Part 12 (2/2)

Indeed, in this respect Zu-Vendis is a veritable Eldorado, the preciousextraordinarily plentiful At present it is collected fros, which we subsequently inspected, and which are situated within a day's journey frohing froings of a sireat veins of gold-bearing quartz In Zu-Vendis gold is a much coh coal tender of the country

The second reason given is, that at certain tirasses of the country, which are very sweet and good, turn as yellow as ripe corn; and the third arises froinally yellow skinned, but grehite after living for h lands Zu-Vendis is a country about the size of France, is, roughly speaking, oval in shape; and on every side cut off fro territory by illimitable forests of impenetrable thorn, beyond which are said to be hundreds of reatup in the centre of the dark continent, much as in southern Africa flat-toppedveldt Milosis itself lies, according to my aneroid, at a level of about nine thousand feet above the sea, but reatest elevation of the open country being, I believe, about eleven thousand feet As a consequence the cli very sihter and not so rainy The land is, however, exceedingly fertile, and grows all cereals and temperate fruits and ti parts even produces a hardy variety of sugar-cane Coal is found in great abundance, and in many places crops out from the surface; and so is pure marble, both black and white The same may be said of almost every metal except silver, which is scarce, and only to be obtained froe of mountains in the north

Zu-Vendis coreat variety of scenery, including two ranges of snow-clad mountains, one on the western boundary beyond the i the country frohty her peaks are distinctly visible This range fore lakes--the biggest, naed, and which is na some two hundred square miles of country--and numerous small ones, some of them salt

The population of this favoured land is, coh estiricultural in its habits, and divided into great classes as in civilized countries There is a territorial nobility, a considerable middle class, formed principally of reat bulk of the people are well-to-do peasants who live upon the lands of the lords, from whom they hold under a species of feudal tenure The best bred people in the country are, as I think I have said, pure whites with a somewhat southern cast of countenance; but the coro or other African characteristics As to their descent I can give no certain information Their written records, which extend back for about a thousand years, give no hint of it One very ancient chronicler does indeed, in alluding to so probably originally 'come doith the people fro In short, the origin of the Zu-Vendi is lost in the mists of time Whence they came or of what race they are no gest an Egyptian or possibly an assyrian origin; but it is well known that their present re up within the last eight hundred years, and they certainly retain no traces of Egyptian theology or custoain, their appearance and soain it seems hardly conceivable that they should have utterly lost all traces of the Jewish religion Still, for aught I know, they may be one of the lost ten tribes who all over the world, or they may not I do not know, and so can only describe them as I find them, and leave wiser heads than mine to make what they can out of it, if indeed this account should ever be read at all, which is exceedingly doubtful

And now after I have said all this, I ah it is only a very little one, as the young lady said in end which I have heard a the Arabs on the east coast, which is to the effect that 'o' there were troubles in the country which was known as Babylonia, and that thereon a vast horde of Persians came down to Bushi+re, where they took shi+p and were driven by the north-eastto the legend, 'the sun and fire worshi+ppers' fell into conflict with the belt of Arab settlers who even then were settled on the east coast, and finally broke their way through the into the interior, were no more seen Now, I ask, is it not at least possible that the Zu-Vendi people are the descendants of these 'sun and fire worshi+ppers'

who broke through the Arabs and vanished? As a ood deal in their characters and custoue ideas that I have of Persians Of course we have no books of reference here, but Sir Henry says that if his memory does not fail him, there was a tremendous revolt in Babylon about 500 BC, whereon a vast multitude were expelled from the city Anyhow, it is a well-established fact that there have been rations of Persians from the Persian Gulf to the east coast of Africa up to as lately as seven hundred years ago There are Persian toood repair, which bear dates showing them to be just seven hundred years old {Endnote 12}

In addition to being an agricultural people, the Zu-Vendi are, oddly enough, excessively warlike, and as they cannot froencies of their positioneach other like the famed Kilkenny cats, with the happy result that the population never outgrows the power of the country to support it This habit of theirs is largely fostered by the political condition of the country

