Chapter XX.
From the date of the expedition with Taee which I have just narrated,the child paid me frequent visits. He had taken a liking to me, which Icordially returned. Indeed, as he was not yet twelve years old, andhad not commenced the course of scientific studies with which childhoodcloses in that country, my intellect was less inferior to his than tothat of the elder members of his race, especially of the Gy-ei, and mostespecially of the accomplished Zee. The children of the Vril-ya,having upon their minds the weight of so many active duties and graveresponsibilities, are not generally mirthful; but Taee, with allhis wisdom, had much of the playful good-humour one often finds thecharacteristic of elderly men of genius. He felt that sort of pleasurein my society which a boy of a similar age in the upper world has in thecompany of a pet dog or monkey. It amused him to try and teach me theways of his people, as it amuses a nephew of mine to make his poodlewalk on his hind legs or jump through a hoop. I willingly lent myself tosuch experiments, but I never achieved the success of the poodle. I wasvery much interested at first in the attempt to ply the wings which theyoungest of the Vril-ya use as nimbly and easily as ours do their legsand arms; but my efforts were attended with contusions serious enough tomake me abandon them in despair.
These wings, as I before said, are very large, reaching to the knee,and in repose thrown back so as to form a very graceful mantle. They arecomposed from the feathers of a gigantic bird that abounds in the rockyheights of the country--the colour mostly white, but sometimes withreddish streaks. They are fastened round the shoulders with light butstrong springs of steel; and, when expanded, the arms slide throughloops for that purpose, forming, as it were, a stout central membrane.As the arms are raised, a tubular lining beneath the vest or tunicbecomes, by mechanical contrivance inflated with air, increased ordiminished at will by the movement of the arms, and serving to buoy thewhole form as on bladders. The wings and the balloon-like apparatus arehighly charged with vril; and when the body is thus wafted upward, itseems to become singularly lightened of its weight. I found it easyenough to soar from the ground; indeed, when the wings were spread itwas scarcely possible not to soar, but then came the difficulty and thedanger. I utterly failed in the power to use and direct the pinions,though I am considered among my own race unusually alert and ready inbodily exercises, and am a very practiced swimmer. I could only make themost confused and blundering efforts at flight. I was the servant of thewings; the wings were not my servants--they were beyond my control;and when by a violent strain of muscle, and, I must fairly own, in thatabnormal strength which is given by excessive fright, I curbed theirgyrations and brought them near to the body, it seemed as if I lost thesustaining power stored in them and the connecting bladders, as when theair is let out of a balloon, and found myself precipitated again to theearth; saved, indeed, by some spasmodic flutterings, from being dashedto pieces, but not saved from the bruises and the stun of a heavy fall.I would, however, have persevered in my attempts, but for the advice orthe commands of the scientific Zee, who had benevolently accompanied myflutterings, and, indeed, on the last occasion, flying just under me,received my form as it fell on her own expanded wings, and preservedme from breaking my head on the roof of the pyramid from which we hadascended.
"I see," she said, "that your trials are in vain, not from the faultof the wings and their appurtenances, nor from any imperfectness andmalformation of your own corpuscular system, but from irremediable,because organic, defect in your power of volition. Learn that theconnection between the will and the agencies of that fluid which hasbeen subjected to the control of the Vril-ya was never established bythe first discoverers, never achieved by a single generation; it hasgone on increasing, like other properties of race, in proportion as ithas been uniformly transmitted from parent to child, so that, at last,it has become an instinct; and an infant An of our race wills to flyas intuitively and unconsciously as he wills to walk. He thus plies hisinvented or artificial wings with as much safety as a bird plies thosewith which it is born. I did not think sufficiently of this when Iallowed you to try an experiment which allured me, for I have longed tohave in you a companion. I shall abandon the experiment now. Your lifeis becoming dear to me." Herewith the Gy's voice and face softened, andI felt more seriously alarmed than I had been in my previous flights.
Now that I am on the subject of wings, I ought not to omit mention of acustom among the Gy-ei which seems to me very pretty and tender in thesentiment it implies. A Gy wears wings habitually when yet a virgin--shejoins the Ana in their aerial sports--she adventures alone and afar intothe wilder regions of the sunless world: in the boldness and height ofher soarings, not less than in the grace of her movements, she excelsthe opposite sex. But, from the day of her marriage she wears wingsno more, she suspends them with her own willing hand over the nuptialcouch, never to be resumed unless the marriage tie be severed by divorceor death.
Now when Zee's voice and eyes thus softened--and at that softening Iprophetically recoiled and shuddered--Taee, who had accompanied us inour flights, but who, child-like, had been much more amused with myawkwardness, than sympathising in my fears or aware of my danger,hovered over us, poised amidst spread wings, and hearing the endearingwords of the young Gy, laughed aloud. Said he, "If the Tish cannotlearn the use of wings, you may still be his companion, Zee, for you cansuspend your own."