Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey
against their cheeks, and even against their closed eyelids. Of course I
knew that their amazement proceeded from the rapid beating of Bulger’s
heart, and I enjoyed their child-like surprise very much. All expression
of fear now vanished from their faces, and I was delighted with the look
of sweet temper and good humor that played about their features, now
wreathed in smiles.
Slowly and on tip-toe they drew near to Bulger and me and for several
minutes amused themselves mightily by running their long, flexible
fingers hither and thither over our bodies.
It did not take them long to discover that I was to all intents and
purpose a creature of their own kind, but not so with Bulger. Their
round faces became seamed and lined with wonder as they made themselves
acquainted with his, to them, strange build, and ever and anon as they
felt him over would they pause and in lightning-like motions of their
fingers on each other’s hands and arms and faces exchange thoughts as to
the wonderful being which had entered the portal of their city.
No doubt you are dying of impatience, dear friends, to be told something
more definite concerning these strange people among whom I had fallen.
Well, know, then, that their existence had been darkly hinted at in the
manuscript of the Great Master, Don Fum. I say darkly hinted at, for you
must bear in mind that Don Fum never visited this World within a World;
that his wonderful wisdom enabled him to reason it all out without
seeing it, just as the great naturalists of our day, upon finding a
single tooth belonging to some gigantic creature which lived thousands
of years ago, are able to draw complete pictures of him.
Well, these curious beings whose city Bulger and I had entered are
called by two different names in Don Fum’s wonderful book. In some
places he speaks of them as the Soodopsies, or Make-believe Eyes, and in
others as the Formifolk or Ant People. Either name was most appropriate,
their large, round, clear eyes being really make-believe ones, for, as I
have told you, they had absolutely no sense of sight; while on the other
hand, the fact that they were deaf, dumb, and blind, and lived in
underground homes, made them well entitled to the name of Ant People. In
a few moments the three Soodopsies had succeeded in teaching me the main
principles of their pressure-language, so that I was, to their great
delight, enabled to answer a number of their questions.
But think not, dear friends, that these very wise and active little
folk, skilled in so many arts, have no other language than one
consisting of pressures of different degree, made by their finger-tips
upon each other’s bodies. They had a most beautiful language, so rich
that they were able to express the most difficult thoughts, to give
utterance to the most varied emotions; in short, a language quite the
equal of ours in all respects save one—it contained absolutely no word
that could give them the faintest notion what color was. This is not to
be wondered at, for they themselves neither had nor could have even the
faintest conception of what I meant by color, so that when I attempted
to make them understand that our stars were bright points in the sky,
they asked me if they would prick my finger if I should press upon one
of them. But you doubtless are anxious to know how the Formifolk can
possibly make use of any other language than that of pressures. Well, I
will tell you. Every Soodopsy carried at his girdle a little blank-book,
if I may so term it, the covers being of thin silver plates variously
carved and chased as the owner’s taste may prompt. The leaves of this
book also consist of thin sheets of silver not much thicker than our
tin-foil; also fastened to his girdle by a silken cord hangs a silver
pen or, rather, a stylus. Now, when a Soodopsy wishes to say something
to one of his people, something too difficult to express by pressures of
the finger-tips, he simply turns over a leaf of the silver against the
inside of either cover, both of which are slightly padded, and taking up
his stylus proceeds to write out what he wishes to say; and this done he
deftly tears the leaf out and hands it to his companion, who taking it
and turning it over, runs the wonderfully sensitive tips of his fingers
over the raised writing and reads it with the greatest ease; only of
course he reads from right to left instead of from left to light, as it
was written. So, hereafter, when I repeat my conversations with the
Formifolk, you will understand how they were conducted.
CHAPTER XVI
IDEAS OF THE FORMIFOLK CONCERNING OUR UPPER WORLD.—THE DANCING
SPECTRE.—THEIR EFFORTS TO LAY HOLD OF HIM.—MY SOLEMN PROMISE THAT
HE SHOULD BEHAVE HIMSELF.—WE SET OUT FOR THE CITY OF THE
MAKE-BELIEVE EYES.—MY AMAZEMENT AT THE MAGNIFICENCE OF THE
APPROACHES TO IT.—WE REACH THE GREAT BRIDGE OF SILVER, AND I GET
MY FIRST GLANCE OF THE CITY OF CANDELABRA.—BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE
WONDERS SPREAD OUT BEFORE MY EYES.—EXCITEMENT OCCASIONED BY OUR
ARRIVAL.—OUR SILVER BED-CHAMBER.
