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the still faintly discernible legend ‘E. A. Poe. American. 1809–1849’; when it was opened it was found to contain a text of black type inscribed ‘Tales and Histories’. It was a wonderful revelation, since it was the first relic of that unknown civilisation; unfortunately it is also likely to be the last. If all the earth were glass, as the saying goes, we would still look in vain. The significance of ‘Tales and Histories’ is immense, therefore, as the unique record of a lost race.
    The eminence and status of the author are not in doubt. The name, for example, was not difficult to interpret. Poe is an abbreviation of Poet, and by common consent the rest was deciphered: E. A. Poe = Eminent American Poet. It seems clear enough that the writers of America enjoyed a blessed anonymity, even in the Age of Mouldwarp. The word ‘poet’ is known to all of us, but as there are no chants or hymns in ‘Tales and Histories’ we believe the term was applied indiscriminately to all writers of that civilisation. This particular text has been preserved because of its historical content, not because it was the material for song and dance.
    Certainly E. A. Poet has described the characteristics of the American empire with great precision. Its inhabitants dwelled in very large and very old houses which, perhaps because of climatic conditions, were often covered with lichen or ivy. In many respects the architecture of these ancient mansions conformed to the same pattern; they contained libraries and galleries, chambers of antique painting and long corridors leading in serpentine fashion to great bolted doors. Their rooms were characteristically large and lofty, with narrow pointed windows and dark floors of the wood named ‘oak’. They also included innumerable stair-cases and cellars; the passages were lit by candelabra, although it was customary for the owner of the house to carry a flaming torch when walking upstairs. One eminent family, the Ushers, were fortunate enough to possess vaults in which they could bury their dead without the inconvenience of a church service. Indeed from the evidence of the Poet, the American people had no established or organised religion; they seem to have possessed a great terror of the night and darkness, like many primitive races, but there was an evil deity which they chose to propitiate with elaborate ceremonies and rituals. In one of the Poet’s historical accounts we find a reference to the ‘palace of the fiend, Gin’; this of course is related to Ijin, who, in the stories of the eastern earth, is an imp or demon. We have discovered the name of an essay by the Poet, ‘The Imp of the Perverse’, which was no doubt a catechism or devotional study. On occasions such as this we recognise, with some distress, how much has been lost to us.
    The greatest fear of the Americans, however, seems to have been that of premature burial. This anxiety was related to the superstition, known as Cry-o-gene, which taught that the soul could be trapped within the confines of its body by lowering its temperature; it was believed that the frozen spirit could not fly out of its nest. No. There is no cause for laughter. The landscape of America was monotonous and forbidding; its seasons of cold were prolonged beyond endurance and there was more ‘night’ than ‘day’.
    This may account, in certain respects, for the striking appearance of its inhabitants. The Americans had pale countenances, with thin lips and large eyes; their hair was generally long and silken. It seems likely, from the evidence of this history, that they were all of distant aristocratic lineage; one of our readers has suggested that they were descended from some original clan or household, which might account for their marked and peculiar characteristics. We are informed by the learned Poet that they were a highly nervous people, who suffered from a morbid acuteness of their faculties. They experienced continually ‘a vague feeling of