Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

44 In the Opinion of Beelzebub, Man’s Understanding of Justice Is for Him in the Objective Sense an Accursed Mirage

44.1132

“A Boolmarshano on the continent Atlantis was what the contemporary beings there have replaced by what they call ‘books.’

44.1132

“An exact copy of the mentioned Boolmarshano, made from the tusks of what are called ‘Chirniano,’ I happened to see personally later, namely, at my sixth descent there, and to decipher it rather in detail.

44.1132

“As the information I learned concerning the question—in what way the said copy of the Boolmarshano incised with his own hand by Makary Kronbernkzion and which I happened to decipher during my last sojourn on your planet, remained intact and reached to the contemporary epoch—will be very instructive and interesting to you, I will briefly tell you about it.

44.1132

“When the original of that Boolmarshano was created and sincerely admired and approved by the other learned members of the society Akhaldan, it was placed in the middle of the central what is called ‘cathedral’ of the beings belonging to that society.

44.1132-3

“In consequence of the fact that the contents of the said Boolmarshano then began to interest a greater and greater number of the beings of that period, then the leaders of the mentioned society decided to make several copies of it in order to place them in the same way in all the branches of the Church in other cities of that same continent Atlantis as well as on other continents.

44.1133

“Seven very exact copies were made of it just for this purpose from the said tusks of the Chirniano.

44.1133

“When, as it seems, the said copy was brought to the continent Grabontzi in order from there to send it further, then, just at that time, that second great catastrophe befell to this ill-fated planet, and owing to that fact that that part of the surface of the continent Grabontzi on which this copy was found happened to remain intact, this copy did not enter within the planet.

44.1133-4

“After this terrifying event, this production of the pending Saint Makary Kronbernkzion lay for a long time beneath the ruins and was gradually covered with ‘Kashiman,’ and only after about thirty centuries, when the three-brained beings who have taken your fancy again multiplied and their process of reciprocal destruction proceeded near this place between the communities of that time named ‘Filnooanzi’ and ‘Plitazoorali,’ the beings belonging to the community Filnooanzi, when digging holes to obtain drinking water for themselves and their camels, came across this copy and dug it out.

44.1134

“And when soon after that, the beings belonging to both of the mentioned communities concluded among themselves, as it has already become usual there, what they call a ‘friendly peace,’ and began to divide everything acquired during this process of theirs by various means which have also already become usual there and which they express as ‘conquest,’ ‘pillage,’ ‘commandeering,’ ‘indemnities,’ and so on—then this discovery also, which according to the understanding of the beings of the Earth of that period was valued only as rare material, was divided into halves, and the beings of each separate community took for themselves one half of the said great creation.

44.1134

“One of the halves of this copy, passing for various reasons from one group to another, finally fell, after seven centuries, into the hands of what are called the ‘Egyptian high priests.’

44.1134

“That strange and peculiar combination of several tusks, already incomprehensible to them, became a sacred relic to them, and in this character it existed there until the period when that Persian king, about whom I once already told you, went there with his hordes, and made, as is said there, a ‘clean sweep’ of that same unfortunate Egypt.

44.1134-5

“Further, that same half of the copy of the Boolmarshano happened to get this time to the continent of Asia and, again passing from hand to hand, passed in the middle of my sixth descent there, by inheritance from his grandfather, just to that Aisorian priest by whom I saw it for the first time.

44.1135

“As for the second half of that unprecedented work which cannot be made again there, passing also from hand to hand owing to reasons of every kind, it finally also happened to get into one of the central communities of Asia, and during one of what they call ‘earthquakes’ there it entered within the planet, though not very deep beneath its surface.