CHAPTER I THE WORLD THAT WAS 1
II THE EARTH ITSELF 5
III INANIMATE NATURE 14
IV THE ANIMAL KINGDOM 27
V THE FABULOUS BEASTS 49
VI FABLE UPON WINGS 68
VII THE DRAGON 79
VIII DENIZENS OF THE DEEP 89
IX THE PEOPLES OF PRODIGY 103
X THE SATYRS 121
XI THE PYGMIES 132
XII THE AMAZONS OF LEGEND 151
XIII THE AMAZONS OF HISTORY 169
XIV THE FOLK OF TRADITION 190
XV THE HORIZON LANDS 201
XVI LANDS OF LEGEND 223
XVII ISLANDS OF ENCHANTMENT 251
XVIII THE TERRIBLE OCEAN 262
XIX THE SARGASSO SEA 274
XX ATLANTIS 281
XXI THE GILDED MAN 298
XXII THE DREAM QUESTS OF SPAIN 312
XXIII THE FABRIC OF ILLUSION 334
XXIV THE TRAVEL TALES OF MANKIND 348
XXV THE GAINS OF FABLE 371
BIBLIOGRAPHY 379
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE BOYHOOD OF RALEIGH. _By Sir John Millais_ _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
A VOYAGE TO THESE STRANGELY PEOPLED COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD’S YESTERDAYS WOULD BE A VOYAGE ALONG THE BAYS, GULFS, AND PROMONTORIES OF THE HUMAN MIND IN ITS STATES OF DREAM 2
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AT THE COURT OF FERDINAND THE CATHOLIC AND ISABELLA OF CASTILE. _By V. von Brozik_ 10
ACCORDING TO TRADITION, A PUTRID STREAM FLOWS FROM THE ROOTS OF THE TREE AND THE VAPORS THEREOF KILL 24
IN CALDILHE THERE GROWETH A MANNER OF FRUIT, AND MEN FIND WITHIN A LITTLE BEAST AS THOUGH IT WERE A LAMB WITHOUT WOOL 58
THE FIRST PEOPLE ENGAGED IN SUCH COSMIC ADVENTURES AS WARFARE AGAINST STONE GIANTS 116
A SATYR. _By Jacob Jordaens_ 122
MEN FEARED THEM, AS EMBODYING THE LONELINESS OF WASTE PLACES 128
THE SWARTHY MEN CALLED PYGMIES 142
THUSNELDA AT THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY OF GERMANICUS INTO ROME. _By C. T. von Piloty_ 172
THE STEEPS OVERHEAD SEEMED FIT ABODE FOR GIANTS AND DWARFS AND GRIFFINS--FOR CITIES OF ENCHANTMENT 206
THE ENCHANTED WOODS OF ROMANCE WITH THEIR GOBLIN GLOOMS AND TALKING TREES FADED FROM THE MINDS OF MEN 216
“BUILD US, O DOUL-KARNAIN,” THEY BEGGED, “A RAMPART BETWEEN US AND THEM” 236
IN ISLANDS MEN PLACED THEIR IDEAL STATES.... TO REACH FELICITY ONE MUST CROSS WATER 254
ROARING FORTIES. _By F. J. Waugh_ 268
THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT ANIMATED SPAIN IN SOME OF THE QUESTS IT FOLLOWED BESIDE THE STILL WATERS OF THE LAKES OF DREAM 314
THE GARGOYLES OF STONE WHICH KEPT WATCH DAY AND NIGHT 338
MARCO TALKS WITH HIS NEIGHBORS
THE TIME: 1295 A.D. THE PLACE: Venice, the Rialto. THE SPEAKER: Marco Polo. THE CHORUS: Citizens of Venice.