The monarchy is nominally an absolute one, save in so far as it is tempered by the power of the priests and the inforreat lords; but, as in 's writ does not run unquestioned throughout the length and breadth of the land In short, the whole systeh absolute serfdo no practically independent, having the power of life and death, waging war against and hbours as the whi in open rebellion against their royal master or mistress, and, safely shut up in their castles and fenced cities, as far fro the-land, a fact that will be well appreciated when I state that eight different dynasties have sat upon the throne in the last one thousand years, every one of which took its rise fro the purple after a sanguinary struggle At the date of our arrival in the country things were a little better than they had been for so, the father of Nyleptha and Sorais, having been an exceptionally able and vigorous ruler, and, as a consequence, he kept down the power of the priests and nobles On his death, two years before we reached Zu-Vendis, the twin sisters, his children, were, following an ancient precedent, called to the throne, since an atteuinary civil war; but it was generally felt in the country that this measure was a most unsatisfactory one, and could hardly be expected to be perues that were set on foot by ambitious nobles to obtain the hand of one or other of the queens in eneral opinion was that there would be bloodshed before long

I will now pass on to the question of the Zu-Vendi religion, which is nothing hly developed character Around this sun-worshi+p is grouped the entire social systeh every institution and custorave the Zu-Vendi follows the sun in every sense of the saying As an infant he is soleood, the expression of power, and the hope of Eternity', the cere to our baptisloriousobas the presence of a visible and beneficent God, and he worshi+ps it at its up-rising and down-setting Then when still quite s fast to the pendent end of his a), up to the temple of the Sun of the nearest city, and there, when at olden central altar and beat back the fire that burns thereon, he hears the white-robed priests raise their solemn chant of praise and sees the people fall down to adore, and then, aolden trumpets, watches the sacrifice thrown into the fiery furnace beneath the altar Here he coain to be declared 'a ood works; here before the solemn altar he leads his bride; and here too, if differences shall unhappily arise, he divorces her

And so on, down life's long pathway till the last ain arer abrazen doors before the eastern altar, and when the last ray fro sun falls upon his white face the bolts are drawn and he vanishes into the raging furnace beneath and is ended

The priests of the Sun do notmen specially devoted to the work by their parents and supported by the State The noher offices of the priesthood lies with the Crown, but once appointed the nominees cannot be dispossessed, and it is scarcely too in with, they are a united body sworn to obedience and secrecy, so that an order issued by the High Priest at Milosis will be instantly and unhesitatingly acted upon by the resident priest of a little country town three or four hundred es of the land, cri only to the lord para; and they have, of course, practically unliether with a right of excohly civilized lands, is a very effective weapon Indeed, their rights and powers are almost unlimited, but I may as well state here that the priests of the Sun are wise in their generation, and do not push things too far It is but very seldo ative of orous-minded people on whose neck they have set their yoke, lest it should rise and break it off altogether

Another source of the power of the priests is their practical , and their very considerable astronoe, which enables the eclipses and even comets In Zu-Vendis only a few of the upper classes can read and write, but nearly all the priests have this knowledge, and are therefore looked upon as learned men

The law of the country is, on the whole, mild and just, but differs in several respects froland is ainst the person, as beco passion is money A man s upon his children at a much cheaper rate of punishment than he can compound for the theft of a pair of old boots In Zu-Vendis this is not so, for there they rightly or wrongly look upon the person as of land, as a sort of necessary appendage to the latter For murder the punish the orphan and the , for sacrilege, and for attee) death In each case the method of execution is the same, and a rather awful one The culprit is thrown alive into the fiery furnace beneath one of the altars to the Sun For all other offences, including the offence of idleness, the punishs which are always going on in sos, according to the crime

