Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

19 Beelzebub’s Tales About His Second Descent onto the Planet Earth

19.181-2

“And in his further detailed explanations, His Conformity then said, among other things, that after the second catastrophe to the Earth, the biped three-brained beings who had accidentally survived had again multiplied; that now, the whole process of their being-existence was concentrated on another, newly formed, also large continent called ‘Ashhark’; that three independent large groups had just been formed on this same large continent ‘Ashhark,’ the first of which existed in a locality then called ‘Tikliamish,’ the second in a place called ‘Maralpleicie,’ and the third in a still existing locality then called ‘Gemchania’ or ‘Pearl-land’; and that in the general psyche of the beings belonging to all those three independent groups, certain peculiar ‘Havatvernoni’ had been formed, that is, certain psychic strivings, the totality of the process of which common-cosmic strivings they themselves had named ‘Religion.’

19.182

“‘Although these Havatvernoni or Religions have nothing in common,’ continued His Conformity, ‘yet nevertheless in these peculiar religions of theirs there is very widely spread among the beings of all three groups the same custom called among them “Sacrificial-Offerings.”

“‘And this custom of theirs is based on the notion, which can be cognized only by their strange Reason alone, that if they destroy the existence of beings of other forms in honor of their gods and idols, then these imaginary gods and idols of theirs would find it very, very agreeable, and always and in everything unfailingly help and assist them in the actualization of all their fantastic and wild fancies.

19.185

“During the period of this second descent of mine in person, the country Tikliamish was considered to be and indeed was the richest and most fertile of all the terra fir-mas of that planet good for ordinary being-existence.

19.185

“But when a third great catastrophe occurred to the ill-fated planet, this then most fertile country of the surface of your planet, along with other more or less fertile terra firmas, was covered by ‘Kashmanoon,’ or, as they say, by ‘Sands.’

“For long periods after this third catastrophe, this country Tikliamish was simply called ‘bare desert,’ and now, its parts have various names; its former principal part is called ‘Karakoom,’ that is, ‘Black-sands.’

19.185

“During these periods the second also quite independent group of three-brained beings of your planet also dwelt on that continent Ashhark, on that part which was then called the country Maralpleicie.

“Later when this second group also began to have a center point of their existence they called it the ‘city Gob’ and the whole country was for a long time called ‘Goblandia.’

20 The Third Flight of Beelzebub to the Planet Earth

20.211

“Just before the second great catastrophe those genuine learned beings then existing on the continent Atlantis, who had organized that truly great learned society there, somehow became aware that something very serious had to happen in Nature, so they began to observe very carefully all the natural phenomena of their continent; but however hard they tried, they could in no way find out what precisely had to happen.

“A little later on and with the same aim, they sent some of their members to other continents and islands, in order, by means of these common observations, perhaps to be able to find out what was impending.

20.211

“The members sent were to observe not only Nature on the planet Earth, but also every kind of, as they then expressed themselves there, ‘heavenly-phenomena.’

“One of these members, namely, the mentioned important being, had chosen the continent Iranan for his observations and, having migrated there with his servants, had settled on the shores of the said water-space later called the Sea of Beneficence.

20.211-2

“It was just this same learned member of the society Akhaldan who once chanced to meet certain of the mentioned hunters on the shores of the said Sea of Beneficence, and having learned that they had also come from the continent Atlantis, was naturally very glad, and began to establish relations with them.

20.212

“And when, shortly afterwards, the continent Atlantis entered within the planet and this learned Akhaldan member had no longer any place to return to, he remained to exist with these hunters in that future Maralpleicie.

20.212

“A little later this group of hunters chose this learned being, as the cleverest, to be their chief, and still later… this member of the great society Akhaldan married the daughter named Rimala of one of the hunters, and afterwards shared fully in the lives of the founders of the beings of that second group of the continent Iranan, or, as it is called at the present time, Asia.’

20.212-3

“At the time to which the tale I began refers, the king for the beings of that second group was the grandson of his great grandson, and his name was ‘Konuzion.’

