Here is the famous temple of the great deity Omasius Gorgut, or
Gorbelly. It is a vast pile, and contains a thousand hearths, and as
many altars, which are constantly employed in the Rucal Festivals. In
the midst is a high pyramid, as lofty as the hand of man can erect it,
little inferior to those of Memphis. It is called the Cheminean Tower.
This, rising high, gives the signal of war to the adjoining countries:
for, as we by beacons lighted upon a high hill discover the danger of an
approaching enemy, so these, on the contrary, do the same by letting
their smoke cease and their fires go out: for, when the perpetual vapour
ceases to roll forth in thick and dark clouds of smoke, it is a token
that the Hambrians are drawing nearer, than whom there can be no enemy
more terrible to this nation. There are several smaller towns, that lie
under the dominion of this supreme city. Charbona is the largest
village, and, what is seldom seen elsewhere, lies all under ground. Upon
its barren soil arises another, though of less note, called Favillia.
After these lies Tenaille, a narrow town, and Batillû, a broad one, both
considerable. On the left are some subservient petty hamlets, as
Assadora, Marmitta, Culliera, as useful for the reception of strangers,
amongst which, that of Marmitta is watered by the river Livenza; which,
as is said of a fountain in the Peak of Derby, boils over twice in
four-and-twenty hours.
CHAPTER IV.
_The Second Province of Pamphagonia._
Next to this is the Golosinian district, the most pleasant part of
Pamphagonia, covered with dates, almonds, figs, olives, pomegranates,
oranges, citrons, and pistaches; through which run the smoothest of
streams, called the Oglium. Here is the beautiful city of Marzapane,
with noble turrets glittering with gold, but lying too open to the
enemy. Over it hang the Zucker hills, out of whose bowels they draw
something that is hard, white, and sparkling, but sweet as that moisture
which the ancients gathered out of the reeds which grew in Arabia and
the Indies. You shall find few people here, who are grown up, but what
have lost their teeth, and have stinking breaths. Near to this is the
little city Seplasium, which admits of no tradesmen but perfumers. It is
a town of great commerce with the people of Viraginia, especially the
Locanians, who use to change their looking-glass with them for oils and
pastils. The agreeableness of the place, and the bounty of the heavens,
is favourable to their art; for the whole track of land, at certain
seasons, is covered with aromatic comfits, that fall like hail-stones:
which Anathumiasis I take to be essentially the same as that aerial
honey which we often find upon our oaks, especially in the spring, and
that it differs only in thickness; for whereas that honey is sprinkled
in drops, the little globules are hardened by the intense cold of the
middle region, and rebound in falling.
CHAPTER V.
_Of the Third Province of Pamphagonia._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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