The social system of the Zu-Vendi allows considerable liberty to the individual, provided he does not offend against the laws and custoh most of them have only one wife on account of the expense By law a man is bound to provide a separate establishal wife, and her children are said to be 'of the house of the Father' The children of the other wives are of the houses of their respective mothers This does not, however, iain, a first wife can, on entering into the ain that her husband shall marry no other wife This, however, is very rarely done, as the woaives greater importance to the first wife, who is thus practically the head of several households Marriage is looked upon as primarily a civil contract, and, subject to certain conditions and to a proper provision for children, is dissoluble at the will of both contracting parties, the divorce, or 'unloosing', being forh certain portions of the e ceremony backwards

The Zu-Vendi are on the whole a very kindly, pleasant, and light-hearted people They are not great traders and care little about h to support themselves in that class of life in which they were born They are exceedingly conservative, and look with disfavour upon changes Their legal tender is silver, cut into little squares of different weights; gold is the baser coin, and is about of the same value as our silver It is, however, ely used for ornaments and decorative purposes Most of the trade, however, is carried on by riculture is the great business of the country, and is really well understood and carried out,under cultivation Great attention is also given to the breeding of cattle and horses, the latter being unsurpassed by any I have ever seen either in Europe or Africa

The land belongs theoretically to the Crown, and under the Crown to the great lords, who again divide it a smaller lords, and so on down to the little peasant farmer orks his forty 'reestu' (acres) on a system of half-profits with his immediate lord In fact the whole system is, as I have said, distinctly feudal, and it interested us much to meet with such an old friend far in the unknown heart of Africa

The taxes are very heavy The State takes a third of a s, and the priesthood about five per cent on the reh any cause falls into bona fide misfortune the State supports his If he is idle, however, he is sent to work on the Governs, and the State looks after his wives and children The State also reat care is shown, letting the army of about twenty thousand men, and provides watchmen, etc In return for their five per cent the priests attend to the service of the teious ceremonies, and keep schools, where they teach whatever they think desirable, which is not very much Some of the temples also possess private property, but priests as individuals cannot hold property

And now co Are the Zu-Vendi a civilized or barbarous people? Sometimes I think the one, sometimes the other In sohest proficiency Take for instance their buildings and their statuary I do not think that the latter can be equalled either in beauty or iinative power anywhere in the world, and as for the forypt, but I am sure that it has never been since But, on the other hand, they are totally ignorant of many other arts Till Sir Henry, who happened to know so silica and lilass, and their crockery is rather primitive A water-clock is their nearest approach to a watch; indeed, ours delighted the about steaunpowder, andor the penny post Thus they are spared e has learnt the wisdoe, increaseth sorrow'

As regards their religion, it is a natural one for iht therefore be expected to turn to the sun and worshi+p hi or spiritual It is true that they do soarue term, and what they really adore is the fiery orb hiain the ue, and I doubt if the phrase conveys any very clear impression to their minds Soood--I know Nyleptha does firs of the spirit, not an essential of their creed So on the whole I cannot say that I consider this sun-worshi+p as a religion indicative of a civilized people, however h-sounding the maxims of its priests, many of whom, I ah of course they have nothing but praise for a systes of this world

There are now only two e and the syste, and very rich and flexible Sir Henry says that it sounds so like modern Greek, but of course it has no connection with it

It is easy to acquire, being simple in its construction, and a peculiar quality about it is its euphony, and the way in which the sound of the words adapts itself to the e, we could frequentlyof the sentence It is on this account that the language lends itself so well to poetical declamation, of which these remarkable people are very fond The Zu-Vendi alphabet seems, Sir Henry says, to be derived, like every other known system of letters, from a Phoenician source, and thereforeWhether this is a fact I cannot say, not being learned in such matters All I know about it is that their alphabet consists of twenty-two characters, of which a few, notably B, E, and O, are not very unlike our own The whole affair is, however, clu

{Endnote 13} But as the people of Zu-Vendi are not given to the writing of novels, or of anything except business documents and records of the briefest character, it answers their purpose well enough