_“I fared,” said Marco, “as far as one may---- From Astrakhan to the ports of Cathay, And sailed two years on the Pitch Dark Sea; And something I learned of the ways of man. There is a place that they call Japan, And Russia lies where the north winds be; The plain of Lop is haunted by dragons; Dark are the damsels and fierce the flagons In the Thousand Islands of Spicery.”_
“_Far are these lands and fair is their sheen, But tell us, Polo, what have you seen?”_
_“I saw,” said Marco, “the pagans at masses And Tibetan dogs the size of asses, And oil from the ground, and black stones, blazing. I saw pink pearls from an unknown strand, And ten-pound peaches of China-land, And bales of silk that were past appraising. I saw the Malabar pepper farmers And cannibal sharks subdued by charmers, But the grunting ox was most amazing.”_
“_Much have you seen where the wild capes curve, But tell us, Polo, whom did you serve?”_
_“I served,” said Marco, “the Khan of Khans. His edict runs with the caravans As far as the east is from the west. The Turk and the Hindu hold his charters, He sways Cathaians, Persians, and Tartars, Yet Kublai welcomes the stranger guest. His deeds are writ upon purple pages, A shepherd king but a sage of sages, And his thousand damsels are Asia’s best.”_
“_Him must a thousand matters perplex, But, Polo, speak yet more of the sex.”_
_“The men of Gobi,” said Marco, “require Their dames to sit by the stranger’s fire, And make his favor the tribal boast. Frail are the women in Pin-yang-fu, And delicate quin-sai wenches woo Ambassadors from the Pepper Coast. Though maids with feet as swift as the wind May dance, all bare, for the gods of Ind, The women of Persia please the most.”_
“_Whimsical, Marco, your travel word. Is there aught else that you saw or heard?”_
_“I heard,” said Marco, “but do not know, That Tartar shamans summon the snow, And suns shine not for the Samoyed. In southern countries its fabled horn Means less than its tongue to the unicorn, Which licks its victims until they are dead. Here is a text for songs or sermons: When babes are born to the female Burmans, Their foolish husbands hie them to bed.”_
_Rose, then, a shout from a hundred lips: “Marco, the tar of a thousand trips, Marco the man of a million quips, Marco, Marco, Milioni!” And they who would hold the East in fee, Men of the pitiful midland sea, Nobles and commons, laughed shamelessly. “Which the catcher, and who the coney? What I have seen is truly averred, But what I have heard is--what I have heard!” Thus to himself, with a secret mirth, The only man who had seen the earth._
PREFACE
The book gives a view of the earth and its inhabitants as seen through the haze of distance, whether of space or of time. Its purpose is to present those myths and half-myths of geography which are loosely and yet significantly called travel tales. It treats of various countries and races and animals which are, or were, or might have been. Although their true domain is the imagination, their supposed domain is, or was, somewhere on the earth. The Coasts of Illusion, as glimpsed here, are nowhere the shores of the supernatural.
Always the two tend to merge and the problem has been to keep them apart. The travel tales of the race have grown out of, or become entangled with, myths in which men sought to figure the creation of the world, the journeys of the sun from dawn to darkness, the conflicts of light with storm and night and winter, the high places of the gods and their incarnations and agents. Yet the tales are touched with reality, while the myths are unearthly.
Ulysses tarried among the Phacakians, and these were a cloud people; but he skirted the land of the lotus-eaters, and these were a mundane folk. Who were the lotus-eaters? Achilles fought with Memnon, son of the Dawn, but also with Penthesilea, the Amazon queen. Who were the Amazons? Hercules was of the progeny of Olympian Zeus, but wandering on earth he passed through the land of the pygmies. Who were the pygmies? What reality lies back of the fabulous animals and Deformed Folk that peopled the mountains and deserts?
For thousands of years men accepted the realms and races of prodigy. It was only about a century ago that these disappeared from the maps and natural histories. The frontiers of ignorance had been pushed back so far that the never-never countries dropped off into the sea. There was no longer room for the phœnix to flap its wings, the dragon to hiss and roar, the giants to stalk, the kangaroo-men to hop.
The countries and creatures of legend passed from the scene without the parting word that every passing merits, without even a gesture of farewell. Is it more than a tardy courtesy to summon them back for a word that shall be both appraisal and remembrance?
These are the stories wanderers told in hall when the world was young; and in out-of-the-way places still they tell them, and men believe. These are stories the lad Raleigh heard along wharves where sailors in outlandish garb recited the wonders of countries below the rim of the sea. If one could recapture Raleigh’s boyish faith, and the faith of ages of listeners before him, it might still be possible to behold the King of Is in state beside the menacing ocean, to traverse the streets of the lost Atlantis, to win to the cities of gold which Spain could not find, and to repeople the waste places with their strange inhabitants. So might one achieve the purpose of these pages and regain a picture of things as they were supposed to be.
This is a survey of the world through the stained glass of men’s imaginings.
C. B. F.
[Illustration]
THE COASTS OF ILLUSION
[Illustration]