ith convulsive sobs.

"My companion handed me a black wafer. I took it, it dissolved, a
fierce acridity seemed formed in my mouth, and in an instant I felt
strong and bold.

"The Registeries were offices in the alcove-like openings in the sides
of this very long building. In the same building were the Courts, which
are few, and here the rooms for the reception and storage of supplies
for the City. The Hall of Registeries is prolonged into a series of huge
buildings extending along the walls of the Canal.

"I was led by my unknown friend and Chapman to one of these recesses on
which I recognized a globe of our earth with its continents in relief.
Here upon simple tables were spread great bound books made up of thick
creamy leaves of white paper. These were the Registers. The original
home, planet, world, or star, from which each emigrant spirit had
departed was, as far as possible, determined, and appropriately
recorded. The details of their lives were inquired into, the condition
and history of the sphere they had left examined, and thus by the
revision and comparison of these narratives the history of the various
worlds was in a fair way known, almost as accurately as their present
inhabitants knew them.

"The alcoves of the Registeries were really ample rooms. Cases holding
voluminous records were ranged upon their walls; maps, charts, even
paintings and drawings, as made by the arriving spirits hung upon the
walls, and in broad albums were gathered the portraits, in small size,
of the incarnated persons. The Registeries were young men who, from long
intercourse with the affairs and occupants of each of the different
extra-Martian bodies, whence spirits came, had become familiar with
their languages and circumstances and avocations.

"The keeping, indexing, compiling, illustration, of these extraordinary
records is a difficult and inexhaustible task.

"The results are often reproduced to the Martians in lectures,
bulletins, or in sections of the great newspaper Dia.

"The young men approached us as we entered the room, and after saluting
my guide and also Chapman with the Martian cry, Tintotita, led me to a
chair, and giving me one of the black wafers, whose acidity had a short
time before so vigorously renewed my consciousness, began their inquiry.

"The photograph of each visitor is taken, and a process quite like our
collodion or wet process is used. The portraits are more permanent than
with the perishabl