The Bovadium Fragments, page 2
Language B, for which much the most extensive material is available, has now been almost entirely deciphered and interpreted. The accomplishment of this task, long regarded as hopeless, is due to the labour of scholars working on the improbable, but in the result fruitful, guesses of Rotzopny and Dwarf, put forward 35 years ago. It was Rotzopny who first said: ‘Let us assume that Language B, that of the higher culture, was actually related to our own, and see where that leads us.’ It did not in fact lead anywhere, until Dwarf observed that the linear script used in formal epigraphy was evidently related to our own alphabet, but that the resemblance was greatly increased when it was noted that the Vastians had written everything backwards, so that words of language B must be held to a mirror in order to discover their connexion, if any, with those of our present tongue.
In this way the meaning of a number of basic words was soon established, and we may here neglect the debate that continues between those who hold that the Vastians actually spoke backwards, and those who assert that they merely wrote backwards, and being left-handed proceeded from left to right. Much more work was required before the relations between the different styles of writing were established. They are now roughly divided into types E, C, and F: the epigraphic, the cursive, and the so-called formal. C is careless, usually hideous and unskilled, and the relations of its letters to style E are largely obscured. F provides one of the chief curiosities of Vastian culture. Few examples of this style have any beauty; but the professional scribes who used it achieved great skill, writing in regular compact hands of astonishing if somewhat lifeless uniformity.
In spite of this painstaking study our knowledge of language A remains very defective. It does not respond to the Rotzopny–Dwarf treatment, except in so far as its vocabulary contains a number of words similar to those of B, from which no doubt they were borrowed as the culture of the B-people became dominant. Until the discovery of the Fragments here published no useful bilingual texts had come to light. It was known that such things had existed, but the few specimens found were too brief and obscure to afford any assistance. Such texts were probably never produced in great numbers, since, naturally enough, the superior B-people would take little interest in the writings of the A-people; while the latter, as soon as they had begun to acquire the B-language, would abandon the archaic productions of their own primitive culture to the care of antiquarian scholars.
It will be at once perceived, therefore, that the ‘Bovadium Fragments’ have at least an exceptional linguistic interest. The interest of their contents is small; but as Dr. Gums points out, they offer two bilingual passages, one of considerable extent. These are still being studied.
SAREVELK.
* * *
These texts, the publication of which has been entrusted to me, as admittedly the chief expert in the Vastian language B, I have called the Bovadium Fragments for reasons which will be obvious to readers. Their order is determined by their contents. There are three fragments: F I, II, and III. F I appears to be the first leaf (all that has so far been found) of a chronicle or legend in language A. Of this F II is in my opinion clearly a translation, possibly somewhat expanded, into language B. Even in the present inadequate state of our knowledge of A it is evident that the opening part of F II closely agrees with F I; while it is notable that F II and F III present all names, as well as a number of other words, in forms belonging to language A. These are usually marked as alien elements by underscoring. Further, F III contains two chants, one in A and the other in B, while the context suggests that the second (in B) is a version or paraphrase of the former.
Dr. Sarevelk has spoken of the special interest that this has for linguistic scholars, and I will make only one further observation on this point. Even at the late period of F II and F III language A was not entirely forgotten, or no translation could have been made. That it was obsolescent, and known fully only to a few obstinate survivors of the A-people, is, however, revealed by the curious partial translation of the childish verses of the ‘witty’ Pius, which were clearly originally composed in A. This suggests that at the time of the production of F II, for the amusement, no doubt, of A-people, these now needed assistance in interpreting phrases in the ‘elder tongue’.[4]
Passages and words in this tongue have necessarily for the present been presented in a mere transcription. Language B, the ‘popular’,1 has been translated; but your editor has taken the liberty of improving its rude and clumsy style and presenting a smooth and connected narrative, even at the risk of being criticized by some of the younger scholars for offering renditions that may in places appear bold and conjectural. Of the contents of these documents, dismissed somewhat hastily by my learned colleague, I will say no more, until readers have had the opportunity of perusing them.
GUMS.
Editorial note on the introductory remarks of Doctor Sarevelk and Doctor Gums.
The name Bovadium, bestowed on these fragments by Dr. Gums (and derived from the opening sentence of Fragment I) is found in the draft manuscript M (pp. xxi–xxii) in a fuller form, Vadum Bovinum, these being the Latin (i.e. ‘Language A’) noun meaning ‘shallow water, ford’ and the adjective bovinus, ‘pertaining to oxen’, thus the equivalent of Old English Oxenaford ‘ford for oxen’, modern Oxford.
The names of the learned Doctors will be found on inspection to conceal, by being written backwards, robust terms of disparagement in modern English. One other scholar of the Bovadium Fragments, a Dr. Sugob, is named, but his opinions do not appear in any text. The name Vasti is once found written Vâsti, indicating pronunciation of Vâ as in ‘varlet’, and the name is certainly to be explained as ‘Varsity’, a once frequent clipped form of ‘University’. In draft texts the name was not Vasti but Kadmi, and this is clearly Academy, which Dr. Gums, in his footnote given above, interpreted as an unknown word referring to ‘the inner fortress of Vasti’.
