1. FRAGAPATTI said: The voice of Jehovih cometh to me, saying: My Son, appoint thou an assistant chief to sit on thy throne, and go thou around about atmospherea, taking surveyors and inspectors with thee; for thou shalt see with thine own eyes the condition of thousands of millions of spirits in hada.
2. Fragapatti said: In Jehovih's name, I announce Athrava my assistant, God of Mouru. There was great rejoicing in the Council at this. Then came Athrava forward, and ascended Jehovih's throne and sat on the right hand of Fragapatti. Etherean lights fell upon the place from every side, and Fragapatti gathered from the elements and made a crown for Athrava, and crowned him.
3. Officers and workmen were sent to build a conveyance for Fragapatti, and for such attendants as he might take with him. So, the next day, Fragapatti chose his companions, thirty thousand, making Verethragna speaker, and he and they departed for their inspection of hada and the earth.
4. His ship was built without lights or curtains, so they might travel unobserved. First he inspected the plateau of Haraiti, which, prior to this, had never been inhabited; and he found its distance from the earth was equal to ten diameters of the earth; and its east and west and north and south diameters corresponded in size to what the earth would be were it that volume; that is to say, the superfice of the plateau was five hundred and twenty-eight thousand miles in every direction. And in the ratio of the number of mortals on the earth, this plateau would inhabit five hundred and twenty-eight thousand million souls. And yet this was not the thousandth part of the number it could sustain, in fact, within and without.
5. Fragapatti said: Such is Haraiti, O Jehovih. And yet there have been, till now, no spirits to come and inhabit it! Who can survey Thy works, O Father! Who shall fear for the limit of Thy handiwork!
6. Verethragna said: And yet we shall find in the lowest hadas spirits huddled together like bees in a hive. And yet wherefore, O Chief, for is it not so with mortals also? They cluster together in cities and tribes, warring for inches of ground, whilst vast divisions of the earth lie waste and vacant!
7. Fragapatti said: Is this not the sum of the darkness of mortals and of spirits in the lowest realms--They know not how to live? A spider or an ant is more one with the Creator than these!
8. Next they visited Zeredho, six diameters of the earth distant. Here they found a colony of two thousand million spirits, that had been founded by Osire three thousand three hundred years before. But not the same people, but such as came up from the earth afterward. They had a God named Hoab, an atmospherean from the earth, two thousand one hundred years. And he was upright and wise, and of good works most excellent; but knowing nothing of etherea, had no ambition to rise thither. And his content had visited itself on the colony, and they were contented also.
9. Fragapatti said: To remain here forever, is this the extent of thy desires, O Hoab? And Hoab answered him, saying: Yea, Master. What more is life than to reach the highest place and remain there? To which Fragapatti said: Is this the all highest? And Hoab said: Yea, Master. Any place and condition is the all highest, if man make it so. None can attain higher than I; no people higher than my people. We are freed from the earth and hada; and we desire not to return thither, nor to go to any other place.
10. Fragapatti said: Let us walk a little, that I may see thy kingdom. Hoab consented, and they walked along, seeing the inhabitants lying at ease, some amusing themselves weaving threads of light, then unraveling them and weaving them over again; others playing with crystals and lenses and opaque and transparent elements, but not doing anything for another; nor, in fact, needed they, for all were capable of doing for themselves. Now, after they had traveled a while, Fragapatti said: Hast thou not, O Hoab, a desire to return to the plateaux below thee, where the inhabitants p. 188a are in misery and darkness, and bring them into thine own realm? To which Hoab said:
11. Nay, Master. Let them shift for themselves. Even if we helped them up they would be thankless. Nay, my doctrine is: Man is the all highest of all things. The elements are dumb; the worlds are many and wide. Let man choose a corner for himself, and there settle forever. Fragapatti asked: Because a man chooseth a corner, is it necessarily his own? Hoab said: Our place was bequeathed us by our forefathers; of course it is ours, and to remain so forever. Neither suffer we any other spirits to settle in our dominions. Being far away from the rest of the world, we are not much molested.
12. Fragapatti said: How came ye hither? Hoab said: Long ago there came a God hither, named Osire, bringing six thousand million drujas up from the earth. With them he founded a colony here; with factories, colleges, hospitals, and all things necessary to enlighten the people, giving them ample teachers. In course of time, many of the inhabitants migrated away from this place, and it was almost depleted of its people. But the Gods below this sent new supplies of inhabitants, of which we are the second and third installments; so we inherited the place with all its factories and educationals, and other places.
13. Fragapatti said: As ye were raised up by the Gods of other places, would it not give ye joy to raise up others, who are still in darkness? Hoab said: Nay, Master. We are pure and refined; the atmosphere of drujas is unpleasant to us. They would vitiate our own happiness, besides entailing toil and responsibilities upon us. We cannot mix with any people but the refined and holy. We take care of ourselves; let others do the same, and all will be well.
14. Fragapatti said: Who thinkest thou I am, and my people with me? Hoab said: Visitors from some far-off realm, who are either discordant with yourselves, or bent to meddle in the affairs of other peoples. We have had visitors before, and we never grieved when they left us. To which Fragapatti replied:
15. Thou art strong in thy philosophy. Had no nation or people such ambition as this, there would be no content in the world. To be satisfied with one's own self and behavior is to be a God in fact. Hadst thou nothing to fear from immigration coming to thy shore, or to fear from p. 189a some new philosophy undermining thy long-established convictions, thou mightst indeed be the happiest of Gods, and thy people the happiest of people.
