A CITY ON CALLISTO
BY HENRY GADE
On this month's back cover you will see Frank R. Paul's city of the Callistonion temple builders, the metropolis of Serenis. It is built on a lake surrounded by mountains
CALLISTO is the one satellite of Jupiter which is capable of supporting life which could be compared to that of Earth. It is large enough, and it has a great possibility of possessing an atmosphere like our own in many respects.
Let us voyage in imagination, with the help of artist Paul's vivid brush, to Serenis, the city built on a lake, amid rocky gorges and scenic mountain ranges.
Serenis, startlingly, has much in common with our own Venice. Not only in the fact that much of it is built in aquatic surroundings, but that its peoples, and its arts, are much along the same picturesque, romantic, cultured lines.
Because Callisto is so mountainous, its peoples found it necessary to use the mountain lakes, which are warmed to a pleasant temperature by the volcanic seams underlying the mountain ranges. They built a city beautiful under the languorous influence of their surroundings, and expressed their artistic temperament to the utmost.
Lovely white marble (and colored stone too) was used to construct the dwelling places, which dot the water's surface, and perch along the cliffs and gorges surrounding the lake. They are a queer likeness of Greek, Roman, and Florentine architecture, yet with a weird individuality all their own. They are as beautiful and as graceful as their builders.
The Callistonians are tall, willowy people, sinuous of body and of limb. They have four arms, which are supple and twining, apparently jointed at many points so that they are pliant and vine-like, and not ugly-jointed as are humans.
They seem to have ascended from the reptile family, retaining a leathery-scale type of skin, which is a vivid and arresting blue in color. Their heads are crowned with a great mass and mane of pure white hair which is very striking in its effect.
Their clothing is simple, consisting of a tight bodice, surmounting a flowing, simple, skirt in the case of the females, and a short pantaloon in the case of the males. They wear few ornamentations or affectatious jewelry.
Transportation about the city is either on foot, or in small, round boats made of great gourds which grow naturally on Callisto.
Paradoxically, the people of Serenis are not swimmers, although each one is taught to swim enough to save himself from death by drowning. Only an accident ever sends a Serenite into the water.
Serenis would be a paradise for Earth people, who visit such places as Hot Springs, Mineral Wells, because of the health-giving properties of the water, for Serenis is built on a lake of such water, and the huge fountain that plays in its center is a mineral artesian well which comes from deep in the bowels of Callisto, and, unlike Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park, it erupts continually, supplying the lake on which Serenis is built with a constant supply of fresh water.
There is no rain on Callisto, because the temperature of that world is constant, and temperature change is necessary to precipitation. Therefore, Serenis is unique, because other lakes on that world are subject to stagnation, and only its artesian geyser preserve its dean, sanitary state. In fact, the geyser is a natural sanitation department.
Vegetation on Callisto consists of semi-tropic trees and ferns, and the great gourds whose interior is filled, in a green state, with a juicy, edible pulp, and in its ripened state, with a great quantity of edible nut-like seeds.
Harvesting these gourds, the people of Serenis go into the gorges surrounding the city, and cut them from their anchorage, allowing them to slide into the water. Then they mount the very stable floating "boats" and pole them back to the city. Here they become food supply, perfectly preserved in their own natural shell, and later, by simply cutting off the top, natural boats to provide transportation.
The Serenites are great lovers of music, and they are extremely gifted in a combination of singing and yodeling, which they expertly and artistically employ among the echoing gorges, to produce an eerie and beautiful symphonic tone poem of voices and echoes.
War is unknown on Callisto, its people being amiable and happy, and steeped in artistic pursuits. They have an idyllic existence, and an idyllic temperament that fits into the languor of a world where it never storms.
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