25. NOTE.
The circumstances connected with the late sudden and distressing
death of Mr. Pym are already well known to the public
through the medium of the daily press. It is feared that the few
remaining chapters which were to have completed his narrative, and
which were retained by him, while the above were in type, for the
purpose of revision, have been irrecoverably lost through the accident
by which he perished himself. This, however, may prove not
to be the case, and the papers, if ultimately found, will be given to
the public.
No means have been left untried to remedy the deficiency. The
gentleman whose name is mentioned in the preface, and who, from
the statement there made, might be supposed able to fill the vacuum,
has declined the task—this for satisfactory reasons connected with
the general inaccuracy of the details afforded him, and his disbelief
in the entire truth of the latter portions of the narration. Peters,
from whom some information might be expected, is still alive, and a
resident of Illinois, but cannot be met with at present. He may
hereafter be found, and will, no doubt, afford material for a conclusion
of Mr. Pym's account.
The loss of the two or three final chapters (for there were but two
or three) is the more deeply to be regretted, as, it cannot be doubted,
they contained matter relative to the Pole itself, or at least to regions
in its very near proximity; and as, too, the statements of the
author in relation to these regions may shortly be verified or contradicted
by means of the governmental expedition now preparing for
the Southern Ocean.
On one point in the Narrative some remarks may be well offered;
and it would afford the writer of this appendix much pleasure if
what he may here observe should have a tendency to throw credit,
in any degree, upon the very singular pages now published. We
allude to the chasms found in the island of Tsalal, and to the whole
of the figures upon pages 182, 183, 184, 185.
Mr. Pym has given the figures of the chasms without comment,
and speaks decidedly of the indentures found at the extremity of the
most easterly of these chasms as having but a fanciful resemblance
to alphabetical characters, and, in short, as being positively not such.
This assertion is made in a manner so simple, and sustained by a
species of demonstration so conclusive (viz., the fitting of the projections
of the fragments found among the dust into the indentures
upon the wall), that we are forced to believe the writer in earnest;
and no reasonable reader should suppose otherwise. But as the
facts in relation to all the figures are most singular (especially
when taken in connexion with statements made in the body of
the narrative), it may be as well to say a word or two concerning
them all—this, too, the more especially as the facts in question have,
beyond doubt, escaped the attention of Mr. Poe.
Figure 1, then, figure 2, figure 3, and figure 5, when conjoined
with one another in the precise order which the chasms themselves
presented, and when deprived of the small lateral branches or arches
(which, it will be remembered, served only as means of communication
between the main chambers, and were of totally distinct character),
constitute an Ethiopian verbal root—the root unclear
“To be shady”—whence all the inflections of shadow or darkness.
In regard to the “left or most northwardly” of the indentures in
figure 4, it is more than probable that the opinion of Peters was correct,
and that the hieroglyphical appearance was really the work of
art, and intended as the representation of a human form. The delineation
is before the reader, and he may, or may not, perceive the
resemblance suggested; but the rest of the indentures afford strong
confirmation of Peters's idea. The upper range is evidently the
Arabic verbal root unclear “To be white,” whence all the inflections
of brilliancy and whiteness. The lower range is not so immediately
perspicuous. The characters are somewhat broken and disjointed;
nevertheless, it cannot be doubted that, in their perfect state,
they formed the full Egyptian word unclear, “The
region of the south.” It should be observed that these interpretations
confirm the opinion of Peters in regard to the “most northwardly”
of the figures. The arm is outstretched towards the south.
Conclusions such as these open a wide field for speculation and
exciting conjecture. They should be regarded, perhaps, in connexion
with some of the most faintly-detailed incidents of the narrative;
although in no visible manner is this chain of connexion complete.
Tekeli-li! was the cry of the affrighted natives of Tsalal upon discovering
the carcass of the white animal picked up at sea. This also
was the shuddering exclamation of the captive Tsalalian upon encountering
the
white materials in possession of Mr. Pym. This also
was the shriek of the swift-flying,
white, and gigantic birds which issued
from the vapoury
white curtain of the South. Nothing
white
was to be found at Tsalal, and nothing otherwise in the subsequent
voyage to the region beyond. It is not impossible that “Tsalal,” the
appellation of the island of the chasms, may be found, upon minute
philological scrutiny, to betray either some alliance with the chasms
themselves, or some reference to the Ethiopian characters so mysteriously
written in their windings.
“I have graven it within the hills, and my vengeance upon the dust
within the rock.”
THE END.