16. Hoab said: True! Thou perceivest wisely. O that there was nothing to fear; nothing to dread, forever!
17. Then Fragapatti said: And I declare unto thee, Hoab, that that condition can be attained. For I have seen kingdoms in heaven so fortified. And wert thou and thy people prepared to receive the sacred secrets pertaining thereto, I would most willingly unfold them before thee. Hoab said: Thou art a wise God; tarry thou and teach us.
18. Fragapatti said: I am now on a journey, and cannot remain longer; but, on one condition, I will return hither and disclose these matters, so that never more shalt thou fear for immigration into thy country, nor for any philosophy which any man or God may teach: Exact a promise of secrecy from all thy people. Hoab said: It shall be done.
19. And Fragapatti and his hosts withdrew, and departed out of that plateau, promising to return when notification had been served on his people. But Fragapatti inspected the whole superfice, and found it capable of educating and providing for ten hundred thousand million spirits; whereas, there were but two thousand millions in Hoab's kingdom; and they inhabited only a small corner of the plateau; nevertheless, Hoab laid claim to the whole.
20. After this, Fragapatti descended to the next plateau, the first grade plateau above the earth, called Aoasu, signifying, land and sky world, for the first spirit life after mortal death. Aoasu hath its foundation on the earth, and it undulateth with mountains and valleys, like the earth, having seas over the corporeal seas. And the outer superfice of Aoasu is from twenty to a hundred miles above the earth's surface; and it is habitable within and without, after the manner of all spirit worlds. But the first resurrections were within it and on the earth surface; and the second resurrections, mostly, on its superfice; though all atmospherean plateaux are also made for the second and third resurrections. On the roadway betwixt Aoasu and Zeredho, next ascending, it was that Osire established Vibhraj, which was now so depleted of its people that Fragapatti halted not to examine it, but proceeded to Aoasu direct. (see page 184.)
21. Here lie the mountains of Morn and Eve, and mountains of the Moon and Sun and Stars; chief of which groups are:
22. Ushidaho, Ushidarena, Erezifya, Fraorepa, Ezora, Arezura, Tudae, Bumya, Doitya, Raoidhita, Mazassavao, Autare, a place of light, inhabited by Hura, Lord of Vouta; Ereasho, Vata-gaiko, a place of Uz, signifying torments, because of its darkness.
23. This group of mountains is ninety miles higher than the earth mountains of Jaffeth. South of these are Adarana, Aayana, Isakata, Somya, Kanaka-tafedrhao, Vahra, and the double mountain, Hamanakanna; eight ranges of the round mountains, Fravanku; the four peaks, the Vidwaana.
24. These extend over the earth mountains of Shem, and have an altitude above the earth of one hundred miles. These are the oldest inhabited spirit worlds, since the submersion of Pan, whose spirit worlds were carried up to a higher heaven, which hath since been called Haraiti.
25. Extending east and west lie the group called the Red Men's group: Aezaka, Maenaka, Vakhedrakae, Akaia, Tudhakkae, Ishvakhaya, Draoshisvao, Cairivao, Nanhusmao, Kahayuyu, Autarekanhae, Karayaia, which were the first places in heaven for colonizing the spirits of the I'huan race.
26. The next group lieth to the west and south, which are: Gichindava, I'huana-Varya, Raegamna, Akaya, Asha-cteambana, Urinyovadidhkae, Asnahovao, Ushaoma, Utsagaerenao, Cyamakhama, Cyamaka, Vafrayaotso, Vafrayao, Vorrusha, and Uasoakhao.
27. To the south of this group are the Towering Eagles, which are: Ijatarra, Adhutuvavata, Ceptimavarenao, Cpentodata, Asnavoaya, Kairogakhaivacao, Tauraiosa, Baroyo, Barocrayama, Fraayapoa, Udrya, Usayaokhava, Raevao. All of which groups were named by the Gods and Lords of the intermediate worlds during the time of the Yi-ha language amongst mortals, being named after the amalgamation of the tribes of I'hins, every syllable, in former ages, being one tribe, whereof the Gods have made this testimony to endure from before the time of Fragapatti and Zarathustra, wherein it may be proven to mortals and spirits that this division of the spirit world was revealed to man at the time language was carried to its highest compounding.
28. Besides these mountains in the lowest heavens, there were four thousand others, the names of which were p. 191a duly registered in the libraries of heaven, by Thor and his sub-Gods; but more than two thousand of them were uninhabited, owing to the fact, that Jehovih had not as yet created a sufficient number of people for them. But the mountains above were those, chiefly, where, at the time after Apollo, the false Gods and false Lords sat up kingdoms of their own; and the names of the mountains are also the names they espoused unto themselves.
29. Fragapatti said: Alas, these heavens! Who can measure the vanity of men and angels, that cut loose from the Great Spirit, endeavoring to set up kingdoms on their own account! Their places perish; sorrowful histories! Behold these vagrant spirits, strolling about, or hiding amidst the ruins! Ashamed of their rags, and nakedness! Prowling around; millions of them; hundreds of millions!
30. Verethragna said: I thank Thee, O Jehovih, that I am once again amongst the lowest! Keep me, O Father, amidst this darkness, till I shall never again forget the lowest of my brothers and sisters. I behold Thy Wisdom, O Jehovih! But for these cycles of time, in the dawns of which Thy ethereans can come down to witness the bounden in hell, they would themselves forget the horrors. O that Thou wilt not suffer me to rest till I have helped to raise them up to know Thee, and to be a glory within Thy works!