20.213

“My latest detailed investigations and researches showed that there had been actualized by that same King Konuzion exceedingly wise and most beneficent measures for uprooting a terrifying evil which had arisen among the beings who by the will of Fate had become his subjects. And he had actualized these said most wise and beneficent measures for the following reason:

20.213

“This same King Konuzion once constated that the beings of his community were becoming less and less capable of work, and that crimes, robberies, and violence and many other such things as had never occurred before were on the increase among them, or, if they had occurred, had seemed to be quite exceptional phenomena.

20.213

“These constatations surprised and at the same time grieved King Konuzion, who after thinking deeply about it, decided to find out the causes of this sorrowful phenomenon.

20.213

“After long observations he finally cleared up for himself that the cause of the phenomenon was a new habit of the beings of his community, namely, their habit of chewing the seed of a plant then called ‘Gulgulian.’ This sur-planetary formation also arises on the planet Earth at the present time, and those of your favorites who consider themselves ‘educated’ call it ‘Papaveroon,’ but the ordinary beings simply call it the ‘poppy.’

“Here it must without fail be noticed that the beings of Maralpleicie then only had a passion for chewing those seeds of the mentioned surplanetary formation which had without fail to be gathered at the time of what is called ‘ripeness.’

20.213-4

“In the course of his further close observations and impartial investigations King Konuzion clearly understood that these seeds contained a ‘something’ that could completely change, for the time being, all the established habits of the psyche of those beings who introduced this something into themselves, with the result that they saw, understood, felt, sensed, and acted quite otherwise than they were previously accustomed to see, sense, act, and so on.

“For instance, a crow would appear to them to be a peacock; a trough of water, a sea; a harsh clatter, music; good will, enmity; insults, love; and so on and so forth.

20.214

“When King Konuzion became clearly convinced of all this, he immediately dispatched everywhere trusted and faithful subjects of his strictly to command in his name all beings of his community to cease chewing the seeds of the mentioned plant; he also arranged for the punishment and fine of those beings who should disobey this order.

20.214

“Thanks to these measures of his, the chewing of the said seeds seemed to diminish in the country of Maralpleicie; but after a very short time it was discovered that the number of those who chewed had only seemingly diminished; in reality, they were even more than before.

“Having understood this, the wise King Konuzion thereupon resolved to punish still more severely those who should continue chewing; and at the same time he strengthened the surveillance of his subjects and also the strictness of the enforcement of the punishment of the guilty.

“And he himself began going about everywhere in the city of Gob, personally examining the guilty and impressing them by various punishments, physical and moral.

20.216

“Finally the wise king decided to deal with this evil indirectly, namely, by playing on the weaknesses in the psyche of the beings of his community. With this aim he invented a very original ‘religious doctrine’ corresponding to the psyche of the beings of that time; and this invention of his he spread broadcast among all his subjects by every means at his disposal.

20.216

“In this religious doctrine it was said, among other things, that far from our continent Ashhark was a larger island where existed our ‘Mister God.’

20.216-7

“And when we die and our soul is liberated from all these specially attached organs and limbs, it becomes what it should really be, and is then immediately taken just to this island of His, where our Mister God, in accordance with how our soul with its added parts has existed here on our continent Ashhark, assigns to it an appropriate place for its further existence.

20.217

“If the soul has fulfilled its duties honestly and conscientiously, Mister God leaves it, for its further existence, on His island; but the soul that here on the continent Ashhark has idled or discharged its duties indolently and negligently, that has in short, existed only for the gratification of the desires of the parts attached to it, or finally, that has not kept His commandments—such a soul our Mister God sends for its further existence to a neighboring island of smaller size.

20.218-9

“When I first came to the country of Maralpleicie, all the three-brained beings of that country were followers of a ‘religion’ based on the just-mentioned ingenious ‘religious-doctrine,’ and this ‘religion’ was then in full bloom.

20.219

“To the inventor himself of this ingenious ‘religious-doctrine,’ namely, the wise King Konuzion, the sacred ‘Rascooarno’ had occurred long before this time, that is to say, he had long previously ‘died.’

