A Voyage to Arcturus

nd soft, that it scarcely looked skin at all — it rather resembled a new kind of pure, snowy flesh, extending right down to his bones. It had nothing in common with the artificially

His eyes were black, quiet and fathomless. He was still a young man, but so stern were his featur

tant. She put him in her husband’s arms with gentle force, and stood back, gazing and smiling. Maskull felt rather emba

r is red-blo

anquil, but its tranquillity seemed in a curious fashion to be an illusion, proceeding from a rapidity of

a tongue you have never hea

ly speaking your tongue by instinct, or if you yourself are

anawe is wiser than I a

name?” asked

sku

n, thought is a strange thing. I connect

scover,” s

le something from the Maker of the universe

yth, The hero’s na

my mind with that action — but wha

for Panawe never lies, and

re heights beyond me,” said Maskull ca

o you co

of a distant su

at

y. He intentionally avoided mentioning his fellow voyag

awe. “And what’s more, it may be true,

true,” said Maskull, staring at

uttresses of the mountain. Feathery purple reeds showed themselves here and there through t

Perhaps you don’t know th

antly started to slip about — nevertheless the motion was amusing, and he learned so fast, by watching and imita

l and sure than those of either of the men. Her slight, draped form — dipping, bending, rising, swaying, t

visible, descending several hundred feet. The surface of the lake grew disturbed — so much so that Maskull had difficulty in keeping his balance. He therefore

the part of Panawe attracted his attention. His face was working convulsively, and he began to stagger about. Then he put his hand to his mouth and took from it what looked like a bright-coloured pebble. He looked at

g for permission, he picked it up. It was a deli

come from?” he

iwind answered for him. “I

, but I couldn’t belie

ther name or use. It is mere

aut

e as the husband, and Panawe as the wife, Ma

l refl

ts, and musicians. Beauty overflows into them too, and out of them again. Th

Panawe, and, taking the crystal out of

ll help, and was in fact still the nimbler of the two. She made a mocking face at him. Panawe seemed lost in quiet thoughts. The rock was sound, and did not crumble under

uniform width of five hundred yards, from the edge of the cliffs to the lower slopes of the chain of hills inland. The hills varied in height. The cup-shaped

d upward. “Here you have the highest peak in the whole

a momentary unaccountable sensation of wild

t to climb. Halfway up, however, it grew steeper, and they began to meet bushes and small trees. The growt

They cast no shadows from above, but still the shade was cool. Both leaves and branches were fantastically shaped. What surpri

f his difficulty?” said Joiwi

planet, Maskull, is necessarily energetic and lawless, and not sedate and imitative. Nature is still fluid — no

t what I don’t grasp is this — if living creatures here sport so energetically,

“All creatures that resemble Shaping m

he blind will to be

act

en the brotherhood of man is not a fable

nd changed colour. Panaw

which with his breve he could clearly distinguish. They cried out silently, “To me To me!” While he looked, a flying wor

y. A fringe of trees partly intercepted the view, but Maskull was able to perceive that this mountain la

full length, and peered into the depths. It was weirdly clear: he could see down for an indefinite distance, without arriving at any bottom. Some dark, shadowy objects, almost out of reach of his eyes, were moving about. Then a sound, very fa

as mystical, dreamlike, and unbelievable — the drumming was like a very dim undertone of reality. It resemb

n, whose dimensions could not be measured by the eye. It was solid land, yet he could not make out its prevailing colour. It was as if made of transparent glass, but it did not glitter in the sunlight. No objects in it could be distinguished, except a rolling river in

in a most marvellous way with the blue of the rest of the heavens. It seemed more

ore he gazed, the more restles

s that

m. “It is Alppain — our second sun,” he replied. “Those hills

I really being affected

t natures, are drawing you at the same time? Luckily you are not looking at Alppain itsel

ou say ‘l

sing forces would perhaps be more than

on changed immediately into a puzzle. The silence and stillness of the mountain peak seemed brooding, mysterious, and waiting. Panawe gave him a friendly

sly sprinkled the sandy floor of the interior. A greenish, phosphorescent light gradually spread to the furthest limits of the cavern, a

