And now the curtain is down for a few hours, and the actors in thisnovel drama are plunged in dewy sleep. Perhaps we should exceptNyleptha, whom the reader may, if poetically inclined, imagine lying inher bed of state encompassed by her maidens, tiring women, guards, andall the other people and appurtenances that surround a throne, and yetnot able to slumber for thinking of the strangers who had visited acountry where no such strangers had ever come before, and wondering, asshe lay awake, who they were and what their past has been, and if shewas ugly compared to the women of their native place. I, however, notbeing poetically inclined, will take advantage of the lull to give someaccount of the people among whom we found ourselves, compiled, needlessto state, from information which we subsequently collected.
The name of this country, to begin at the beginning, is Zu-Vendis,from Zu, 'yellow', and Vendis, 'place or country'. Why it is called theYellow Country I have never been able to ascertain accurately, nor dothe inhabitants themselves know. Three reasons are, however, given, eachof which would suffice to account for it. The first is that the nameowes its origin to the great quantity of gold that is found in the land.Indeed, in this respect Zu-Vendis is a veritable Eldorado, the preciousmetal being extraordinarily plentiful. At present it is collected frompurely alluvial diggings, which we subsequently inspected, and whichare situated within a day's journey from Milosis, being mostly found inpockets and in nuggets weighing from an ounce up to six or seven poundsin weight. But other diggings of a similar nature are known to exist,and I have besides seen great veins of gold-bearing quartz. In Zu-Vendisgold is a much commoner metal than silver, and thus it has curiouslyenough come to pass that silver is the legal tender of the country.
The second reason given is, that at certain times of the year the nativegrasses of the country, which are very sweet and good, turn as yellowas ripe corn; and the third arises from a tradition that the peoplewere originally yellow skinned, but grew white after living for manygenerations upon these high lands. Zu-Vendis is a country about the sizeof France, is, roughly speaking, oval in shape; and on every sidecut off from the surrounding territory by illimitable forests ofimpenetrable thorn, beyond which are said to be hundreds of miles ofmorasses, deserts, and great mountains. It is, in short, a huge, hightableland rising up in the centre of the dark continent, much asin southern Africa flat-topped mountains rise from the level of thesurrounding veldt. Milosis itself lies, according to my aneroid, at alevel of about nine thousand feet above the sea, but most of the landis even higher, the greatest elevation of the open country being, Ibelieve, about eleven thousand feet. As a consequence the climateis, comparatively speaking, a cold one, being very similar to that ofsouthern England, only brighter and not so rainy. The land is, however,exceedingly fertile, and grows all cereals and temperate fruits andtimber to perfection; and in the lower-lying parts even produces a hardyvariety of sugar-cane. Coal is found in great abundance, and in manyplaces crops out from the surface; and so is pure marble, both black andwhite. The same may be said of almost every metal except silver, whichis scarce, and only to be obtained from a range of mountains in thenorth.
Zu-Vendis comprises in her boundaries a great variety of scenery,including two ranges of snow-clad mountains, one on the western boundarybeyond the impenetrable belt of thorn forest, and the other piercing thecountry from north to south, and passing at a distance of about eightymiles from Milosis, from which town its higher peaks are distinctlyvisible. This range forms the chief watershed of the land. There arealso three large lakes--the biggest, namely that whereon we emerged, andwhich is named Milosis after the city, covering some two hundred squaremiles of country--and numerous small ones, some of them salt.
The population of this favoured land is, comparatively speaking, dense,numbering at a rough estimate from ten to twelve millions. It is almostpurely agricultural in its habits, and divided into great classes asin civilized countries. There is a territorial nobility, a considerablemiddle class, formed principally of merchants, officers of the army,etc.; but the great bulk of the people are well-to-do peasants who liveupon the lands of the lords, from whom they hold under a species offeudal tenure. The best bred people in the country are, as I think Ihave said, pure whites with a somewhat southern cast of countenance; butthe common herd are much darker, though they do not show any negro orother African characteristics. As to their descent I can give no certaininformation. Their written records, which extend back for about athousand years, give no hint of it. One very ancient chronicler doesindeed, in alluding to some old tradition that existed in his day, talkof it as having probably originally 'come down with the people from thecoast', but that may mean little or nothing. In short, the origin of theZu-Vendi is lost in the mists of time. Whence they came or of what racethey are no man knows. Their architecture and some of their sculpturessuggest an Egyptian or possibly an Assyrian origin; but it is wellknown that their present remarkable style of building has only sprung upwithin the last eight hundred years, and they certainly retain no tracesof Egyptian theology or customs. Again, their appearance and someof their habits are rather Jewish; but here again it seems hardlyconceivable that they should have utterly lost all traces of the Jewishreligion. Still, for aught I know, they may be one of the lost tentribes whom people are so fond of discovering all over the world, orthey may not. I do not know, and so can only describe them as I findthem, and leave wiser heads than mine to make what they can out of it,if indeed this account should ever be read at all, which is exceedinglydoubtful.
