And three days more I journeyed thus, and did never cease to creep
downward weariful upon my hands and knees; and the Diskos I had to my
hip, and so shall you know how I carried it. And by this, as you do
know, I had been on the Great Slope six days of utter Dark; and did have
no wotting but that I went unto some dire and dreadful place; for,
surely, I had gone for ever downward a monstrous way.
And here, before I tell further, I must set down how that the cold was
much gone from out of the air upon the slope; and the air was grown, as
it did seem, very heavy unto my chest. And concerning this matter I
should say something. For, if I do mind me, I have said not overmuch
concerning the air of the Night Land and the Mighty Pyramid; for truly I
have been so set to tell my story of all that I did truly see and
adventure upon. Yet, though I have said but little, you will surely have
perceived that the air of that far and chill time was not as the air of
this; but was thin and keen within the Night Land, and lay not, as I do
think, to a great height above the land, but only nigh to the earth.
And as you do know through my tellings, there was a wondrous difference
between the air within the Mighty Pyramid, and that which lay without
around the base; for upward beyond that, I did understand that there was
no outward air that any should breathe; and so was all the Pyramid
sealed in certain wise in all the upper Cities for ever; and whether it
was sealed _utterly_ from the outward air at the base, I do not surely
remember, if, in truth that I did ever bother my head to such matters.
Yet, if I be set proper in memory and understanding, we did draw air
from the Underground Fields; but whether they gat any change or newness
of air from the Night Land, I have no knowledge; and do lament that I
have no sure knowing. Yet, as you shall believe, I could surely write an
hundred books upon that Wonder of the Future, and be still lacking in
the half of all that there is to be told; and so do I try to have
courage to this my task, and to have no over-trouble, because that I do
tell but a little of a Great Tale.
And here in this place will I set down how that the Peoples of the
Pyramid were greater to the chest, methinks, than we of this age; but
yet do I have no oversurety in the matter; for well it may be that the
Reason of _this_ age doth blind within me somewhat the Knowledge that I
have concerning _that_; for, in verity, is it not but a natural thing to
believe those Peoples to be great of the chest, so that they should make
a proper dealing with the thin air of that place and that time? And yet,
as I do strive to make plain unto you, because that this thing should
be, by the making of my Reason, I do the more distrust that Reason
shall make foolish my Knowledge; for even a fool should suppose that
which I have told; and the truth may be even otherwise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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