Original subject: The Cave of the Ancients
(excerpt)I looked in considerable astonishment. At first I could not see the entrance, all I saw was a dark shadow
looking much like a dried-up watercourse, or the stain of minute lichen. Then, as we crossed the ledge, I saw that
there was indeed a crack in the rock face. A big lama grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me into the rock
fissure saying, good-naturedly, "You go first, and then you can chase out any rock devils and so protect
us!" So I, the smallest and least important of the party, was the first to enter the Cave of the Ancients. I
edged inside, and crept round the rock corners. Behind me I heard the shuffle and scrape as the bulkier men felt
their way in. Suddenly the light burst upon me, for the moment almost paralysing me with fright. I stood motionless
by the rocky wall, gazing at the fantastic scene within. The Cave appeared to be about twice as large as the
interior of the Great Cathedral of Lhasa. Unlike that Cathedral, which always was enshrouded in the
dusk(tusmørke), which butter lamps tried vainly to dispel, here was brightness more intense than that of the full
moon on a cloudless night. No, it was much brighter than that; the quality of the light must have given me the
impression of moonlight. I gazed upwards at the globes which provided the illumination. The lamas crowded in beside
me, and, like me, they gazed at the source of light first. My Guide said, "The old records indicate that the
illumination here was originally much brighter, these lamps are burning low with the passage of hundreds of
centuries."
For long moments we stood still, silent, as though afraid of waking those who slept throughout the endless
years. Then, moved by a common impulse, walked across the solid stone floor to the first machine standing dormant
(sovende) before us. We crowded around it, half afraid to touch it yet very curious as to what it could be. It was
dulled with age, yet it appeared ready for instant use - if one knew what it was for and how to operate it. Other
devices engaged our attention, also without result. These machines were far far too advanced for us. I wandered off
to where a small square platform of about three feet wide, with guard rails, rested on the ground. What appeared to
be a long, folded metal tube extended from a nearby machine, and the platform was attached to the other end of the
tube. Idly I stepped on to the railed square, wondering what it could be. The next instant I almost died of shock;
the platform gave a little tremor and rose high into the air. I was so frightened that I clung in desperation to
the rails.
Below me the six lamas gazed upwards in consternation. The tube had unfolded and was swinging the platform
straight to one of the spheres of light. In desperation I looked over the side. Already I was some thirty feet in
the air, and rising. My fear was that the source of light would burn me to a crisp, like a moth in the flame of a
butter lamp. There was a "click" and the platform stopped. Inches from my face the light glowed. Timidly
I stretched out my hand - and the whole sphere was as cold as ice. By now I had regained my composure somewhat, and
I gazed about me. Then a chilling thought struck me; how was I going to get down? I jumped from side to side,
trying to work out a way of escape, but there appeared to be none. I tried to reach the long tube, hoping to climb
down, but it was too far away. Just when I was becoming desperate, there was another tremor, and the platform
started to descend. Hardly waiting for it to touch ground I leaped out! I was taking no risks that the thing would
go up again.
Against a far wall crouched a great statue, one that sent a shiver up my spine. It was of a crouching cat body,
but with the head and shoulders of a woman. The eyes appeared to be alive; the face had a half-mocking,
half-quizzical expression which rather frightened me. One of the lamas was on his knees on the floor, gazing
intently at some strange marks. "Look!" he called, "this picture-writing shows men and cats talking,
it shows what is obviously the soul leaving a body and wandering in the under-world." He was consumed with
scientific zeal, poring over the pictures on the floor - "hieroglyphs" he called them - and expecting
everyone else to be similarly enthused. This Lama was a highly trained man, one who learned ancient languages
without any difficulties at all. The others were poking around the strange machines, trying to decide what they
were for. A sudden shout made us wheel round in some alarm. The tall thin Lama was at the far wall and he seemed to
have his face stuck in a dull metal box. He stood there with his head bent and the whole of his face concealed. Two
men rushed to him and dragged him away from the danger. He uttered a roar of wrath and dashed back!
"Strange!" I thought, "even the sedate, learned lamas are going crazy in this place!" Then
the tall, thin one moved aside and another took his place. So far as I could gather, they were seeing moving
machines in that box. At last my Guide took pity on me and lifted me up to what apparently were "eye
pieces". As I was lifted up and put my hands on a handle as instructed, I saw inside the box, men, and the
machines which were in this Hall. The men were operating the machines. I saw that the platform upon which I had
ascended to the light-sphere could be controlled and was a type of moveable "ladder" or rather a device,
which would dispense with ladders. Most of the machines
here, I observed, were actual working models such as, in later years, I was to see in Science Museums throughout
the world.
