we
destroy such unpleasant visitors." As I looked at the face of the young
child, and called to mind the enormous size of the creature he proposed
to exterminate, I felt myself shudder with fear for him, and perhaps
fear for myself, if I accompanied him in such a chase. But my curiosity
to witness the destructive effects of the boasted vril, and my
unwillingness to lower myself in the eyes of an infant by betraying
apprehensions of personal safety, prevailed over my first impulse.
Accordingly, I thanked Taee for his courteous consideration for my
amusement, and professed my willingness to set out with him on so
diverting an enterprise.

Chapter XVIII.

As Taee and myself, on quitting the town, and leaving to the left the
main road which led to it, struck into the fields, the strange and
solemn beauty of the landscape, lighted up, by numberless lamps, to the
verge of the horizon, fascinated my eyes, and rendered me for some time
an inattentive listener to the talk of my companion.

Along our way various operations of agriculture were being carried on by
machinery, the forms of which were new to me, and for the most part very
graceful; for among these people art being so cultivated for the sake
of mere utility, exhibits itself in adorning or refining the shapes of
useful objects. Precious metals and gems are so profuse among them, that
they are lavished on things devoted to purposes the most commonplace;
and their love of utility leads them to beautify its tools, and quickens
their imagination in a way unknown to themselves.

In all service, whether in or out of doors, they make great use
of automaton figures, which are so ingenious, and so pliant to the
operations of vril, that they actually seem gifted with reason. It
was scarcely possible to distinguish the figures I beheld, apparently
guiding or superintending the rapid movements of vast engines, from
human forms endowed with thought.

By degrees, as we continued to walk on, my attention became roused by
the lively and acute remarks of my companion. The intelligence of the
children among this race is marvellously precocious, perhaps from the
habit of having intrusted to them, at so early an age, the toils and
responsibilities of middle age. Indeed, in conversing with Taee, I felt
as if talking with some superior and observant man of my own years. I
asked him if he could form any estimate of the number of communities
into which the race of the Vril-ya is s