THE COASTS OF ILLUSION
Reading edition
THE BOYHOOD OF RALEIGH By Sir John Millais
THE COASTS OF ILLUSION
A Study of Travel Tales
BY
CLARK B. FIRESTONE
With Drawings by
RUTH HAMBIDGE
“Westward of Valhalla grows a plant called The mistletoe; it seemed too young to swear.”
—Frigg
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
MCMXXIV
THE COASTS OF ILLUSION
Copyright, 1924, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America
First Edition
CONTENTS
PAGE
Marco Talks with His Neighbors ix
Preface xi
CHAPTER
I The World That Was 1
II The Earth Itself 5
III Inanimate Nature 14
IV The Animal Kingdom 27
V The Fabulous Beasts 49
VI Fable upon Wings 68
VII The Dragon 79
VIII Denizens of the Deep 89
IX The Peoples of Prodigy 103
X The Satyrs 121
XI The Pygmies 132
XII The Amazons of Legend 151
XIII The Amazons of History 169
XIV The Folk of Tradition 190
XV The Horizon Lands 201
XVI Lands of Legend 223
XVII Islands of Enchantment 251
XVIII The Terrible Ocean 262
XIX The Sargasso Sea 274
XX Atlantis 281
XXI The Gilded Man 298
XXII The Dream Quests of Spain 312
XXIII The Fabric of Illusion 334
XXIV The Travel Tales of Mankind 348
XXV The Gains of Fable 371
Bibliography 379
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Boyhood of Raleigh. By Sir John Millais Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
A Voyage to These Strangely Peopled Countries of the World’s Yesterdays Would Be a Voyage Along the Bays, Gulfs, and Promontories of the Human Mind in Its States of Dream 2
Christopher Columbus at the Court of Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella of Castile. By V. von Brozik 10
According to Tradition, a Putrid Stream Flows from the Roots of the Tree and the Vapors Thereof Kill 24
In Caldilhe There Groweth a Manner of Fruit, and Men Find Within a Little Beast as Though It Were a Lamb Without Wool 58
The First People Engaged in Such Cosmic Adventures as Warfare Against Stone Giants 116
A Satyr. By Jacob Jordaens 122
Men Feared Them, as Embodying the Loneliness of Waste Places 128
The Swarthy Men Called Pygmies 142
Thusnelda at the Triumphal Entry of Germanicus into Rome. By C. T. von Piloty 172
The Steeps Overhead Seemed Fit Abode for Giants and Dwarfs and Griffins—for Cities of Enchantment 206
The Enchanted Woods of Romance with Their Goblin Glooms and Talking Trees Faded from the Minds of Men 216
“Build Us, O Doul-Karnain,” They Begged, “A Rampart Between Us and Them” 236
In Islands Men Placed Their Ideal States.... To Reach Felicity One Must Cross Water 254
Roaring Forties. By F. J. Waugh 268
The Things of the Spirit Animated Spain in Some of the Quests It Followed Beside the Still Waters of the Lakes of Dream 314
The Gargoyles of Stone Which Kept Watch Day and Night 338