Niels Klim's journey under the ground: being a narrative of his wonderful descent to the subterranean lands; together with an account of the sensible animals and trees inhabiting the planet Nazar and the firmament.Holberg, Ludvig
Science
Niels Klim's journey under the ground: being a narrative of his wonderful descent to the subterranean lands; together with an account of the sensible animals and trees inhabiting the planet Nazar and the firmament.
Holberg, Ludvig
Utopias -- Early works to 1800; Voyages, Imaginary -- Early works to 1800
I began to descend the mountain by the path which leads to Sandvig. When
about half way down, I observed some boys, whom I beckoned towards me,
repeating the words: _Jeru pikal salim_, which in the Quamitic language
signify: show me the way. The lads, however, were apparently frightened
at seeing a man in a strange dress, and with a hat on his head
glittering with golden rays; for they rushed down the mountain in great
haste, arriving at Sandvig an hour before me. The rumor of the strange
appearance on the mountain was spread about and caused terror throughout
the town; the notion was, that the _shoemaker of Jerusalem_ wandered
among the mountains. This impression arose thus: the boys on being
questioned by the townsmen, replied that I had told them who I was. I
afterwards learnt that my words, Jeru pikal salim, had been interpreted
by sound, and that this clew, acted upon by fear and superstition, had
been developed into the strangest of fables. This story was unquestioned
by this simple people, inasmuch as the adventures of the travelling
shoemaker were then newly reported, and it had been asserted that he had
been seen a short time before in Hamburg.
When, towards evening, I entered Sandvig, I observed that the
inhabitants were collected in large flocks, to gaze at me. As I
approached them and spoke, they all took to flight, except one old man:
him I addressed, and begged of him to give me lodging at his house. He
asked me, "where I was born, whence I came, &c." I answered him, with a
sigh: "When I come to your house, I will relate events that will seem
incredible to you, and whose equals you will not find in any history."
The old man then took me by the hand and led me to his house. When there
I demanded drink; he gave me a glass of beer. When I recovered my
breath, after this draught, I addressed the old man thus: "You see
before you a human being, who has been a bolt for the changing winds of
fortune; one, who has been pursued by a fatality more controlling and
more unhappy than was ever experienced by mortal."
"Moral and physical revolutions may be effected in a moment, without
surprising men; but what has befallen me is beyond the reach of human
imagination!"
"It is the traveller's fate;" my landlord answered; "many strange events
and changes might happen on a voyage of sixteen hundred years."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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