Although thousands and thousands of years had gone by since the
Formifolk had, by constant exposure to the flicker and glare of the
burning gas which their ancestors had discovered and made use of to
illumine their underground world, gradually lost their sense of sight,
and then in consequence of the deep and awful silence that forever
reigned about them had also lost their sense of hearing and naturally
thereafter their power of speech, yet, marvellous to relate, they still
kept within their minds dim and shadowy traditions of the upper world,
and the “mighty lamp,” as they called the sun, which burned for twelve
hours and then went out, leaving the world in darkness until the spirits
of the air could trim it again. And, strange to say, many of the unreal
things of the upper world had been by the workings of their minds
transformed into realities, while the realities had become the merest
cobwebs of the brain. For instance, the shadows cast by our bodies in
the sunlight and forever following at our heels they had come to think
were actual creatures, our doubles, so to speak, and that on account of
these “dancing spectres,” as they called them, which dogged our
footsteps for our life long, sitting like mar-joys at our feasts, it was
utterly impossible for the people of the upper world to be entirely
happy as they were, and it occurred to them at once that I must have
such a double following at my heels, so several times they suddenly
joined hands, and, forming a circle about me, gradually closed up with
intent to lay hold of the dancing spectre. This they did, too, after I
had assured them that what they had in mind was the mere shadow cast by
a person walking in the light. But as they had absolutely no idea of the
nature of light, I only had my trouble for my pains.
Nor did they give over making every now and then the most frantic and
laughable efforts to catch the little dancing gentleman who, as they
were bound to think, was quietly trudging along at my heels, but who, so
they informed me, was far quicker in his motions than any escaping water
or falling object. Finally, they held one of their silent but very
excited powwows, during which the thousand lightning-like pressures and
tappings which they made upon each other’s bodies gave the spectator the
idea that they were three deaf and dumb schoolboys engaged in a
scrimmage over a bag of marbles, and then they informed me that they had
resolved to permit Bulger and me to enter their city provided I would
give them the word of a nobleman that I would restrain my nimble-footed
double from doing them any harm.
I made them a most solemn promise that he should behave himself.
Whereupon they greeted both Bulger and me as brothers, stroking our
hair, patting our heads, and kissing me on the cheeks, and, what was
more, they told us their names, which were Long Thumbs, Square Nose, and
Shaggy Brows.
All this time I had been every now and then casting anxious glances on
ahead of me, for I was dying of impatience to enter the marvellous city
of the Ant People.
I say marvellous, dear friends, for though many had been the wonderful
things I had seen in my lifetime in the far-away corners of the upper
world, yet here was a sight which, as it gradually unfolded itself
before my eyes, shackled my very heart and caused me to gasp for breath.
It was with no little surprise at the very outset that I discovered that
the walls and floor of the beautiful passage through which the
Soodopsies were leading Bulger and me were of pure silver, the former
being composed of polished panels ornamented with finely executed
chasings and carvings, and the latter, as had in fact all the floors and
streets and passages of the city having upon their polished surfaces
slightly raised characters which I will explain later. But as one
passage opened into another, and then four or more all centred in a vast
circular chamber which we traversed with our three silent guides only to
enter chambers and corridors of greater size and beauty, all brilliantly
lighted by rows of the same glorious candelabra upholding clusters of
tongues of flame—I could compare the scene to nothing save a series of
magnificent ball-rooms and banquet-halls, out of which the happy guests
had been suddenly driven by the deep and awful rumble of an earthquake
shock, the lights having been left burning.
Now the scene began to change. Long Thumbs, who was leading the way, and
in whose large palm my little hand lay completely lost, suddenly turned
to the right and led me up an arched way. I saw that we were crossing a
bridge over a stream as black and sluggish as Lethe itself.
But such a bridge! Never had my eye rested upon so light and airy a
span, springing from bank to bank; not the plain and solid work of the
stone-mason, but the fair and cunning result of the metal worker’s
skill, like the labor of love, delicate, yet strong, and almost too
beautiful for use.
Two rows of silver lamps of exquisite workmanship crowned its gracefully
arching sides, and when we stood upon its highest bend, Long Thumbs
halted and wrote upon his tablet: “Now, little baron, we are about to
enter the dwelling-place of our people. Thy head is large, and there is,
no doubt, much of wisdom stored away in thy brain. Make such use of it
as not to disturb the perfect happiness of our nation, for no doubt many
of our people will be suspicious of thee, and for the first time in
thousands of years a Soodopsy will lay him down to sleep, and in his
dreams feel the touch of the dancing spectre of the upper world.” I
promised Long Thumbs that he should have no reason to be dissatisfied
with me, and then making an excuse that I was a-weary, I feasted my eyes
for several moments upon the glorious scene spread out before me.
It was the city of the Formifolk in all its splendor—a splendor, alas,
unseen by, unknown to, the very people dwelling in it, for to them its
silver walls and arches, its endless rows of glorious candelabra
uplifting their countless clusters of never-dying jets of flame, its
exquisitely carved and chiselled portals and gateways, its graceful
chairs and settees and beds and couches and tables and lamps and basins
and ewers and thousands of articles of furniture all in purest silver,
hammered or wrought by the cunning hands of their ancestors while they
still were possessed of the power of sight, could only be known to
these, their descendants, by the sole sense of feeling.
From the lofty ceilings of corridors and archways, from the jutting
ornaments of the house-fronts, from cornice and coping, from the four