“But of course owing once again to the strangeness of the psyche of your favorites, his invention had taken such a strong hold there that not a single being in the whole country of Maralpleicie then doubted the truth of its peculiar tenets.

20.219

“Here also in the city Gob, from the first day of my arrival, I began visiting the ‘Kaltaani,’ which were already called ‘Chaihana.’

20.219

“It must be noticed that although the custom of Sacrificial-Offerings was also flourishing at that period in the country of Maralpleicie, it was not on the large scale on which it had flourished in the country Tikliamish.

20.219

“There in the city Gob I began deliberately looking for a corresponding being, in order to make friends with him, as I had in the city Koorkalai.

“And indeed I soon found such a friend here also, but this time he was not a ‘priest’ by profession.

20.219

“My friend here turned out to be the proprietor of a large Chaihana; and although I became, as it is said there, on very good terms with him, nevertheless I never had that strange ‘tie’ with him which arose in my essence towards the priest Abdil in the city Koorkalai.

20.220

“After serious pondering I found it necessary to add something to the ‘religious-doctrine’ existing there, and I counted on being able, like the wise King Konuzion, to spread this addition of mine effectively among them.

“Just then I invented that those spirits in ‘caps-of-invisibility’ who, as it was said in that great religion, watch our deeds and thoughts in order to report them later to our Mister God, are none other than just the beings of other forms, which exist among us.

“It is just they who watch us and report everything to our Mister God.

20.220

“But we people not only fail to pay them their due honor and respect, but we even destroy their existences for our food as well as for our Sacrificial-Offerings.

20.220

“I particularly emphasized in my preaching that not only ought we not to destroy the existence of the beings of other forms in honor of Mister God, but that, on the contrary, we ought to try to win their favor and to beseech them at least not to report to Mister God those little evil acts of ours which we do involuntarily.

20.220

“And this addition of mine I began to spread by every possible means; of course, very cautiously.

“At first, I spread this invention of mine through my new friend there, the proprietor of the Chaihana.

“I must tell you that his Chaihana was almost the largest in the whole city Gob; and it was very famous for its reddish liquid, of which the beings of the planet Earth are very fond.

“So there were always a great many customers there, and it was open day and night.

“Not only did the inhabitants of the city itself go there, but also all the visitors from the whole of Maralpleicie.

20.221

“I soon became quite expert in talking with and persuading individual customers as well as all those present in the Chaihana.

20.221-2

“In addition to the proprietor of the Chaihana there in the city Gob, a number of other beings very soon began unconsciously to assist me, who, like the proprietor of the Chaihana, had meanwhile become ardent supporters of my invention; and all the beings of that second group of Asiatic beings were soon eagerly spreading this invention of mine and persuading each other of it as an indubitable ‘truth’ that had suddenly been revealed.

20.222

“The result of it all was that there in the country of Maralpleicie, not only were Sacrificial-Offerings indeed diminished, but they even began to treat the beings of other forms with unprecedented attention.

20.225-6

“Having thus become convinced that there also, among that second group of beings of the continent Ashhark, I had succeeded so easily in uprooting, for a long time, the custom of Sacrificial-Offerings, I decided to leave; but I had it in mind, in any event, to visit also the nearest large points where the beings of the same second group were breeding; and I chose for this purpose the region of the course of the river ‘Naria-Chi.’

20.226

“Soon after this decision, I sailed with Ahoon to the mouth of this river, and began to sail up against its current, having become persuaded that there had already passed from the beings of the city Gob to the beings of this group populating these large centers the same new customs and the same notions concerning Sacrificial-Offerings by the destruction of the existence of other beings.

20.226

“We finally arrived at a small town called ‘Arguenia,’ which in those days was considered the most remote point of the country Maralpleicie.

“Here also there existed a fair number of beings of this second Asiatic group who were engaged chiefly in obtaining from Nature what is called ‘turquoise.’

21 The First Visit of Beelzebub to India

21.247

“There in Pearl-land also, just as in the city Gob, I first ‘invented-a-detailed-addition’ to the mentioned religious teaching, and afterwards by every possible means I began spreading this invention of mine.