And now after I have said all this, I am, after all, going to hazard atheory of my own, though it is only a very little one, as the young ladysaid in mitigation of her baby. This theory is founded on a legend whichI have heard among the Arabs on the east coast, which is to the effectthat 'more than two thousand years ago' there were troubles in thecountry which was known as Babylonia, and that thereon a vast horde ofPersians came down to Bushire, where they took ship and were driven bythe north-east monsoon to the east coast of Africa, where, according tothe legend, 'the sun and fire worshippers' fell into conflict with thebelt of Arab settlers who even then were settled on the east coast, andfinally broke their way through them, and, vanishing into the interior,were no more seen. Now, I ask, is it not at least possible that theZu-Vendi people are the descendants of these 'sun and fire worshippers'who broke through the Arabs and vanished? As a matter of fact, thereis a good deal in their characters and customs that tallies with thesomewhat vague ideas that I have of Persians. Of course we have no booksof reference here, but Sir Henry says that if his memory does not failhim, there was a tremendous revolt in Babylon about 500 BC, whereona vast multitude were expelled from the city. Anyhow, it is awell-established fact that there have been many separate emigrationsof Persians from the Persian Gulf to the east coast of Africa up to aslately as seven hundred years ago. There are Persian tombs at Kilwa, onthe east coast, still in good repair, which bear dates showing them tobe just seven hundred years old. {Endnote 12}
In addition to being an agricultural people, the Zu-Vendi are, oddlyenough, excessively warlike, and as they cannot from the exigencies oftheir position make war upon other nations, they fight among each otherlike the famed Kilkenny cats, with the happy result that the populationnever outgrows the power of the country to support it. This habit oftheirs is largely fostered by the political condition of the country.The monarchy is nominally an absolute one, save in so far as it istempered by the power of the priests and the informal council of thegreat lords; but, as in many other institutions, the king's writ doesnot run unquestioned throughout the length and breadth of the land. Inshort, the whole system is a purely feudal one (though absolute serfdomor slavery is unknown), all the great lords holding nominally from thethrone, but a number of them being practically independent, having thepower of life and death, waging war against and making peace withtheir neighbours as the whim or their interests lead them, and evenon occasion rising in open rebellion against their royal master ormistress, and, safely shut up in their cast
les and fenced cities, as farfrom the seat of government, successfully defying them for years.
Zu-Vendis has had its king-makers as well as England, a fact that willbe well appreciated when I state that eight different dynasties have satupon the throne in the last one thousand years, every one of which tookits rise from some noble family that succeeded in grasping the purpleafter a sanguinary struggle. At the date of our arrival in the countrythings were a little better than they had been for some centuries,the last king, the father of Nyleptha and Sorais, having been anexceptionally able and vigorous ruler, and, as a consequence, he keptdown the power of the priests and nobles. On his death, two years beforewe reached Zu-Vendis, the twin sisters, his children, were, followingan ancient precedent, called to the throne, since an attempt to excludeeither would instantly have provoked a sanguinary civil war; but itwas generally felt in the country that this measure was a mostunsatisfactory one, and could hardly be expected to be permanent.Indeed, as it was, the various intrigues that were set on foot byambitious nobles to obtain the hand of one or other of the queens inmarriage had disquieted the country, and the general opinion was thatthere would be bloodshed before long.
I will now pass on to the question of the Zu-Vendi religion, whichis nothing more or less than sun-worship of a pronounced and highlydeveloped character. Around this sun-worship is grouped the entiresocial system of the Zu-Vendi. It sends its roots through everyinstitution and custom of the land. From the cradle to the grave theZu-Vendi follows the sun in every sense of the saying. As an infant heis solemnly held up in its light and dedicated to 'the symbol ofgood, the expression of power, and the hope of Eternity', the ceremonyanswering to our baptism. Whilst still a tiny child, his parents pointout the glorious orb as the presence of a visible and beneficent god,and he worships it at its up-rising and down-setting. Then when stillquite small, he goes, holding fast to the pendent end of his mother's'kaf' (toga), up to the temple of the Sun of the nearest city, andthere, when at midday the bright beams strike down upon the goldencentral altar and beat back the fire that burns thereon, he hears thewhite-robed priests raise their solemn chant of praise and sees thepeople fall down to adore, and then, amidst the blowing of the goldentrumpets, watches the sacrifice thrown into the fiery furnace beneaththe altar. Here he comes again to be declared 'a man' by the priests,and consecrated to war and to good works; here before the solemn altarhe leads his bride; and here too, if differences shall unhappily arise,he divorces her.
