Chapter VII: First Impressions
We followed an Alpine path for some four miles, now hundreds of
feet above a brawling stream which descended from the glaciers, and
now nearly alongside it. The morning was cold and somewhat foggy,
for the autumn had made great strides latterly. Sometimes we went
through forests of pine, or rather yew trees, though they looked
like pine; and I remember that now and again we passed a little
wayside shrine, wherein there would be a statue of great beauty,
representing some figure, male or female, in the very heyday of
youth, strength, and beauty, or of the most dignified maturity and
old age. My hosts always bowed their heads as they passed one of
these shrines, and it shocked me to see statues that had no
apparent object, beyond the chronicling of some unusual individual
excellence or beauty, receive so serious a homage. However, I
showed no sign of wonder or disapproval; for I remembered that to
be all things to all men was one of the injunctions of the Gentile
Apostle, which for the present I should do well to heed. Shortly
after passing one of these chapels we came suddenly upon a village
which started up out of the mist; and I was alarmed lest I should
be made an object of curiosity or dislike. But it was not so. My
guides spoke to many in passing, and those spoken to showed much
amazement. My guides, however, were well known, and the natural
politeness of the people prevented them from putting me to any
inconvenience; but they could not help eyeing me, nor I them. I
may as well say at once what my after-experience taught me--namely,
that with all their faults and extraordinary obliquity of mental
vision upon many subjects, they are the very best-bred people that
I ever fell in with.
The village was just like the one we had left, only rather larger.
The streets were narrow and unpaved, but very fairly clean. The
vine grew outside many of the houses; and there were some with
sign-boards, on which was painted a bottle and a glass, that made
me feel much at home. Even on this ledge of human society there
was a stunted growth of shoplets, which had taken root and
vegetated somehow, though as in an air mercantile of the bleakest.
It was here as hitherto: all things were generically the same as
in Europe, the differences being of species only; and I was amused
at seeing in a window some bottles with barley-sugar and sweetmeats
for children, as at home; but the barley-sugar was in plates, not
in twisted sticks, and was coloured blue. Glass was plentiful in
the better houses.
Lastly, I should say that the people were of a physical beauty
which was simply amazing. I never saw anything in the least
comparable to them. The women were vigorous, and had a most
majestic gait, their heads being set upon their shoulders with a
grace beyond all power of expression. Each feature was finished,
eyelids, eyelashes, and ears being almost invariably perfect.
Their colour was equal to that of the finest Italian paintings;
being of the clearest olive, and yet ruddy with a glow of perfect
health. Their expression was divine; and as they glanced at me
timidly but with parted lips in great bewilderment, I forgot all
thoughts of their conversion in feelings that were far more
earthly. I was dazzled as I saw one after the other, of whom I
could only feel that each was the loveliest I had ever seen. Even
in middle age they were still comely, and the old grey-haired women
at their cottage doors had a dignity, not to say majesty, of their
own.
The men were as handsome as the women beautiful. I have always
delighted in and reverenced beauty; but I felt simply abashed in
the presence of such a splendid type--a compound of all that is
best in Egyptian, Greek and Italian. The children were infinite in
number, and exceedingly merry; I need hardly say that they came in
for their full share of the prevailing beauty. I expressed by
signs my admiration and pleasure to my guides, and they were
greatly pleased. I should add that all seemed to take a pride in
their personal appearance, and that even the poorest (and none
seemed rich) were well kempt and tidy. I could fill many pages
with a description of their dress and the ornaments which they
wore, and a hundred details which struck me with all the force of
novelty; but I must not stay to do so.
When we had got past the village the fog rose, and revealed
magnificent views of the snowy mountains and their nearer
abutments, while in front I could now and again catch glimpses of
the great plains which I had surveyed on the preceding evening.
The country was highly cultivated, every ledge being planted with
chestnuts, walnuts, and apple-trees from which the apples were now
gathering. Goats were abundant; also a kind of small black cattle,
in the marshes near the river, which was now fast widening, and
running between larger flats from which the hills receded more and
more. I saw a few sheep with rounded noses and enormous tails.
Dogs were there in plenty, and very English; but I saw no cats, nor
indeed are these creatures known, their place being supplied by a
sort of small terrier.
In about four hours of walking from the time we started, and after
passing two or three more villages, we came upon a considerable
town, and my guides made many attempts to make me understand
something, but I gathered no inkling of their meaning, except that
I need be under no apprehension of danger. I will spare the reader
any description of the town, and would only bid him think of
Domodossola or Faido. Suffice it that I found myself taken before
the chief magistrate, and by his orders was placed in an apartment
with two other people, who were the first I had seen looking
anything but well and handsome. In fact, one of them was plainly
very much out of health, and coughed violently from time to time in
spite of manifest efforts to suppress it. The other looked pale
and ill but he was marvellously self-contained, and it was
impossible to say what was the matter with him. Both of them
appeared astonished at seeing one who was evidently a stranger, but
they were too ill to come up to me, and form conclusions concerning
me. These two were first called out; and in about a quarter of an
hour I was made to follow them, which I did in some fear, and with
much curiosity.