21.247

“I began to spread there in Pearl-land that that ‘Most-Sacred-Prana,’ about which our Divine Teacher Saint Buddha had explained, is already present not only in people, but also in all the other beings that arise and exist on our planet Earth.

“A particle of that fundamental Most Great Great All-embracing, namely, the Most-Sacred-Prana, has already from the very beginning settled in every form of being of every scale, breeding on the surface of the planet, in the water, and also in the atmosphere.

21.247

“The several beings there with whom I had meanwhile established ‘friendly’ relations, and whom without any discussion I first of all persuaded there of that invention, not only immediately fully believed it, but afterwards also very effectually helped me, of course unconsciously, in spreading this new invention of mine.

“Here also these friends of mine always and everywhere very zealously and passionately proved to other beings like themselves, that this was just so and could not possibly be otherwise.

“In short, there in Pearl-land, owing to this second invention of mine, the desired results were unexpectedly rapidly brought about.

21.247-8

“And there in Pearl-land, owing simply to my invention, your favorites so greatly changed their essence-relations towards the beings of other forms, that they not only ceased to destroy the existence of these beings for their famous Sacrificial-Offerings, but even began very sincerely with the whole of their being to regard these beings of other forms as beings like themselves.

21.248

“If only it had all continued like that, it would have been very good; but here as well, just as in the country Maralpleicie, they soon began, as is proper to them, to wiseacre and to manifest all kinds of comical aspects of their Havatvernoni.

24 Beelzebub’s Flight to the Planet Earth for the Fifth Time

24.315

“During this time, that is to say, between my fourth and fifth visits, great changes occurred to the surface of your planet; many changes also occurred there in the concentrations of the places of settlement of these favorites of yours. For example, all those centers-of-culture of theirs on the continent Ashhark where I had been in person during my previous descents upon the Earth, namely, the countries of Tikliamish and Maralpleicie, had by the time of my fifth arrival there entirely ceased to exist.

24.315

“The cause of the destruction of these centers-of-culture of theirs and of the changes on the surface of this planet in general, was again a misfortune, the third for this ill-fated planet.

24.315-6

“This third misfortune was entirely of a local character and occurred because during several years there had proceeded in its atmosphere unprecedented what are called ‘accelerated-displacements-of-the-parts-of-the-atmosphere’; or, as your favorites there would say, ‘great winds.’

24.316

“The cause of these abnormal displacements or great winds at that time was once again those two fragments which had been separated from this planet of yours during the first great calamity, and which afterwards became independent small planets of this solar system, and are now called Moon and Anulios.

24.316

“These unprecedented great winds then began, by the force of their currents, as it is said, to wear down the elevated ‘terra-firma-parts’ and to fill up the corresponding ‘depressions.’

24.316

“Such depressions were also the two countries of the continent Ashhark upon which the process of existence was chiefly concentrated of the second and third groups of beings of contemporary Asia, that is to say, the main parts of the countries Tikliamish and Maralpleicie.

24.317

“It is interesting to note here that your contemporary favorites have also by some means or other learned about the changes that then occurred in the places of the permanent existence of the three-centered beings, and having made a label for this as well, this time the ‘Great-transmigration-of-races,’ they stuck it onto what they call their ‘knowledge.’

24.317

“Just now there are several theories about the matter there, which although they have nothing in common with each other and are each in an objective sense more absurd than the other, are nevertheless accepted there by what is called ‘official-knowledge.’

24.317

“But in fact, the real cause of the transmigration of the three-centered beings there was that as soon as the said abrasion began, the beings living on the continent Ashhark, fearing to be buried by the sands, began moving to other, more or less secure places. And these migrations of the three-brained beings there proceeded in the following order:

24.317-8

“Most of the three-brained beings populating Tikliamish moved to the south of the same continent Ashhark, to the country which was later called ‘Persia,’ and the rest moved north, and settled in those regions which were afterwards called ‘Kirkistcheri.’

24.318

“As for the beings populating the country Maralpleicie, one part wandered eastwards, while the rest, the major part, went towards the west.

