We ascended a promontory that jutted out from the main land a quarter of
a mile, perhaps more. Wauna conducted me to the edge of the cliff and
told me to look down. An ocean of whirlpools was before us. The
maddened dashing and thundering of the mighty waters, and the awe they
inspired no words can paint. Across such an abyss of terrors it was
certain no vessel could sail. We took our glasses and scanned the
opposite shore, which appeared to be a vast cataract as though the ocean
was pouring over a precipice of rock. Wauna informed me that where the
shore was visible it was a perpendicular wall of smooth rock.
Over head an arc of fire spanned the zenith from which depended curtains
of rainbows waving and fluttering, folding and floating out again with a
rapid and incessant motion. I asked Wauna why they had not crossed in
air-ships, and she said they had tried it often but had always failed.
"In former times," she said, "when air-ships first came into use it was
frequently attempted, but no voyager ever returned. We have long since
abandoned the attempt, for now we know it to be impossible."
I looked again at that display of uncontrollable power. As I gazed it
seemed to me I would be drawn down by the resistless fascination of
terror. I grasped Wauna and she gently turned my face to the smiling
landscape behind us. Hills and valleys, and sparkling cities veiled in
foliage, with their numberless parks and fountains and statues sleeping
in the soft light, gleaming lakes and wandering rivers that glittered
and danced in the glorious atmosphere like prisoned sunbeams, greeted us
like the alluring smile of love, and yet, for the first time since
entering this lovely land, I felt myself a prisoner. Behind me was an
impassable barrier. Before me, far beyond this gleaming vision of
enchantment, lay another road whose privations and dangers I dreaded to
attempt.
I felt as a bird might feel who has been brought from the free expanse
of its wild forest-home, and placed in a golden cage where it drinks
from a jeweled cup and eats daintier food than it could obtain in its
own rude haunts. It pines for that precarious life; its very dangers and
privations fill its breast with desire. I began to long with unutterable
impatience to see once more the wild, rough scenes of my own nativity.
Memory began to recall them with softening touches. My heart yearned for
my own; debased as compared with Mizora though they be, there was the
congeniality of blood between us. I longed to see my own little one
whose dimpled hands I had unclasped from my neck in that agonized
parting. Whenever I saw a Mizora mother fondling her babe, my heart
leapt with quick desire to once more hold my own in such loving embrace.
The mothers of Mizora have a devotional love for their children. Their
smiles and prattle and baby wishes are listened to with loving
tenderness, and treated as matters of importance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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