The chief magistrate was a venerable-looking man, with white hair
and beard and a face of great sagacity. He looked me all over for
about five minutes, letting his eyes wander from the crown of my
head to the soles of my feet, up and down, and down and up; neither
did his mind seem in the least clearer when he had done looking
than when he began. He at length asked me a single short question,
which I supposed meant "Who are you?" I answered in English quite
composedly as though he would understand me, and endeavoured to be
my very most natural self as well as I could. He appeared more and
more puzzled, and then retired, returning with two others much like
himself. Then they took me into an inner room, and the two fresh
arrivals stripped me, while the chief looked on. They felt my
pulse, they looked at my tongue, they listened at my chest, they
felt all my muscles; and at the end of each operation they looked
at the chief and nodded, and said something in a tone quite
pleasant, as though I were all right. They even pulled down my
eyelids, and looked, I suppose, to see if they were bloodshot; but
it was not so. At length they gave up; and I think that all were
satisfied of my being in the most perfect health, and very robust
to boot. At last the old magistrate made me a speech of about five
minutes long, which the other two appeared to think greatly to the
point, but from which I gathered nothing. As soon as it was ended,
they proceeded to overhaul my swag and the contents of my pockets.
This gave me little uneasiness, for I had no money with me, nor
anything which they were at all likely to want, or which I cared
about losing. At least I fancied so, but I soon found my mistake.
They got on comfortably at first, though they were much puzzled
with my tobacco-pipe and insisted on seeing me use it. When I had
shown them what I did with it, they were astonished but not
displeased, and seemed to like the smell. But by and by they came
to my watch, which I had hidden away in the inmost pocket that I
had, and had forgotten when they began their search. They seemed
concerned and uneasy as soon as they got hold of it. They then
made me open it and show the works; and when I had done so they
gave signs of very grave displeasure, which disturbed me all the
more because I could not conceive wherein it could have offended
them.
I remember that when they first found it I had thought of Paley,
and how he tells us that a savage on seeing a watch would at once
conclude that it was designed. True, these people were not
savages, but I none the less felt sure that this was the conclusion
they would arrive at; and I was thinking what a wonderfully wise
man Archbishop Paley must have been, when I was aroused by a look
of horror and dismay upon the face of the magistrate, a look which
conveyed to me the impression that he regarded my watch not as
having been designed, but rather as the designer of himself and of
the universe; or as at any rate one of the great first causes of
all things.
Then it struck me that this view was quite as likely to be taken as
the other by a people who had no experience of European
civilisation, and I was a little piqued with Paley for having led
me so much astray; but I soon discovered that I had misinterpreted
the expression on the magistrate's face, and that it was one not of
fear, but hatred. He spoke to me solemnly and sternly for two or
three minutes. Then, reflecting that this was of no use, he caused
me to be conducted through several passages into a large room,
which I afterwards found was the museum of the town, and wherein I
beheld a sight which astonished me more than anything that I had
yet seen.
It was filled with cases containing all manner of curiosities--such
as skeletons, stuffed birds and animals, carvings in stone (whereof
I saw several that were like those on the saddle, only smaller),
but the greater part of the room was occupied by broken machinery
of all descriptions. The larger specimens had a case to
themselves, and tickets with writing on them in a character which I
could not understand. There were fragments of steam engines, all
broken and rusted; among them I saw a cylinder and piston, a broken
fly-wheel, and part of a crank, which was laid on the ground by
their side. Again, there was a very old carriage whose wheels in
spite of rust and decay, I could see, had been designed originally
for iron rails. Indeed, there were fragments of a great many of
our own most advanced inventions; but they seemed all to be several
hundred years old, and to be placed where they were, not for
instruction, but curiosity. As I said before, all were marred and
broken.
We passed many cases, and at last came to one in which there were
several clocks and two or three old watches. Here the magistrate
stopped, and opening the case began comparing my watch with the
others. The design was different, but the thing was clearly the
same. On this he turned to me and made me a speech in a severe and
injured tone of voice, pointing repeatedly to the watches in the
case, and to my own; neither did he seem in the least appeased
until I made signs to him that he had better take my watch and put
it with the others. This had some effect in calming him. I said
in English (trusting to tone and manner to convey my meaning) that
I was exceedingly sorry if I had been found to have anything
contraband in my possession; that I had had no intention of evading
the ordinary tolls, and that I would gladly forfeit the watch if my
doing so would atone for an unintentional violation of the law. He
began presently to relent, and spoke to me in a kinder manner. I
think he saw that I had offended without knowledge; but I believe
the chief thing that brought him round was my not seeming to be
afraid of him, although I was quite respectful; this, and my having
light hair and complexion, on which he had remarked previously by
signs, as every one else had done.
I afterwards found that it was reckoned a very great merit to have
fair hair, this being a thing of the rarest possible occurrence,
and greatly admired and envied in all who were possessed of it.
However that might be, my watch was taken from me; but our peace
was made, and I was conducted back to the room where I had been
examined. The magistrate then made me another speech, whereon I
was taken to a building hard by, which I soon discovered to be the
common prison of the town, but in which an apartment was assigned
me separate from the other prisoners. The room contained a bed,
table, and chairs, also a fireplace and a washing-stand. There was
another door, which opened on to a balcony, with a flight of steps
descending into a walled garden of some size. The man who
conducted me into this room made signs to me that I might go down
and walk in the garden whenever I pleased, and intimated that I
should shortly have something brought me to eat. I was allowed to
retain my blankets, and the few things which I had wrapped inside
them, but it was plain that I was to consider myself a prisoner--
for how long a period I could not by any means determine. He then
left me alone.
Erewhon : Chapter VIII - In Prison
Erewhon