The Coming Race Read online

  Chapter X.

  The word Ana (pronounced broadly 'Arna') corresponds with our plural'men;' An (pronounced 'Arn'), the singular, with 'man.' The word forwoman is Gy (pronounced hard, as in Guy); it forms itself into Gy-ei forthe plural, but the G becomes soft in the plural like Jy-ei. They havea proverb to the effect that this difference in pronunciation issymbolical, for that the female sex is soft in the concrete, but hard todeal with in the individual. The Gy-ei are in the fullest enjoyment ofall the rights of equality with males, for which certain philosophersabove ground contend.

  In childhood they perform the offices of work and labour impartiallywith the boys, and, indeed, in the earlier age appropriated to thedestruction of animals irreclaimably hostile, the girls are frequentlypreferred, as being by constitution more ruthless under the influence offear or hate. In the interval between infancy and the marriageable agefamiliar intercourse between the sexes is suspended. At the marriageableage it is renewed, never with worse consequences than those which attendupon marriage. All arts and vocations allotted to the one sex are opento the other, and the Gy-ei arrogate to themselves a superiority in allthose abstruse and mystical branches of reasoning, for which they saythe Ana are unfitted by a duller sobriety of understanding, or theroutine of their matter-of-fact occupations, just as young ladies in ourown world constitute themselves authorities in the subtlest points oftheological doctrine, for which few men, actively engaged in worldlybusiness have sufficient learning or refinement of intellect.Whether owing to early training in gymnastic exercises, or to theirconstitutional organisation, the Gy-ei are usually superior to the Anain physical strength (an important element in the consideration andmaintenance of female rights). They attain to loftier stature, and amidtheir rounder proportions are imbedded sinews and muscles as hardyas those of the other sex. Indeed they assert that, according to theoriginal laws of nature, females were intended to be larger than males,and maintain this dogma by reference to the earliest formations of lifein insects, and in the most ancient family of the vertebrata--viz.,fishes--in both of which the females are generally large enough to makea meal of their consorts if they so desire. Above all, the Gy-ei have areadier and more concentred power over that mysterious fluid or agencywhich contains the element of destruction, with a larger portion of thatsagacity which comprehends dissimulation. Thus they cannot only defendthemselves against all aggressions from the males, but could, at anymoment when he least expected his danger, terminate the existence of anoffending spouse. To the credit of the Gy-ei no instance of their abuseof this awful superiority in the art of destruction is on record forseveral ages. The last that occurred in the community I speak of appears(according to their chronology) to have been about two thousand yearsago. A Gy, then, in a fit of jealousy, slew her husband; and thisabominable act inspired such terror among the males that they emigratedin a body and left all the Gy-ei to themselves. The history runs thatthe widowed Gy-ei, thus reduced to despair, fell upon the murderess whenin her sleep (and therefore unarmed), and killed her, and then enteredinto a solemn obligation amongst themselves to abrogate forever theexercise of their extreme conjugal powers, and to inculcate thesame obligation for ever and ever on their female children. By thisconciliatory process, a deputation despatched to the fugitive consortssucceeded in persuading many to return, but those who did return weremostly the elder ones. The younger, either from too craven a doubt oftheir consorts, or too high an estimate of their own merits, rejectedall overtures, and, remaining in other communities, were caught up thereby other mates, with whom perhaps they were no better off. But the lossof so large a portion of the male youth operated as a salutary warningon the Gy-ei, and confirmed them in the pious resolution to which theypledged themselves. Indeed it is now popularly considered that, by longhereditary disuse, the Gy-ei have lost both the aggressive and defensivesuperiority over the Ana which they once possessed, just as in theinferior animals above the earth many peculiarities in their originalformation, intended by nature for their protection, gradually fade orbecome inoperative when not needed under altered circumstances. I shouldbe sorry, however, for any An who induced a Gy to make the experimentwhether he or she were the stronger.

  From the incident I have narrated, the Ana date certain alterations inthe marriage customs, tending, perhaps, somewhat to the advantage of themale. They now bind themselves in wedlock only for three years; at theend of each third year either male or female can divorce the other andis free to marry again. At the end of ten years the An has the privilegeof taking a second wife, allowing the first to retire if she so please.These regulations are for the most part a dead letter; divorces andpolygamy are extremely rare, and the marriage state now seemssingularly happy and serene among this astonishing people;--the Gy-ei,notwithstanding their boastful superiority in physical strength andintellectual abilities, being much curbed into gentle manners by thedread of separation or of a second wife, and the Ana being very much thecreatures of custom, and not, except under great aggravation, likelyto exchange for hazardous novelties faces and manners to which theyare reconciled by habit. But there is one privilege the Gy-ei carefullyretain, and the desire for which perhaps forms the secret motive of mostlady asserters of woman rights above ground. They claim the privilege,here usurped by men, of proclaiming their love and urging their suit;in other words, of being the wooing party rather than the wooed. Such aphenomenon as an old maid does not exist among the Gy-ei. Indeed itis very seldom that a Gy does not secure any An upon whom she sets herheart, if his affections be not strongly engaged elsewhere. However coy,reluctant, and prudish, the male she courts may prove at first, yet herperseverance, her ardour, her persuasive powers, her command over themystic agencies of vril, are pretty sure to run down his neck intowhat we call "the fatal noose." Their argument for the reversal of thatrelationship of the sexes which the blind tyranny of man has establishedon the surface of the earth, appears cogent, and is advanced with afrankness which might well be commended to impartial consideration.They say, that of the two the female is by nature of a more lovingdisposition than the male--that love occupies a larger space in herthoughts, and is more essential to her happiness, and that thereforeshe ought to be the wooing party; that otherwise the male is a shy anddubitant creature--that he has often a selfish predilection for thesingle state--that he often pretends to misunderstand tender glancesand delicate hints--that, in short, he must be resolutely pursued andcaptured. They add, moreover, that unless the Gy can secure the An ofher choice, and one whom she would not select out of the whole worldbecomes her mate, she is not only less happy than she otherwise wouldbe, but she is not so good a being, that her qualities of heart are notsufficiently developed; whereas the An is a creature that less lastinglyconcentrates his affections on one object; that if he cannot get theGy whom he prefers he easily reconciles himself to another Gy; and,finally, that at the worst, if he is loved and taken care of, it is lessnecessary to the welfare of his existence that he should love as wellas be loved; he grows contented with his creature comforts, and the manyoccupations of thought which he creates for himself.

  Whatever may be said as to this reasoning, the system works well for themale; for being thus sure that he is truly and ardently loved, and thatthe more coy and reluctant he shows himself, the more determinationto secure him increases, he generally contrives to make his consentdependent on such conditions as he thinks the best calculated to insure,if not a blissful, at least a peaceful life. Each individual An has hisown hobbies, his own ways, his own predilections, and, whatever they maybe, he demands a promise of full and unrestrained concession to them.This, in the pursuit of her object, the Gy readily promises; and as thecharacteristic of this extraordinary people is an implicit venerationfor truth, and her word once given is never broken even by the giddiestGy, the conditions stipulated for are religiously observed. In fact,notwithstanding all their abstract rights and powers, the Gy-ei are themost amiable, conciliatory, and submissive wives I have ever seen evenin the happiest households above ground. It is
an aphorism among them,that "where a Gy loves it is her pleasure to obey." It will be observedthat in the relationship of the sexes I have spoken only of marriage,for such is the moral perfection to which this community has attained,that any illicit connection is as little possible amongst them as itwould be to a couple of linnets during the time they agree to live inpairs.