknown to the upper world, those hollows themselves produced."When what we should term the historical age emerged from the twilight of tradition, the Ana were already established in different communities, and had attained to a degree of civilisation very analogous to that which the more advanced nations above the earth now enjoy. They were familiar with most of our mechanical inventions, including the application of steam as well as gas. The communities were in fierce competition with each other. They had their rich and their poor; they had orators and conquerors; they made war either for a domain or an idea. Though the various states acknowledged various forms of government, free institutions were beginning to preponderate; popular assembliesincreased in power; republics soon became general; the democracy to which the most enlightened European politicians look forward as the extreme goal of political advancement, and which still prevailed among other subterranean races, whom they despised as barbarians, the loftier family of Ana, to which belonged the tribe I was visiting, looked back to as one of the crude and ignorant experiments which belong to the infancy of political science. It was the age of envy and hate, of fierce passions, of 34constant social changes more or less violent, of strife between classes, of war between state and state. This phase of society lasted, however, for some ages, and was finally brought to a close, at least among the nobler and more intellectual populations, by the gradual discovery of the latent powers stored in the all-permeating fluid which they denominate Vril.

同类推荐
  • 子华子

    子华子

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 祇洹图经

    祇洹图经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 金刚顶胜初瑜伽普贤菩萨念诵法经

    金刚顶胜初瑜伽普贤菩萨念诵法经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 凉州词

    凉州词

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Conditions of Existence

    The Conditions of Existence

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 快穿之Boss你别闹

    快穿之Boss你别闹

    莫名其妙的被炸死,和一个叫糯米的系统绑定。还说完成任务就能重生只可惜我不稀罕。不过系统的手感很好,很Q弹,而且他也答应了,每一个位面都已原型现身让我掐,既然都这样了那就我勉强去吧。#1v1/前期不洁#女主前期有点渣,三观超正的建议别看
  • 始尾

    始尾

    事情是从冉妍能看见另一个世界的红发美女开始的,从那一天起,一切都变得不一样了。————从始至尾,如银环蛇链,开始即为结束。
  • 沫蔚小说集

    沫蔚小说集

    沫沫的微小说,写尽人世的悲欢离合,爱恨情仇。让你体会不同的人生,不同的经历,让你体会穿越时空的爱恋,跨越种族的情意。
  • 燃烧的月亮

    燃烧的月亮

    《燃烧的月亮》以第一人称的方式,讲述了一名叫卢畀老人的亲身所经历的一段历史的片段。1930年10月,台湾中部雾社举办盛大的运动会,也是台湾神社最大的祭奠活动,原著民族赛德克族人为了击日本人的占领,趁机冲进了会场,发动了攻击行动,由此而引起了影响一时的雾社事件。杀死百余日本人,最终以千余原著民的生命为代价,结束了这一惨烈的故事。
  • 绝不为后

    绝不为后

    新婚之夜,帝王中毒而死,皇后纳兰嫣然成了顶罪之人,整个家族满门抄斩。出逃路上,她巧遇他,兜兜转转重回皇宫。再一次步入皇族,她发誓不做刀俎上的鱼肉,定要将所有仇敌血洗。
  • 仙侠奇缘之千年之恋

    仙侠奇缘之千年之恋

    万年长情,唯花不灭,情至深处,花开如海。钟离,霸气冲天,救生挤世,却应情劫而生;一颗侠女之心却深限情丝不可自拔。乾胤先尊,看淡红尘,一头白发,一袭蓝衣,一身仙气,看尽人间四海茫茫。可相遇不期而至,情咒应劫而醒,纵使五百年静身修行又怎敌人间真情。原本清静的心却再也不平静了,纵使背负天下骂名,他也要护她一生周全,不是为一段情咒,而是因为心乱了。而鬼魅,这个世上最不该有心的魔王,却也架不住一个情字的牵扯,动了凡心,一场情劫,三个人纠葛,或许只有等到花开如海的那天,才能知道心归何处……
  • 中华美德:神勇果敢

    中华美德:神勇果敢

    神勇果敢应理解为两方面内容:神勇和果敢。神勇,有无比勇猛,神勇无敌的意思;果敢,形容人处事当机立断,有敢作敢为的意味在里面。神勇果敢,是中华民族传统美德的一种体现。从某种意义上讲,是智慧与勇气并存,胆略与正气常在,勇而并非“莽”,“敢”而未必“闯”。
  • 东京女子会

    东京女子会

    本书是东野圭吾、宫部美雪强强推荐,第28届山本周五郎奖,第三届高中生直木奖获奖作品。我们是在竞争中存活下来的怪物,我们是潜游在水底的食人鱼,被整个世界所嫌恶,又反过来吞食身遭的一切。事业有成的荣利子和普通主妇翔子,相爱相杀的二人,其实都是被现实社会蛛网似的潜规则伤害的失败者。为什么?!——“我为了你,赌上自己的一切,变得面目全非;然而在你的眼中,我只是猥琐变态的跟踪狂吗?!”既然如此……——“亲爱的,为了让幸福的瞬间永久封存,在幸福时我们应当一同赴死,对吗?”原来,追求友情的人和追求爱情的人一样,有时耗尽了力气和真心,到头来却只感动了自己。
  • 婚色门

    婚色门

    容颜为了免于日后混迹盛女大军的悲惨命运,一出校门便将自己嫁了。婆家高门荣华,丈夫行止风雅,这一生若安好,本该功德圆满。然丈夫心系青梅,小叔风流绝艳,大姑嚣张跋扈,还有那讳莫如深的婆婆…豪门里的婚姻,如何不是场攻心计?!容颜自认自己只是红尘中的一粒沙,没有绝色容貌,没有惊滟才艺,更没有厚重身价,如何所向披靡,戎马一生,当身心俱疲,毅然转身,一纸离婚协议抛给他,从此粉饰太平。秦远修没觉得多爱她,只是习惯了分一半床给她,习惯午夜迷乱时,枕边沉沉唤出的名字是‘容颜’…衣柜只剩我外套拖鞋少了一双脚当所有人觉得我越飞越高我却只要原来我只想要把你找到每天每夜的在祈祷原来我只希望时间回到现在我承认我霸道原来我的愿望就那么少醒来时候有你撒娇原来我真的什么都不要只要从前一样就好
  • 寻秦陵

    寻秦陵

    悠悠华夏,自始五千年,文化瑰宝无数,自周始而墓葬兴。故贪财者生盗墓,久之致秦,八卦已生,而成风水之命术。苍苍秦岭,绵延八百里不绝,求仙问道者数千,奈何仙路崎岖,自春秋来少有入半步者。天下祖龙,自始昆仑山,向东余脉无数,自风起而入海尽。故神州龙盘虎跃,战国衰末,秦霸九州,政劳天下而悦已。幽幽秦陵,葬者古之第一帝,藏半数上古奇珍,奈何陵深无路,自秦灭汉生皆无人能寻。