The Manatitlans: or, A record of recent scientific explorations in the Andean La Plata, S. A.Smile, R. Elton
Science
The Manatitlans: or, A record of recent scientific explorations in the Andean La Plata, S. A.
Smile, R. Elton
Science fiction, American
Upon this hint, Correliana conquered sufficient composure to introduce
the speaker as Manito, the Prætor of Maniculæ, the chief city of
Manatitla. Then with the accompaniment of a spasmodic inclination to
sneeze, as they leaned over the serrated edges of the petals, the
tribunes were introduced individually by name. This process was
lengthened by occasional suppressed tendencies to mirthful outbreaks,
which gave M. Hollydorf and his companions an opportunity for partial
recovery from their dazed state of amazement. When sufficiently restored
for intelligent comprehension, the flower was changed for one of less
pungent odor, and Manito from the rostrum point of a petal continued his
address.
“From our diminutive size we willingly subscribe to the designation your
nomenclature bestows upon insect animalities which are but partially
visible to your unaided eyes. Still we do not disdain our size, for with
the Manatitlans it has received the compensating privilege of a
perception that enabled them to distinguish the evident object of
mankind’s intelligent endowment above the instincts of associate
animality.
“Like individuals of your race, ours vary in size. Some among the
Manatitlans have reached in stature a height approximating in a remote
degree to your well formed dwarfs of a standard monstrosity in the
diminutive extreme sufficient for the excitement of wondering surprise.
Our own divisions are expressed in terms rating from the smallest in
stature, which are called tits; these form the masses, but with a
sensible diminution in numbers from an upward tendency to the second
degree of elevation from the majority. The middle class are styled
mediums. With every generation this grade has been increased in
proportion with the decrease of the tits, and ranks in status with your
“well to do” money grade of merchants and speculators. The giantesco
enjoys the highest statutory standing in the ranks of size, representing
your titled duke commanders, and subalterns of lordly and knightly
degree. But these distinctions are only perceptible to the eye, and in
no way arbitrary in the assumption of prerogative stature rights above
those below. As our scholastic term of education commences with the
infant at the age of two years: the first stage that directs and
controls the infantile perceptions and cravings of instinct is styled
pupillage, and is under the supervision of the censor and nurse, who
hold the instinctive exaggerations of parental fondness in check from
birth. This habilitative stage of matriculation is the most trying for
direction, as upon it depends the matriculant’s after power of self-
control. The second stage of nonage commences at seven, when the self-
devising perceptions begin to expand into individuality, that require
educated direction, and leading encouragement. At fourteen, or the
pubertal stage, the first indications appear for the premonitory
inauguration of status rank established for the distinctions of size.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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