CHAPTER XXVI
WE WITNESS SOME WONDERFUL AERIAL EVOLUTIONS AND LISTEN TO MARVELLOUSMUSIC
Wherever we went we found new subjects for wonder and admiration, andfresh proofs of the high state of civilisation and development attainedby the Martians. We had seen many evidences of their genius inengineering and mechanical undertakings, but we found that they excelledin every art and science, and their achievements made terrestrialaccomplishments appear poor and even paltry by comparison. Whether weexamined their sculpture, paintings, pictures, or photographs--whichlatter they take direct and at one operation, with all the naturaltints--or whether we listened to music, our verdict was perforce thesame--"We had not previously known anything to equal it."
We have all become fairly accustomed to seeing numerous air-ships movingin all directions across the sky in the daytime, but it still seemsstrange to us to see the lights of the air-ships flitting about thenocturnal sky.
I mentioned this to Merna, and he remarked that no doubt it did seemrather strange to us, adding that my mention of air-ships was singularlyapropos of what was then in his mind, for he was just about to inform usthat an interesting aerial display had been arranged and was to takeplace that evening, with the view of affording us some idea of Martianout-door entertainments.
We all expressed our thanks, and our appreciation of the kindness wewere receiving from the Martian nation; and I ventured to suggest thatprobably we were indebted to him for a considerable proportion of it.
He answered that it was true he had taken some share in this affair andin a few of the arrangements for the functions we had already attended,but that many others had done the same, for it was natural to theMartians to do all in their power when any help was needed. As we werestrangers from another world they all vied with each other in makingsuggestions and arrangements which would afford us pleasure, or help toenable us to see all that was possible in their world.
We were fully aware that this was the case, for we were received withkindness and welcome wherever we went.
Merna's affection for me seemed unbounded, and his love was shown inevery action. Yet, like all the other Martians, he was never obtrusivelydemonstrative, everything being done in a quiet and natural manner. Whenon the earth his disposition had been very pleasing, but now his Martiannature seemed to have endowed him with a capacity for loving fartranscending that of his human nature.
He was the same towards John, and we often spoke about it in Merna'sabsence, whilst M'Allister had become as much attached to him as wewere.
Just before sunset Merna rejoined us, and we passed out of the city intothe open country to a spot not far from the place where we had landedfrom the _Areonal_. Here we found a large concourse of people assembled,and their numbers were being added to by fresh arrivals every minute. Onlooking upwards we saw air-ships speeding towards us from every quarter.Some brought passengers and landed them, but it was evident that most ofthe air-ships were about to take part in the display, as they remainedup in the air instead of coming down to the ground.
We met many Martians whom we knew, and were introduced to others, so thetime passed quickly in interesting conversation.
As soon as darkness fell Merna informed us that the display was about tocommence, adding that he had purposely refrained from giving us anyinkling of its nature, as he thought the unexpected would afford usgreater pleasure.
We were gazing upwards at the vast assemblage of air-ships, which werelit up by the ordinary lamps used when travelling at night, whensuddenly the whole sky became brilliant with the glow of countlessthousands of coloured lights, and the air-ships began to move into theirallotted positions.
Every ship--and there was a very large number of them--was covered allover with electric lamps. Some of the ships had all red lights, othersall blue, others yellow, and so on through the whole range of tintsknown to us, besides many tints which we had never seen before.
The evolutions began with the formation of simple geometrical designs,starting with a complete circle of immense diameter. Then, inside thiscircle of many-coloured lights other ships took up their position, and,before we were prepared for anything, a triangle of lights had beenformed. It was clear that even in their amusements the Martians werescientific; for here outlined in glowing colours was the familiargeometrical figure of an equilateral triangle inscribed within a circle,perfectly worked out on a most gigantic scale, and very pretty it was.Quickly, another triangle was formed across the first one, the resultbeing a six-pointed star; and so on with several other more elaborategeometrical figures. The rapidity and certainty with which theseair-ships took up the requisite positions and showed their colouredlights in the appropriate places was marvellous to see.
After about a dozen geometrical figures had been formed there ensued arapid and bewildering movement of the ships towards the southern vaultof the sky. Coloured lights flashed and whirled about in what, for a fewminutes, seemed chaotic confusion, then suddenly the chaos wastransformed into order. The vessels formed up in long rows one below theother, each row having one distinctive colour: a little movement of theships from the centre to each end, in a downward direction, and thestraight rows were transformed into complete semicircles concentric witheach other, their bases seeming to reach the ground. Then they closedtogether, and lo! right across the sky shone a perfect representation ofa rainbow (an extremely rare phenomenon upon Mars) glowing in brilliantlight, with every tint and _nuance_ accurate, and a thousand timesbrighter than any rainbow we had ever seen. It was magnificent!