We moved to the panel which the Lama Mingyar Dondup had told me about previously, and at our approach it opened
with a grating creak, so loud in the silence of the place that I think we all jumped with alarm. Inside was the
darkness, profound, almost as if we had clouds of blackness swirling about us. Our feet were guided by shallow
channels in the floor. We shuffled (subbet) along, and when the channels ended we sat. As we did so, there came a
series of clicks, like metal scraping against metal, and almost imperceptibly light stole across the darkness and
pushed it aside. We looked about us and saw more machines, strange machines. There were statues here, and pictures
carved in metal. Before we had time to more than glance, the light drew in upon itself and formed a glowing globe
in the centre of the Hail. Colours flickered aimlessly, and bands of light without apparent meaning swirled round
the globe. Pictures formed, at first blurred and indistinct, then growing vivid and real and with three-dimensional
effect. We watched intently...
This was the world of Long Long Ago. When the world was very young. Mountains stood where now there are seas,
and the pleasant seaside resorts are now mountain tops. The weather was warmer and strange creatures roamed afield.
This was a world of scientific progress. Strange machines rolled along, flew inches from the surface of the Earth,
or flew miles up in the air. Great temples reared their pinnacles skywards, as if in challenge to the clouds.
Animals and Man talked telepathically together. But all was not bliss; politicians fought against politicians. The
world was a divided camp in which each side coveted the lands of the other. Suspicion and fear were the clouds
under which the ordinary man lived. Priests of both sides proclaimed that they alone were the favoured of the gods.
In the pictures before us we saw ranting priests - as now - purveying their own brand of salvation. At a price!
Priests of each sect taught that it was a "holy duty" to kill the enemy. Almost in the same breath they
preached that Mankind throughout the world were brothers. The illogicality of brother killing brother did not occur
to them.
We saw great wars fought, with most of the casualties (sårede) being civilians. The armed forces, safe behind
their armour, were mostly safe. The aged, the women and children, those who did not fight, were the ones to
suffer. We saw glimpses of scientists working in laboratories, working to produce even deadlier weapons, working to
produce bigger and better bugs to drop on the enemy. One sequence of pictures showed a group of thoughtful men
planning what they termed a "Time Capsule" (tidskapsel)(what we called "The Cave of the
Ancients"), wherein they could store for later generations working models of their machines and a complete,
pictorial record of their culture and lack of it. Immense machines excavated the living rock. Hordes of men
installed the models and the machines. We saw the cold light spheres hoisted in place, inert radio-active
substances giving off light for millions of years. Inert in that it could not harm humans, active in that the light
would continue almost until the end of Time itself.
We found that we could understand the language, then the explanation was shown, that we were obtaining the
"speech" telepathically. Chambers such as this, or "Time Capsules", were concealed beneath the
sands of Egypt, beneath a pyramid in South America, and at a certain spot in Siberia. Each place was marked by the
symbol of the times; the Sphinx. We saw the great statues of the Sphinx, which did not originate in Egypt,
and we received an explanation of its form. Man and animals talked and worked together in those far-off days. The
cat was the most perfect animal for power and intelligence. Man himself is an animal, so the Ancients made a figure
of a large cat body to indicate power and endurance, and upon the body they put the breasts and head of a woman.
The head was to indicate human intelligence and reason, while the breasts indicated that Man and Animal could draw
spiritual and mental nourishment each from the other. That Symbol was then as common as is Statues of Buddha, or
the Star of David, or the Crucifix at the present day.
We saw oceans with great floating cities, which moved from land to land. In the sky floated equally large craft
which moved without sound. Which could hover, and almost instantly flash into stupendous speed. On the surface'
vehicles moved some inches above the ground itself, sup-ported in the air by some method which we could not
determine. Bridges stretched across the cities carrying on slender cables what appeared to be roadways. As we
watched we saw a vivid flash in the sky, and one of the largest bridges collapsed into a tangle of girders and
cables. Another flash, and most of the city itself vanished into incandescent gas. Above the ruins towered a
strangely evil-looking red cloud, roughly in the shape of a mushroom - miles high.
Our pictures faded, and we saw again the group of men who had planned the "Time Capsules". They had
decided that now was the time to seal them. We saw the ceremonies, we saw the "stored memories" being
fitted into the machine. We heard the speech of farewell which told us - "The People of the Future, if there
be any!" - that Mankind was about to destroy itself, or such seemed probable, "and within these vaults
(hvelv) are stored such records of our achievements and follies (dårskap) as may benefit those of a future race
who have the intelligence to discover it, and having discovered it, be able to understand it."
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