24.318

“Having crossed the eastern heights, those who went east settled down on the shores of the large Saliakooriapnian spaces, and this country was later called ‘China.’

24.318

“And that part of the beings of Maralpleicie who sought safety by moving to the west, after wandering from place to place, ultimately reached the neighboring continent, later called ‘Europe,’ and the three-brained beings who then still existed in the middle of the continent Grabontzi dispersed over the whole of the surface.

24.318

“And so, my boy, this fifth descent of mine in person to your planet belongs to the period of the time after this said redistribution of the groups of the communities of these favorites of yours.

29 The Fruits of Former Civilizations and the Blossoms of the Contemporary

29.415

“And having during my investigations repeatedly constated that a fundamental cause of the various abnormalities of the general psyche of the contemporary beings was what is called ‘civilization’ sown by those two large groups of beings called Greeks and Romans, I was obliged to inquire into certain details about them also.

29.415

“But as I was fully occupied at that time with my researches concerning the activities of the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash, I commissioned the elucidation of the history of the arising of these two independent groupings of your favorites—in respect of what is called, their ‘subjective-being-Being’—to that same being of our tribe who as I have already told you, still carries on an ‘undertaker’s business’ in a large city on the continent of Europe down to the present time.

29.415

“From the investigations of this countryman of ours, it seems that long ago before the period to which my tale about the majestic city of Babylon referred, namely, at the time when the process of the existence of those strange beings was proceeding mainly on the continent Asia alone, and when their chief center of culture was Tikliamish, there were on that said continent of Europe, which is now the chief place of existence of your favorites, as yet no definitely organized communities.

29.415

“There then chiefly existed on that continent two-brained and one-brained beings called ‘wild quadrupeds’ and ‘reptiles,’ but of your favorites, the biped beings, there were then on that continent only a number of small groups, almost as ‘wild’ as the ‘quadrupeds’ themselves.

29.415-6

“The occupation of these small groups of biped beings was merely the destruction of the ‘quadruped’ and ‘reptile’ beings, and occasionally also of each other.

“And the numbers of your favorites on that continent Europe only increased when emigrants from Maralpleicie, wandering from one place to another, finally arrived and settled there.

31 The Sixth and Last Sojourn of Beelzebub on the Planet Earth

31.552-3

“However, in any case, do remember that from among the number of many thousands of known ‘medical means’ applied by the contemporary physicians there, only three, and even then only sometimes, produce some or other real results for the planetary bodies of your contemporary ordinary three-brained beings.

31.553

“One of these three medical means which does sometimes nevertheless produce a useful reaction is that substance, or, more strictly speaking, those active elements entering into it, which the beings of Maralpleicie learned how to obtain from the plant poppy and which they were the first to call opium.

32 Hypnotism

32.558-9

“I must tell you that formerly your favorites, like all the other three-brained beings of the whole Universe, were without that particular psychic property which permits them to be brought into what is called a ‘hypnotic state.’ To get into that state became proper to your favorites, thanks to a certain combination obtained in their psyche and derived from the disharmony of the functioning of their common presence.

32.559

“This strange psychic property had its rise soon after the destruction of Atlantis and began to become finally fixed in the presence of every one of them from the time when their ‘Zoostat,’ that is the functioning of their ‘being-consciousness,’ began to be divided in two and when two entirely different consciousnesses having nothing in common with each other were gradually formed in them, namely, those two different consciousnesses, the first of which was called by them simply ‘consciousness’ and the second—when they finally noticed it in themselves—was called and still continues to be called ‘subconsciousness.’

32.560

“This ‘abnormal’ particular property of their psyche was first constated by the learned beings of the city Gob of the country Maralpleicie; and even then they made it a serious and detailed branch of science which spread over the whole of the planet under the name of ‘non-responsible-manifestations-of-personality.’

32.567

“And the totality of these localized data, existing in their presences and spiritualized in them for the genuine being-consciousness which they call subconsciousness, not having and not acquiring any ‘logicnestarian-growths’ for confrontation and criticism, but having from the very beginning only possibilities of engendering the sacred being-impulses called ‘faith,’ ‘love,’ ‘hope,’ and ‘conscience,’ always believes, always loves, and always hopes in everything newly perceived.