Further rapid movements followed: the semicircles were broken up; thelarge vessels now being arranged in a long straight line across the sky,with the smaller vessels in another line just below and in front ofthem. The electric lamps were then instantaneously extinguished, and allwas darkness. But only for a moment; then from the top of every vesselnumerous immense pillars of coloured lights shot upwards into the sky.
We gazed at this in some perplexity, wondering what it all meant, as thedesign gradually developed to its completion. Then John touched my arm,excitedly exclaiming, "Look, Professor; it is the spectrum of the sun!"Yes, that it was, and never had we gazed upon such an immense andglorious spectrum. We pointed out to each other the lines of hydrogen,sodium, strontium, and many others, all of which were truly depicted,both in colour and position. These lines were formed by the lights ofthe smaller vessels shown against the background of the lights on thelarge vessels, and we noticed that all the Martians around us quicklyrecognised what the lights represented.
Next we had a representation of the spectrum of Sirius, then that ofAldebaran, and after that a spectrum which we were unable to identify.Merna explained that it was the spectrum of their south polar star. Afew others were shown, then the line arrangement of the ships was againbroken up, the search-lights extinguished, and the coloured lamps oncemore shone out.
Many of the ships now rushed across the sky over our heads in alldirections, and, after a few evolutions, the whole were seen arranged soas to form four immense concentric circles, with a considerable spacebetween each ship.
The ships in the two inner circles then began to move slowly, andpassed in two wavy lines alternately in front of one ship and behind thenext ship in the outer circles, the serpentine movement graduallybecoming more and more rapid; and most wonderful changes of colour wereproduced by the passage of the vessels past those lighted with lamps ofanother colour. Swifter and swifter became the speed until it seemedutterly impossible that these intricate movements could go on withoutresulting in a series of collisions and disasters. Yet, with all thisbewildering whirling, twisting, and intertwining, the ships were guidedon their courses with consummate skill and with an unerring accuracywhich was marvellous to behold.
Another shake of the aerial kaleidoscope and the vessels were seen drawnup in three parallel lines on the east and three on the west. Then thesearch-lights again flashed out, filling the whole intermediate area ofthe sky with beams of brilliant coloured light, whic
h were caused tooscillate sideways and overlap, producing a most gorgeous interminglingof glowing colours. The Martians certainly had a complete understandingof all the peculiarities connected with mixtures of coloured lights.
Up to this time silence had reigned, for no sound came to us from thisvast aerial fleet; but now there burst forth from both ranks of vesselsstrains of music of such ravishing sweetness that I and my twocolleagues were quite overwhelmed. It seemed as though our mortal bodieswere completely etherealised by the thrilling melodies which floateddown to us from the upper air.
This was not all. When on the earth we had read of attempts to connectmusical tones and chords with the chromatic scale of colour, it beingsuggested that each musical sound had its own distinctivetone-colouring. Now we saw it practically demonstrated, for each chordof music was accompanied by changes in the colours of the search-lightbeams; and on comparing notes afterwards John and I found ourselvesagreeing that the colours shown appeared exactly to interpret what ourinner consciousness seemed to evolve, but which we could not haveexpressed in words. It was like a scene of enchantment as we watchedthose immense bands of glowing colours changing so rapidly andsynchronising with the chords of music. Merna informed us that thelights of each vessel were electrically controlled from the keyboard ofone of the musical instruments on the ship.
This was followed by a piece resembling a grand chorale: then anintricate fugue was performed, the several movements being taken up insuccession by the ranks on each side alternately, and apparently flungto and fro from one side to the other of that vast area in magnificentsequences and variations until it seemed that our human nature was souplifted, and we were so filled with ecstasy, that we could bear nomore.
Many of the instruments were quite different from anything we had knownupon the earth, and when some of these were unaccompanied the musicsounded exactly like a grand choir of Martians singing in the heavens.It really seemed to us quite impossible that this concord of sweetsounds could be instrumental music, so perfect was the vocal effect.
Several other pieces were played, each having its own distinctivecharacter; then, after a short interval, the search-lights weresuddenly flashed on to the city of Sirapion; the beautiful buildingswith their domes, towers, and minarets looking exquisitely ethereal asthey were bathed in the beams of the glowing and ever-changing prismaticlight. The beams were next directed downwards upon the assembly, and wegained a truer appreciation of the immense numbers that were gatheredtogether.
