I also discovered that they obtained rain artificially when needed, by
discharging vast quantities of electricity in the air. I discovered that
they kept no cattle, nor animals of any kind for food or labor. I
observed a universal practice of outdoor exercising; the aim seeming to
be to develop the greatest capacity of lung or muscle. It was
astonishing the amount of air a Mizora lady could draw into her lungs.
They called it their brain stimulant, and said that their faculties were
more active after such exercise. In my country, a cup of strong coffee,
or some other agreeable beverage, is usually taken into the stomach to
invigorate or excite the mind.
One thing I remarked as unusual among a people of such cultured taste,
and that was the size of the ladies' waists. Of all that I measured not
one was less than thirty inches in circumference, and it was rare to
meet with one that small. At first I thought a waist that tapered from
the arm pits would be an added beauty, if only these ladies would be
taught how to acquire it. But I lived long enough among them to look
upon a tapering waist as a disgusting deformity. They considered a large
waist a mark of beauty, as it gave a greater capacity of lung power; and
they laid the greatest stress upon the size and health of the lungs. One
little lady, not above five feet in height, I saw draw into her lungs
two hundred and twenty-five cubic inches of air, and smile proudly when
she accomplished it. I measured five feet and five inches in height, and
with the greatest effort I could not make my lungs receive more than two
hundred cubic inches of air. In my own country I had been called an
unusually robust girl, and knew, by comparison, that I had a much larger
and fuller chest than the average among women.
I noticed with greater surprise than anything else had excited in me,
the marked absence of men. I wandered about the magnificent building
without hindrance or surveillance. There was not a lock or bolt on any
door in it. I frequented a vast gallery filled with paintings and
statues of women, noble looking, beautiful women, but still--nothing but
women. The fact that they were all blondes, singular as it might appear,
did not so much impress me. Strangers came and went, but among the
multitude of faces I met, I never saw a man's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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