And so on, down life's long pathway till the last mile is travelled, andhe comes again armed indeed, and with dignity, but no longer a man. Herethey bear him dead and lay his bier upon the falling brazen doors beforethe eastern altar, and when the last ray from the setting sun fallsupon his white face the bolts are drawn and he vanishes into the ragingfurnace beneath and is ended.
The priests of the Sun do not marry, but are recruited as young menspecially devoted to the work by their parents and supported by theState. The nomination to the higher offices of the priesthood lies withthe Crown, but once appointed the nominees cannot be dispossessed, andit is scarcely too much to say that they really rule the land. To beginwith, they are a united body sworn to obedience and secrecy, so thatan order issued by the High Priest at Milosis will be instantly andunhesitatingly acted upon by the resident priest of a little countrytown three or four hundred miles off. They are the judges of the land,criminal and civil, an appeal lying only to the lord paramount ofthe district, and from him to the king; and they have, of course,practically unlimited jurisdiction over religious and moral offences,together with a right of excommunication, which, as in the faiths ofmore highly civilized lands, is a very effective weapon. Indeed, theirrights and powers are almost unlimited, but I may as well state herethat the priests of the Sun are wise in their generation, and do notpush things too far. It is but very seldom that they go to extremesagainst anybody, being more inclined to exercise the prerogative ofmercy than run the risk of exasperating the powerful and vigorous-mindedpeople on whose neck they have set their yoke, lest it should rise andbreak it off altogether.
Another source of the power of the priests is their practical monopolyof learning, and their very considerable astronomical knowledge, whichenables them to keep a hold on the popular mind by predicting eclipsesand even comets. In Zu-Vendis only a few of the upper classes can readand write, but nearly all the priests have this knowledge, and aretherefore looked upon as learned men.
The law of the country is, on the whole, mild and just, but differsin several respects from our civilized law. For instance, the law ofEngland is much more severe upon offences against property than againstthe person, as becomes a people whose ruling passion is money. A manmay half kick his wife to death or inflict horrible sufferings upon hischildren at a much cheaper rate of punishment than he can compound forthe theft of a pair of old boots. In Zu-Vendis this is not so, for therethey rightly or wrongly look upon the person as of more consequencethan goods and chattels, and not, as in England, as a sort of necessaryappendage to the latter. For murder the punishment is death, for treasondeath, for defrauding the orphan and the widow, for sacrilege, andfor attempting to quit the country (which is looked on as a sacrilege)death. In each case the method of execution is the same, and a ratherawful one. The culprit is thrown alive into the fiery furnace beneathone of the altars to the Sun. For all other offences, including theoffence of idleness, the punishment is forced labour upon the vastnational buildings which are always going on in some part of thecountry, with or without periodical floggings, according to the crime.
The social system of the Zu-Vendi allows considerable liberty to theindividual, provided he does not offend against the laws and customsof the country. They are polygamous in theory, though most of themhave only one wife on account of the expense. By law a man is bound toprovide a separate establishment for each wife. The first wife also isthe legal wife, and her children are said to be 'of the house of theFather'. The children of the other wives are of the houses of theirrespective mothers. This does not, however, imply any slur upon eithermother or children. Again, a first wife can, on entering into themarried state, make a bargain that her husband shall marry no otherwife. This, however, is very rarely done, as the women are the greatupholders of polygamy, which not only provides for their surplus numbersbut gives greater importance to the first wife, who is thus practicallythe head of several households. Marriage is looked upon as primarilya civil contract, and, subject to certain conditions and to a properprovision for children, is dissoluble at the will of both contractingparties, the divorce, or 'unloosing', being formally and ceremoniouslyaccomplished by going through certain portions of the marriage ceremonybackwards.
