Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 5Sylvester, Charles Herbert
General
Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 5
Sylvester, Charles Herbert
Children's literature; Literature -- Collections
There is but one sex either of the cooking or any other animals in the
moon; they are all produced from trees of various sizes and foliage;
that which produces the cooking animal, or human species, is much more
beautiful than any of the others; it has large, straight boughs and
flesh-colored leaves, and the fruit it produces are nuts or pods, with
hard shells, at least two yards long; when they become ripe, which is
known from their changing color, they are gathered with great care, and
laid by as long as they think proper; when they choose to animate the
seed of these nuts, they throw them into a large cauldron of boiling
water, which opens the shells in a few hours, and out jumps the
creature.
Nature forms their minds for different pursuits before they come into
the world; from one shell comes forth a warrior, from another a
philosopher, from a third a divine, from a fourth a lawyer, from a fifth
a farmer, from a sixth a clown, etc., etc., and all of them immediately
begin to perfect themselves by practicing what they before knew only in
theory.
When they grown old they do not die, but turn into air and dissolve like
smoke! As for their drink, they need none. They have but one finger upon
each hand, with which they perform everything in as perfect a manner as
we do who have four besides the thumb. Their heads are placed under
their right arm, and when they are going to travel or about any violent
exercise, they generally leave them at home, for they can consult them
at any distance: this is a very common practice; and when those of rank
or quality among the Lunarians have an inclination to see what's going
forward among the common people, they stay at home, i.e., the body stays
at home and sends the head only, which is suffered to be present
_incog._, and return at pleasure with an account of what has passed.
[Illustration: WARRIORS OF THE MOON]
Their eyes they can take in and out of their places when they please,
and can see as well with them in their hand as in their heads! and if by
any accident they lose or damage one, they can borrow or purchase
another, and see as clearly with it as their own. Dealers in eyes are on
that account very numerous in most parts of the moon, and in this
article alone all the inhabitants are whimsical: sometimes green and
sometimes yellow eyes are the fashion. I know these things appear
strange; but if the shadow of a doubt can remain on any person's mind, I
say, let him take a voyage there himself, and then he will know I am a
traveler of veracity.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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