32.568

“And so, when thanks to a change of tempo of their blood circulation there is obtained a temporary suspension of the action of the localization of that false consciousness which has already become the ‘autocratic ruler’ of their common presences, thereby giving the sacred data of their genuine consciousness the possibility of unhindered blending with the total functioning of the planetary body during the period of their waking state, then indeed my boy, if the crystallization of data for engendering in that localization an idea of something opposite to that which has already arisen in them and somehow become fixed, is assisted in a corresponding manner, and if moreover the actions evoked by this idea are directed upon a disharmonized part of the planetary body, an accelerated change in it possible.

32.568

“When, during the period of the Tikliamishian civilization, the learned beings of the locality Maralpleicie first constated in their common psyche the special possibility of such ‘combinations,’ and began to search for ways of intentionally bringing one another into this special state, they soon understood and found the possibility of actualizing this by means of what is called ‘being-Hanbledzoïn,’ namely, that cosmic substance, the essence of which the three-brained beings of the contemporary civilization came close to understanding, and which they called ‘animal magnetism.’

40 Beelzebub Tells How People Learned and Again Forgot About the Fundamental Cosmic Law of Heptaparaparshinokh

40.821-2

“The knowledge concerning the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh was again known only after many, many of their centuries, thanks to two great terrestrial learned beings, the brothers ‘Choon-Kil-Tez’ and ‘Choon-Tro-Pel,’ who later became Saints and who are now on that holy planet Purgatory where we recently were.

40.822

“Do you remember, I already told you that on the continent of Asia there was a country Maralpleicie and that a king existed there by name Konuzion, a descendant of that learned member of the Society of Akhaldans who had gone there from Atlantis for the observation of all kinds of natural phenomena of their planet, just that same king who had invented for his subjects the ‘wise tale’ already mentioned by me in order to save them from the pernicious habit of chewing the seeds of the flower ‘Gulgulian.’

40.822

“Well then, to the grandson of this King Konuzion, after the arising of an heir who later also became king over the beings of this group, there arose just these same two results of the male sex, twins, the elder of whom was called ‘Choon-Kil-Tez’ and the younger ‘Choon-Tro-Pel.’ The word ‘Choon’ then in the country Maralpleicie meant ‘prince.’

40.822-3

“Owing on the one hand to the fact that the environment of these two brothers, direct descendants of one of the chief members of the great learned society, happened to be arranged correspondingly for their ‘preparatory age,’ and on the other hand that they themselves tried not to allow the atrophy of the hereditary inherency—which they as in general all newly arising three-brained beings of this planet have—to crystallize the data for engendering in themselves the power to actualize ‘being-Partkdolg-duty,’ and also in consequence of the fact that the ‘affirming-source’ of the causes of their arising, that is, their, as is called, father, decided to destine their responsible existence for the field of learning and took all corresponding measures for their preparation for this, then already from the very beginning of their responsible age they almost became such as three-brained beings everywhere on the planets of our great Megalocosmos become who choose the same Aim, that is to say, those who carry out all their studied researches not for the satisfaction of their, what are called ‘vainglorious,’ ‘proud,’ and ‘self-loving’ weaknesses—as is done by the beings there, particularly the contemporary ones who choose the same field for themselves—but for the attainment of a higher gradation of Being.

40.823

“At the outset they became, as is said there, learned ‘specialists in medicine,’ and afterwards, learned in general.

40.823

“The period of their preparatory age and the early years of their responsible existence were spent in the town Gob, in the country Maralpleicie, but when this part of the surface of your planet began to be buried under sand, they were both among the number of those refugees who went East.

40.823

“This group of three-brained beings, refugees from the country Maralpleicie, among whom were also these two twin brothers, later great learned beings, crossed the Eastern heights of Maralpleicie and then settled on the shores of a great water-space.

40.823

“There was afterwards formed from them a settled group of these terrestrial three-brained beings still existing today, which, as well as the country which it inhabits, is now called ‘China.’

