the wings of the inhabitants or the air-boats, of which I shall speak
hereafter. Roads through it were also cut for the transit of vehicles
impelled by vril. These intercommunicating tracts were always kept
lighted, and the expense thereof defrayed by a special tax, to which all
the communities comprehended in the denomination of Vril-ya contribute
in settled proportions. By these means a considerable commercial traffic
with other states, both near and distant, was carried on. The surplus
wealth on this special community was chiefly agricultural. The community
was also eminent for skill in constructing implements connected with the
arts of husbandry. In exchange for such merchandise it obtained articles
more of luxury than necessity. There were few things imported on which
they set a higher price than birds taught to pipe artful tunes in
concert. These were brought from a great distance, and were marvellous
for beauty of song and plumage. I understand that extraordinary care was
taken by their breeders and teachers in selection, and that the species
had wonderfully improved during the last few years. I saw no other
pet animals among this community except some very amusing and sportive
creatures of the Batrachian species, resembling frogs, but with very
intelligent countenances, which the children were fond of, and kept in
their private gardens. They appear to have no animals akin to our dogs
or horses, though that learned naturalist, Zee, informed me that such
creatures had once existed in those parts, and might now be found in
regions inhabited by other races than the Vril-ya. She said that they
had gradually disappeared from the more civilised world since the
discovery of vril, and the results attending that discovery had
dispensed with their uses. Machinery and the invention of wings had
superseded the horse as a beast of burden; and the dog was no longer
wanted either for protection or the chase, as it had been when the
ancestors of the Vril-ya feared the aggressions of their own kind, or
hunted the lesser animals for food. Indeed, however, so far as the horse
was concerned, this region was so rocky that a horse could have been,
there, of little use either for pastime or burden. The only creature
they use for the latter purpose is a kind of large goat which is much
employed on farms. The nature of the surrounding soil in these
districts may be said to have first suggested the invention of wings and
air-boats. The larg