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magical theory. There was first the High House, then four (later
six, last ten) 'Houses of Houses'; and to each of these was
attached a varying number of ordinary houses. The High House was
the central shrine of the whole archipelago, and must be
separately described.
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V.
OF THE HIGH HOUSE OF ATLAS,
OF ITS INHABITANTS, AND OF THEIR
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS,
AND OF THE LIVING ATLA.
The High House was separated from its nearest neighbor by over
twenty miles of sea. Its diameter was about an half-mile and its
height four miles. It had no plains at the base, and its cliffs
went absolutely sheer and smooth into the water. It was in shape
a flattish cylinder, but the top broadened into a pointed knob,
somewhat in the style of St. Basil's at Moscow. There was not a
trace of vegetation, which by the way was despised by the
Atlanteans. A child would pick a flower contemptuously thinking
"You cannot even move about", or pet it as an English degenerate
woman does a dog. The only entrance was by an orifice at the top.
But the base was tunneled so that from every house was a channel
for the Zro which having been brought to the highest perfection
was thus transferred to headquarters. The receptacle at the base
being far below the earth, and the Zro further heated by
friction, it seethed continually into a bluish or purplish smoke.
This was the sole sustenance of the inhabitants of the High
House. In early days the old High House, in an island since
destroyed by order of the Atla, had been called the House of
Blood, the inhabitants subsisting only on blood sucked from the
living. The improvements in Zro had changed all that; but the
idea was the same, to live on the Quintessence of Life. Hence
while the 'houses' ate and drank Zro, the High House drank its
vapour. No children were born in it, and none below the rank of
High Priest dwelt there.
Except for one matter which was never thought of, though
constantly spoken, the inmost mystery of the High House was the
'Living Atla'. This had many names, 'Wordeater', 'Unshaven'
(because the razors of Zro were turned on its hair), 'Fireheart',
'Beginning and End' and so on: but especially a word I can only
translate as 'To Her', a defective pronoun existing only in the
dative. What the Living Atla really was, is a secret of secrets.*
We know it only from its epithets, its veils. Thus it was 'That
Black which makes black white'. It was 'twenty-six feet high and
fifteen feet across--Oh my Lords, it is the essence of the
Incommensurable!' It was 'the wife of Zro', 'the heart of Zro',
'desire of Zro', 'the Atla that eats Atlas', 'the swallower up of
her own house', 'the pelican', 'the fire-nest of the Phoenix',
according to the greatest of the poets. And the burden of his
hymns of worship was that it must be destroyed.
It was impossible to approach the Atla without being instantly
sucked up and devoured by it. This was the greatest death, and
ardently desired by all. The favour was accorded only to those
who discovered improvements in Zro, or otherwise merited signal
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