After this short interlude we were entranced by the opening bars of avery grand and majestic composition. As the first strains reached us Inoticed that all the Martians who were seated at once rose erect; everyMartian bared his head, raised his right hand, and, with an expressionof rapt intensity and reverence, gazed towards the heavens. I and mycompanions immediately adopted a similar attitude, for Merna explainedthat this piece was the Martian Hymn of Praise to the Great Ruler of theUniverse; and that its performance was regarded as one of their mostsolemn acts of public worship.
The grandeur and majesty of this music, its melodious themes andthrilling harmonies, are utterly beyond my powers of description; theair and sky seemed filled and pulsating with prayer and praise, thenresounding with grand crescendoes of triumphant shouts; each succeedingmovement of the music carrying it higher and ever higher in the scale,until at last it seemed to soar and pierce the infinite, the finalcadences dying away in melodious strains of celestial beauty andineffable sweetness.
Finally the air-ships all circled round the sky, then took theirdeparture--darting off in all directions--the sound of their sweet musicbecoming fainter and fainter in the distance until at last all wassolemn silence; then the great assembly slowly and quietly dispersed.
For some minutes none of us spoke, for each was in deep thought, soimpressive and exalting had been the effect of that wonderful andmajestic hymn. When at length Merna turned to us and asked if we werepleased with what we had seen and heard, we found it very difficult togive adequate expression to our feelings.
Then M'Allister said, "Mon, it was beautiful, most beautiful! and Inever felt so nigh to heaven as I have this night!"
I remarked to John that "I had never expected to hear any music thatwould equal, much more excel, the incomparable 'Hallelujah Chorus' inHandel's 'Messiah.' It had always seemed to me impossible that any musiccould ever be composed which would even approach it in majesty andpower; but what we had heard that night certainly surpassed it."
On looking at my watch I found that the musical portion of this feast oftone and colour had occupied nearly three hours; yet, as I remarked, ithad seemed to me only a few minutes!
"Yes," John replied, "to me it has been an experience like that of themonk Felix in Longfellow's 'Golden Legend.' The monk went out into thewoods one day, where he saw a snow-white bird, and listened to its sweetsinging until the sound of the convent bell warned him that it was timeto return. When he reached the convent he was amazed to find the facesof the monks were all strange to him; he knew no one, and no one knewhim, or had ever even heard of him. At last one very old monk, who hadbeen there over a hundred years, said he remembered seeing a monk Felixwhen he first entered the convent. The records were searched, and it wasfound that Brother Felix had left the convent a hundred years before,and as he had never returned he had been entered in the list of thedead. So then
'They knew, at last, That such had been the power Of that celestial and immortal song, A hundred years had passed, And had not seemed so long As a single hour.'
"That has really been something like my own experience to-night,"continued John; "for I have scarcely been conscious of the passage oftime, and hours have seemed only minutes! I trust, Merna, that you willconvey to your friends our most grateful thanks for all the pleasure wehave derived from this magnificent display of Martian attainments."
M'Allister and I joined in this request, and Merna promised to complywith our wishes. He seemed very pleased at our appreciation; and he toldJohn that his quotation had recalled to his memory the beautiful poem byLongfellow, which had been a favourite with him during his earthlyschool-days, but had lain entirely dormant in his mind until now.
We all agreed that, however long we might live, the memory of thatevening's events--the magnificent display of aerial skill, the gloriousharmonies of colour, and, above all, the majestic and incomparablemusic--could never be effaced from our minds. We wondered whether aerialflight would ever be brought so completely under control as to permit ofa similar display in the skies of our own world.
Merna replied that he was sure it would be quite possible some day, butit must be remembered that what we had been witnessing was the result ofcenturies of Martian experience in aerial navigation.
Merna then gave us an account of the progress of Martian discovery inregard to aeronautics, from which we gathered that the earlierexperiences of the Martians had been somewhat similar to those of ourown people. They began with bags of various shapes inflated with gaslighter than air, similar to our balloons, then experimented withaeroplanes of various designs, also bird-like wings, on a very largescale, actuated by electric and other motors. As time went on, however,their atmosphere became thinner and thinner, until at last all suchforms of apparatus became nearly, if not quite, useless as a means ofartificial flight.
After this they made use of numerous vertical screws of a spiral form,which were caused to revolve with extreme rapidity by the aid ofelectrical machinery; and a few of the vessels thus equipped are stillin use. But the discovery of natural forces emanating from the sun andfrom their own planet soon led to the devising of means for utilisingthis natural power, and this has practically superseded everything else.Now all their air-ships and many of their machines are actuated by thispower, and are under the most perfect control. Air-ships are used forall purposes of passenger traffic and freight carrying. So are vesselson the canals and motor vehicles on the roads; and railways are,therefore, unnecessary.