The Arch-preposterous

“When this future essence-friend of mine had my consent, he at once gave the necessary orders to one of his assistants.

“It appeared that for the actualization of what he proposed, various preparations had first to be made.

“First of all his assistants put on Gornahoor Harharkh and myself some special, very heavy suits, resembling those which your favorites call ‘diving suits’ but with many small heads of what are called ‘bolts’ projecting, and when these extremely peculiar suits had been put on us, his assistants screwed up the heads of these bolts in a certain order.

“On the inner side of these diving suits, at the ends of the bolts, there were, it appeared, special plates which pressed against parts of our planetary body in a certain way.

“It later also became quite clear to me that this was necessary, in order that there might not occur to our planetary bodies what is called ‘Taranooranura,’ or, as it might otherwise be said, in order that our planetary bodies should not fall to pieces as usually occurs to sur- and intraplanetary formations of every kind when they happen to come into an entirely atmosphereless space.

“In addition to these special suits, they placed on our heads a ‘something’ resembling what is called a ‘diver’s helmet,’ but with very complicated, what are called ‘connectors’ projecting from them.

“One of these connectors, which was called the ‘Harhrinhrarh,’ meaning ‘sustainer-of-the-pulsation,’ was something long, like a rubber tube. One end of it, by means of complicated appliances on the helmet itself, was hermetically attached to the corresponding place of the helmet for the breathing organs, while the other end, after we
had already entered that strange Hrhaharhtzaha, was screwed to an apparatus there, which was connected in its turn with the space, the ‘presence’ of which corresponded to the second being-food.

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