40.867-8

“The Nirioonossian-World-Sound is just that sound the vibrations of which have been taken from ancient times—and even at the present time there, is still taken, it is true, for a very small number of your favorites, of course, of this same China—for their sound-producing instruments as the ‘absolute vibrations’ of the note ‘do.’

40.868

“The history of the constatation of the existence there on your planet of this sound is as follows:

40.868

“It was first discovered by that learned member of the society Akhaldan which existed on the continent Atlantis, who was a progenitor of these same learned twin brothers and who, do you remember, I have already told you, chanced to meet the first settlers of the country Maralpleicie and was later elected by them as their chief.

40.868

“At that time this same learned member of the society Akhaldan, during his observations of different cosmic phenomena which proceeded on and beyond their planet, constated that in a definite locality of a certain part of this country, just near that locality where the town Gob arose, twice a year after certain meteorological perturbations in the atmosphere, the same definite sound always arose and was heard for a fairly long time.

42 Beelzebub in America

42.926

“There on the continent America, the very same is occurring with the consumption of alcohol as occurred with the chewing of the seeds of the poppy by the beings of the country Maralpleicie.

42.926-7

“The difference is that in the country of Maralpleicie the beings were then addicted to the use of at least genuine poppy seeds, whereas in America the beings now consume any liquid that comes their way, provided only that it bears the name of some alcoholic liquid existing somewhere on their planet.

42.927

“And another difference is, that in respect of concealing their consumption of the prohibited product from government eyes, the contemporary beings now breeding on the continent America are not by any means so naïve as were the beings of the Maralpleicie epoch.

42.961-2

“The contemporary unfortunate three-brained beings in general who breed on your planet are, of course, not aware, nor for causes already explained to you, have they in themselves the possibility of reflecting, that their remote ancestors of various past ages, who were much more normally formed into responsible beings, must have ‘racked their brains,’ as is said, ‘not a little’ to discover means for minimizing the time spent on this inevitable being-necessity of feeding themselves with products; and having found such apparently expedient methods, they every time, after a brief trial of them, eventually became convinced that these products, of whatever kind and however they might be preserved, always deteriorated with time and became worthless for their first-food; and hence they ceased to employ these methods in the process of their ordinary existence.

42.962

“As a parallel to this contemporary means of preserving products for one’s first being-food in hermetically sealed vessels, let us take as an example that means of preserving which I personally have witnessed in the country Maralpleicie.

42.962

“It was just at the time when the beings of the locality of Maralpleicie were vying in everything with the beings of the country Tikliamish and were engaged in a fierce rivalry with them that the beings of all other countries should consider their country the first and foremost ‘center of culture.’

42.962

“Those beings of Maralpleicie, however, preserved their edible products sealed hermetically not in ‘poison-exuding tin cans,’ such as the contemporary beings of the continent America use, but in what were then called ‘Sikharenenian vessels.’

42.962-3

“Those Sikharenenian vessels in Maralpleicie were prepared from very finely ground, what are called there ‘mother-of-pearl,’ ‘yolks of hen’s eggs,’ and a glue obtained from the fish named the Choozna sturgeon.

42.963

“These vessels had the appearance and quality of the unpolished glass jars now existing there on your planet.

42.963

“In spite of all the obvious advantages of preserving products in such vessels, yet nevertheless, when certain beings with Reason in the country Maralpleicie constated that in those beings who habitually used products preserved in this way there was gradually atrophied what is called ‘organic shame,’ then, having succeeded in widely spreading among the other ordinary beings information about this constatation of theirs, all the other surrounding beings, similar to them, gradually ceased to employ this method, and eventually it was so completely dropped from common use that even the knowledge that such a method had ever existed failed even to reach the fifth or sixth generation after them.

42.963

“On this continent Asia there have existed throughout almost all the ages all kinds of methods for preserving edible products for a long time, and even now several of these methods exist there which have come down to the contemporary beings from their very remote ancestors.

42.963

“But of all these methods not one was so harmful for the beings themselves as this method invented by these contemporary beings of the continent America, namely, the preserving of products in poison-exuding tin cans.