He bathed her face, put drink to her lips, energised her with his magn, and finally laid her dow

been a very long, hard double journey, but for the future it will lighte

so far in a morning,” said Maskull,

instead of blood, and th

he gave me

couldn’t even

never for

rn, the cool seclusion of the interior, with its pale green glow, in

sturb her i

N

w do yo

r something about your new life. It’s not all as innocent and idyllic as this

rrange — shall I put questions, or will yo

e of ferns, and at the same time reclined himse

e. You will begin to learn from them

” said Maskull, prepa

d then started his narrative in tranq

WE’S

. This led to many disputes between them, which made me miserable. On the fourth day we passed through a part of the forest which bordered on the Sinking Sea. This sea is full of pouches of water that will not bear a man’s weight, and as these light parts don’t differ in appearance from the rest, it is dangerous to cross. My father pointed out a dim outline on the horizon, and told me it was Swaylone’s Island. Men sometimes go there, but none ever return. In the evening of the same day we found Broodviol standing in a deep, miry pit in the forest, surrounded on all sides by trees three hundred feet high. He was a big gnarled, rugged, wrinkled, sturdy old man. His age at that time was a hundred and twenty of ou

man and woman among us is a walking murderer. If a male, he has struggled with and killed the female who was born i

e end it?’ as

the scene of the combat, and it w

be a man, don’t you?’ said

ing your daughter, and

tone attracted Br

fore the male must have spoken it, and you need not troubl

very low before Broodviol for about ten minutes, a

came into that land for a few hours da

I have come to the conclusion that, wisest of men as he was, he still did not see quite straight on this occasion. Between me and my twin sister, enclosed in one body, there never was any

ow never to eat or destroy anything that co

ely, and I hated the associations of the land. I therefore made up my mind to travel into

either side. The knife edge of the ridge is generally not much over a foot wide. The causeway goes due north and south. The valley on my right hand was plunged in shadow — that on my left was sparkling with sunlight and dew. I walked fearfully along this precarious path for some miles. Far to the east the valley was closed by a lofty tableland, connecting the

could very well pass. However, I went slowly on, and presently we drew near enough together for me to recognise the walker. It was Slofork, the so-called sorcerer. I had never met him before, but I knew him by his peculiarities of person. He was of a bright gamboge colour and possessed a very long, proboscis-like nose, which appeared to be a useful organ, but did not add to his

ced one another, ab

elf, but, to my young nature, terrible with hidden terrors. I smiled at him, but did not

than Pleasure?’

emergency, so, concealing my surprise, I applied myself to

d, ‘for pain driv

greater

use we will accept our lo

reater than Lov

ing, S

hat is

ou must

ove, and gets his rewards. But there’s another world — not Shaping’s and there all this is unknown, a

was a

‘that you are good at gro

organ tells me the same story. I

say, that your wisdom f

e you had it from did not add that they h

aid I sententiously, ‘

will. For you the world will continue to wear a noble, awful face. Yo

wn into the empty void. He crashed with ever-increasing momentum toward the

this sudden resolution on his part to commit suicide. Whichever it might be, since then

ross the third extraordinary personage of my experience — the grim Muremaker. It was under horrible circumstances. On an afternoon, cloudy and stormy, I saw, suspended in the air without visible support, a living man. He was hanging in an upright position in front of a cliff

am sorbed. Nuclamp and I fell out over a woman. Now Nuclamp holds me up like this. While the strength of his wi

ell known to me as one who passed his whole existence in tormenting, murdering, and absorbin

lked together for a month, and by that time we

topped s

Maskull. “Now I begin to know my way a

t’s

d arts, and have no civilisation, and yet contrive to

our world you have fewer sense organs, and to make up for the deficiency you have been oblig

Maskull, “but I see I have

gradually fell asleep. Joiwind opened her eye