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other earthly species. Not one of them seemed to know what fear was.
Suddenly John stood frozen in his tracks.
Before him swayed a large serpent with a remarkable, glittering body. He had
stepped upon it and now expected the bite of the reptile at any moment. It
twisted and turned, baring its sharp teeth.
Dazed with terror, he did not even think of stepping back so as to free the
snake from his weight and perhaps escape its revenge.
The luminously streaked body now entwined itself around his legs and down
again; but the serpent did not bite, it only moaned.
A cry from Flitmore finally brought John to his senses. He sprang aside, and
the reptile, freed from the weight of his heavy foot, glided noiselessly and
slowly away.
"Really, even the most poisonous creature seems to have lost its terrors
here," exclaimed Schulze. "You should run into such a serpent on the earth,
John! You'd never come out of it unharmed."
The company now walked out into the glittering savanna;
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but they halted in astonishment, fear and, at the same time, fascination.
What monstrous animals were these, grazing before their eyes! Mammoth-like
elephants, the unicorns of fabulous memory, buffalos and giraffes, camels,
huge bears, spotted and streaked tiger-cats, panthers and leopards, lions and
wolves, sheep and goats all meandered about amongst each other and peacefully
chewed the translucent grasses or reached up for fruits from the high shrubs
and trees at the edge of the forest.
What a multifarious herd this was, scattered over the vast plain!
These creatures showed such a striking similarity to the designated earthly
species that our friends were not in the least perplexed about giving them the
corresponding names;
on the other hand, they did reveal a number of distinctly different features,
particularly in that they seemed to represent a higher, nobler stage, or as
Mitzie expressed it: it was the animal life of the earth, in part with its
extinct species, in an idealized, perfected form.
"Shall we risk marching through them?" asked Munch-hausen.
"Forward!" commanded Lord Flitmore. "We are threatened with no danger from
these beasts."
But Hank remarked: "This planet increasingly justifies the name we gave it at
first sight. Is it not a paradise beyond the dreams of the wildest
imagination?"
XL
A NIGHT IN PARADISE
LIKE a fairy dream were the wanderings of our friends through this
flower-laden garden of Eden.
They soon lost the slightest fear of touching even the large and
carnivorous-looking animals, stroking them, to which they responded
understandingly and with a certain gentleness, be it that they softly licked
the friendly hand or that they bent head or trunk in recognition of these
strange friends. Even the nimblest, the most muscular and massive of these
creatures restrained themselves so carefully in their movements, that you
could see in this a conscious care not to inflict injury.
Had any one of these mammoths wanted to give vent to some temperamental show
of spirit with his trunk, as he might towards his comrades or kin, then even
Munchhausen's solid bulk would have been hurled to the ground in a twinkling.
But all these animals knew how to behave themselves.
The second sun was beginning to set the first had disappeared beyond the
horizon an hour ago when it occurred to our friends to pitch camp.
The fruits of the forest had so lastingly appeased hunger and thirst that even
the Captain had not once emphasized the need of a meal during the whole long
journey, which had been accomplished mostly in leaps. And he was one of the
most zealous jumpers, getting the greatest fun out of sailing over the high,
broad backs of the largest colossi.
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Even during camp-pitching he showed himself still unwearied of engaging in
this exhilarating sport; for right around the camping ground wandered a few
huge mammoths.
John and Hank set up the tent, while the others watched the circus performance
Munchhausen was giving, more for his own amusement than for the entertainment
of his companions.
Loud
Bravos!
and stormy applause rewarded his most successful leaps.
The star number of the performance, however, was a trick which he did towards
the end, and quite unintentionally, for it was not called for in his program!
He had taken a position behind an enormous bull elephant and jumped up in
order to leap over the full length of the colossus.
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