[At this point there is a gap in Mr.Arbuthnot's M.S., so Oro's reflections on the Neutral Nations, if any, remain unrecorded.It continues:]
On our homeward way we passed over Australia, ****** a detour to do so.Of the cities Oro took no account.He said that they were too large and too many, but the country interested him so much that I gathered he must have given great attention to agriculture at some time in the past.He pointed out to me that the climate was fine, and the land so fertile that with a proper system of irrigation and water-storage it could support tens of millions and feed not only itself but a great part of the outlying world.
"But where are the people?" he asked."Outside of those huge hives," and he indicated the great cities, "I see few of them, though doubtless some of the men are fighting in this war.Well, in the days to come this must be remedied."Over New Zealand, which he found beautiful, he shook his head for the same reason.
On another night we visited the East.China with its teeming millions interested him extremely, partly because he declared these to be the descendants of one of the barbarian nations of his own day.He made a remark to the effect that this race had always possessed points and capacities, and that he thought that with proper government and instruction their Chinese offspring would be of use in a regenerated world.
For the Japanese and all that they had done in two short generations, he went so far as to express real admiration, a very rare thing with Oro, who was by nature critical.I could see that mentally he put a white mark against their name.
India, too, really moved him.He admired the ancient buildings at Delhi and Agra, especially the Taj Mahal.This, he declared, was reminiscent of some of the palaces that stood at Pani, the capital city of the Sons of Wisdom, before it was destroyed by the Barbarians.
The English administration of the country also attracted a word of praise from him, I think because of its rather autocratic character.Indeed he went so far as to declare that, with certain modifications, it should be continued in the future, and even to intimate that he would bear the matter in mind.Democratic forms of government had no charms for Oro.
Amongst other places, we stopped at Benares and watched the funeral rites in progress upon the banks of the holy Ganges.The bearers of the dead brought the body of a woman wrapped in a red shroud that glittered with tinsel ornaments.Coming forward at a run and chanting as they ran, they placed it upon the stones for a little while, then lifted it up again and carried it down the steps to the edge of the river.Here they took water and poured it over the corpse, thus performing the rite of the baptism of death.This done, they placed its feet in the water and left it looking very small and lonely.Presently appeared a tall, white-draped woman who took her stand by the body and wailed.It was the dead one's mother.Again the bearers approached and laid the corpse upon the flaming pyre.
"These rites are ancient," said Oro."When I ruled as King of the World they were practised in this very place.It is pleasant to me to find something that has survived the changefulness of Time.Let it continue till the end."Here I will cease.These experiences that I have recorded are but samples, for also we visited Russia and other countries.
Perhaps, too, they were not experiences at all, but only dreams consequent on my state of health.I cannot say for certain, though much of what I seemed to see fitted in very well indeed with what I learned in after days, and certainly at the time they appeared as real as though Oro and I had stood together upon those various shores.
