The Natural Sun
Announcements about our sun and its natural conditions
- Chapter 37 -
Private and business houses upon the fourth equatorial belt
Before moving to the actual household, it will be necessary to familiarize ourselves a little with the private dwellings of the people, there being no household without houses. Afterwards we can put the question: "What do houses belonging to these mountain-high people actually look like and what building materials are used?"
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The private dwellings of these people resemble closely those of the solar, central and main belt, being built of stones and wood, except that they are of course proportionately bigger since the people are bigger than on the central equator. But you must not dwell too much on that because on the central belt the emphasis is on splendid height rather than utility. On the other hand the dwellings upon these belts are built according to need rather than splendour. And thus you will not find any building higher than double a man's height at most. There are no galleries or other elevations as we found in the houses of the central and first two equatorial belts, occupancy being restricted to ground level.
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Before looking at the interior set-up however we must first look at the shape of the house and its variable size. The shape will reveal itself as we watch it going up from its foundations, thus pay heed.
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Behold, here in an extensive plain and a new private dwelling is being erected. A rectangular lot four thousand metres long and four hundred metres wide has been allotted. You must not however imagine this as a mathematically perfect rectangle but rather a four hundred metres wide and four thousand metres long track which, although parallel lengthwise in outline is bent inwards at the front and outwards at the back.
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On both sides lengthwise you see the residents build five hundred pillars projected to reach a height of four hundred metres, each pillar having a diameter of fifty metres. You see them start with twenty pillars at the front, whose diameter is smaller than those lengthwise. You see the back closed off.
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You see the builders placing mighty crossbeams over the pillars, at the same time erecting two lines of equally high pillars of lesser diameter within the line of pillars. Watch them again connecting these length and crosswise. And watch them laying fairly strong floorboards, which must be an accurate fit, everywhere over these beams leaving no detectable gaps.
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The floorboards having been laid, now watch how the roof framework is going up. The middle one is higher by half than the outer ones. These are ready. Keep watching! This framework is fixed with a type of board so closely fitting together as to leave no more than a line (3.16mm) between them.
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This work is done. Behold, around the entire building, big stacks of roof tiles are piled up. The colossal people are climbing up and down immense ladders, covering the roof. This is done the same way we saw upon the central equator. The tiles are dark on the inside but look like the finest polished gold on the outside.
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The ends of the roof i.e. width-wise are artistically turned in with this gold sheeting and framed as it were. The tile courses are kept open for fresh air to circulate and to cool the entire building from above.
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Having watched this spiritually, we have arrived at the shape and size of the house, which leaves us to look a little at its interior, then we shall be familiar with the entire living quarters together with its uncomplicated purpose.
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Behold, between the middle pillars from the second pillar, there is a wall of about forty meters height by your measure, which expands in oval form on both sides between the two pillars. Furthermore watch the top of the wall being fitted with soft cushioning. Verily, you shall not take long to guess its purpose. This bench is the place for people to rest after work.
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Between the outer pillars you will also notice some one hundred metres tall half-pillars: "What for?" Just glance up at their tops, covered with all sorts of fruits and you will work it out at once. They are the dining tables for the inhabitants of this belt.
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And now we shall move down to the closed end of our big dwelling which bends acutely outwards. Behold how some sixty metres above ground another rise is built which widens towards the house interior and the middle row of pillars and the top surface joins up with the round wall giving it an oval form.
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Look again how this surface of over one thousand square metres is profusely laid out with soft cushions. What is the purpose of this lofty resting facility? Firstly this is the seat of the house Elder and secondly the podium where the father instructions his whole family.
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Behold, this finalizes our attention to the dwelling erected for those three main purposes - resting, meals and education.
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Are there no houses of business besides these private dwellings? Every private dwelling has on each side of the front, at about four hundred metres distance, two equally large Rondelles (round buildings) consisting of a closed wall and a few round windows. Each Rondelle has a fairly high and wide entrance facing the private houses, but it is roofless. On the inside the walls have all sorts of galleries, not for taking a stroll but for storage of domestic tools.
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The other Rondelle is for food storage and in some respects a kitchen, some fruits upon this belt being cooked before eating. For this purpose inside of this second Rondelle, from the floor up, there is a stove of about one hundred metres height and diameter of about one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty metres. At the centre of this stove is a depression for highly inflammable oil-combustion lit by flints. When the white-hot flame spreads intense heat, the genuine gold pots for cooking fruit are stood around it in a circle until the fruit is soft. That is all of the set-up in the second Rondelle.
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Each Rondelle has a diameter of three thousand metres by your measure. You will ask: "Since we are told at the start that it has closed walls, is provided with a few round windows, whose purpose could be questioned, since the Rondelles are open at the top?"
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These windows are for the draught; for air in this waterlogged belt often is intensely humid, which in the closed rooms could easily cause mustiness or rust or mould on the tools and fruit. Many openings for air will prevent this by keeping the inner rooms dry.
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Since this belt is crossed by many diverse air streams on account of its vast plains, it is clear that the wise inhabitants can put these to good use. Therewith more insight into these people's households.
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To complete our picture of the household in each building I should make you aware of a large animal yard stretching out behind the two Rondelles, proportionate to the grounds. This also is surrounded by a sort of wall which is of a uniform one hundred and forty metres high from the ground up, having a thickness of ten metres being provided with supporting walls also on the outside every two hundred metres
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This yard is designed for an animal that has no like on Earth. However it resembles your elephant with a head like that of your camel and its body that of a cow, with giraffe-like legs, the front legs being about twice the height of its hind legs. The tail consists of a ball of wool, used for the manufacture of people's aprons, this being the only reason for keeping the animal.
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Now that we know what the households upon this belt are like we can look at their domestic regulations, which we shall tackle next time. And so we shall leave it for today.