The Zu-Vendi are on the whole a very kindly, pleasant, and light-heartedpeople. They are not great traders and care little about money, onlyworking to earn enough to support themselves in that class of life inwhich they were born. They are exceedingly conservative, and look withdisfavour upon changes. Their legal tender is silver, cut into littlesquares of different weights; gold is the baser coin, and is aboutof the same value as our silver. It is, however, much prized for itsbeauty, and largely used for ornaments and decorative purposes. Most ofthe trade, however, is carried on by means of sale and barter, paymentbeing made in kind. Agriculture is the great business of the country,and is really well understood and carried out, most of the availableacreage being under cultivation. Great attention is also given to thebreeding of cattle and horses, the latter being unsurpassed by any Ihave ever seen either in Europe or Africa.
The land belongs theoretically to the Crown, and under the Crown to thegreat lords, who again divide it among smaller lords, and so on downto the little peasant farmer who works his forty 'reestu' (acres) on asystem of half-profits with his immediate lord. In fact the whole systemis, as I have said, distinctly feudal, and it interested us much to meetwith such an old friend far in the unknown heart of Africa.
The taxes are very heavy. The State takes a third of a man's totalearnings
, and the priesthood about five per cent on the remainder.But on the other hand, if a man through any cause falls into bona fidemisfortune the State supports him in the position of life to which hebelongs. If he is idle, however, he is sent to work on the Governmentundertakings, and the State looks after his wives and children. TheState also makes all the roads and builds all town houses, about whichgreat care is shown, letting them out to families at a small rent. Italso keeps up a standing army of about twenty thousand men, and provideswatchmen, etc. In return for their five per cent the priests attend tothe service of the temples, carry out all religious ceremonies, and keepschools, where they teach whatever they think desirable, which isnot very much. Some of the temples also possess private property, butpriests as individuals cannot hold property.
And now comes a question which I find some difficulty in answering. Arethe Zu-Vendi a civilized or barbarous people? Sometimes I think the one,sometimes the other. In some branches of art they have attained thevery highest proficiency. Take for instance their buildings and theirstatuary. I do not think that the latter can be equalled either inbeauty or imaginative power anywhere in the world, and as for the formerit may have been rivalled in ancient Egypt, but I am sure that it hasnever been since. But, on the other hand, they are totally ignorant ofmany other arts. Till Sir Henry, who happened to know something aboutit, showed them how to do it by mixing silica and lime, they couldnot make a piece of glass, and their crockery is rather primitive. Awater-clock is their nearest approach to a watch; indeed, ours delightedthem exceedingly. They know nothing about steam, electricity, orgunpowder, and mercifully for themselves nothing about printing or thepenny post. Thus they are spared many evils, for of a truth our age haslearnt the wisdom of the old-world saying, 'He who increaseth knowledge,increaseth sorrow.'
As regards their religion, it is a natural one for imaginative peoplewho know no better, and might therefore be expected to turn to thesun and worship him as the all-Father, but it cannot justly be calledelevating or spiritual. It is true that they do sometimes speak of thesun as the 'garment of the Spirit', but it is a vague term, and whatthey really adore is the fiery orb himself. They also call him the 'hopeof eternity', but here again the meaning is vague, and I doubt if thephrase conveys any very clear impression to their minds. Some of themdo indeed believe in a future life for the good--I know Nyleptha doesfirmly--but it is a private faith arising from the promptings of thespirit, not an essential of their creed. So on the whole I cannot saythat I consider this sun-worship as a religion indicative of a civilizedpeople, however magnificent and imposing its ritual, or however moraland high-sounding the maxims of its priests, many of whom, I am sure,have their own opinions on the whole subject; though of course they havenothing but praise for a system which provides them with so many of thegood things of this world.
There are now only two more matters to which I need allude--namely,the language and the system of calligraphy. As for the former, it issoft-sounding, and very rich and flexible. Sir Henry says that it soundssomething like modern Greek, but of course it has no connection with it.It is easy to acquire, being simple in its construction, and a peculiarquality about it is its euphony, and the way in which the sound ofthe words adapts itself to the meaning to be expressed. Long before wemastered the language, we could frequently make out what was meant bythe ring of the sentence. It is on this account that the language lendsitself so well to poetical declamation, of which these remarkablepeople are very fond. The Zu-Vendi alphabet seems, Sir Henry says, tobe derived, like every other known system of letters, from a Phoeniciansource, and therefore more remotely still from the ancient Egyptianhieratic writing. Whether this is a fact I cannot say, not being learnedin such matters. All I know about it is that their alphabet consists oftwenty-two characters, of which a few, notably B, E, and O, are notvery unlike our own. The whole affair is, however, clumsy and puzzling.{Endnote 13} But as the people of Zu-Vendi are not given to the writingof novels, or of anything except business documents and records of thebriefest character, it answers their purpose well enough.
CHAPTER XIV THE FLOWER TEMPLE