A draft text of the foreword to the fragments, written by Dr. Gums, begins with material that my father subsequently dropped:
Investigation of the prehistoric remains in this island, begun barely a hundred years ago by a few adventurous enthusiasts, has only recently aroused general interest. Popular tradition, it is true, peopled the land ‘once upon a time’ with a race of giants who seem to have been busily employed in transporting large quantities of stone to inaccessible regions, and in excavating vast pits and tunnels for no ascertainable purpose. But the discovery fifty years ago of some fragmentary inscriptions roused the hope that some genuine information might at last be obtained, more interesting perhaps than such specimens of the artefacts, mostly hideous, as had so far been casually unearthed. Two difficulties delayed this hope. The centres of the ‘lost culture’, as it was somewhat rashly termed, were in remote regions, often in marshes, or in deep forests teeming with those intractable wild animals cats, and dogs. The rare inscriptions and written documents proved indecipherable. Courage and enthusiasm overcame, to some extent, the first obstacle. The second seemed hopeless. Even when the expedition to Kadmi (which we know now to have been called Bovadium) discovered several inscriptions and a number of documents they remained useless. Kadmi as some may remember was selected partly because of almost superstitious awe in which the site was regarded in the country round.
Dr. Sarevelk’s remarks on the ‘formal’ style of writing found in the Bovadium Fragments, that ‘the professional scribes who used it achieved great skill, writing in regular compact hands of astonishing if somewhat lifeless uniformity’, arose from his first acquaintance with typing and printing, as indicated by a pencilled note of my father’s in the margin of one of the typescripts.
FRAGMENT I
[Note. The beginning of Fragment II is a rendering of this text into English.]
Urbs antiqua fuit Bovadium, ubi in aulis academiae vetustis multi studebant artibus, docti et discipuli.Via lata mediam urbem transibat, ex oriente in occidentem progrediens. Nihilominus diu tranquilla urbs manebat, et pace longa fruebantur incolae, laici et togati: horum sane nonnulli, ut ferunt, dormitabant in umbraculis suis. Olim autem nescioquis Daemonum secreta in officina machinas machinatus est nefarias, quibus nomen indidit Motores. Vulgus autem genus quoddam earum immane appellabat Motorem Bum.
Extemplo e latebris egressa haec monstra ingentia irruerunt in Bovadium et cum strepitu rotarum et magno ex intestinis foetore volvebantur per urbem; equos in fugam conjiciebant et pedestres venabantur in viis. Tum vir quiddam facetiis inter academicos nobilis exclamavit in hunc modum:
Unde venit fremitus?
Numquid adest Motor Bus?
Foetor fu! haud dubium
Indicat Motorem Bum.
Implet nunc in Cornethi
Terror me Motoris Bi.
Bo Mortori clamitabo,
Ne Motore caeder a Bo.
Heu fugaci victimae
Parce, parce, Motor Be!
Mox autem, agminibus Motorum adeo multiplicatis ut titubarent aulae academicae, haec addidit:
Dixerat. Innumeri
Aderant Motores Bi.
Iam complebat omne forum
Copia Motorum Borum.
Miseri qui vivimus
Cincti Bis Motoribus!
Domine defende nos
Contra hos Motores Bos!
Deus autem preces eius non exaudivit; at prolem maiorem continenter propagabant Motores, quia (turpe dictu) pars magna civium Bovadii his monstris hosp
[Here the fragment ends. It is written in a large irregular hand on both sides of a single leaf. Fragment II is in a second formal hand, small and astonishingly regular, written on one side only of five further leaves, found nearby but not attached to F I.]
* * *
Editorial note on Fragment I
In the original verses of Alfred Godley (p. xvi above) line 5 reads Implet in the Corn and High, these being colloquial shortenings of the names Cornmarket Street and High Street, which meet in a crossroads in the centre of Oxford. This is the form of the line as it appears in the text of the verses in Fragment II. These colloquialisms have been shortened further to the form in Cornethi (Corn et hi [high]) in the text in Fragment I.
Of Fragments I and II Doctor Gums remarked (see p. 7 above): ‘F I appears to be the first leaf (all that has so far been found) of a chronicle or legend in language A. Of this F II is in my opinion clearly a translation, possibly somewhat expanded, into language B. Even in the present state of our knowledge of A it is evident that the opening part of F II closely agrees with F I. That [language A] was obsolescent … is revealed by the curious partial translation of the childish verses of the “witty” Pius which were clearly composed originally in A.’
FRAGMENT II
There was an ancient city called Bovadium, where in the time-honoured halls of the academy many men, both learned and pupils, pursued the liberal Arts.
A wide street, the Via Maxima, crossed the city, being indeed of old a great highway by which men had travelled from the east to the western parts of the realm. Nonetheless the city was at this time quiet, and the inhabitants, both learned and lay, had long enjoyed peace; indeed it was said that in the academy many slumbered among their books.
But it came to pass that a Daemon[1] (as popular opinion supposed) in his secret workshops devised certain abominable machines, to which he gave the name Motores. Among them was a kind, especially huge, that became known to the vulgar by the inelegant title Motor Bus. One day, emerging suddenly from their hiding-places, these monsters rushed into Bovadium, and with a din of wheels and great stench from their intestines they rolled through the city, putting horses to flight, and hunting pedestrians in the streets.
Hearing of this, one Pius,[2] well-known in the academy for his wit and skill in rhyme, composed these lines:
What is this that roareth thus?
Can it be a Motor Bus?
Yes, the smell and hideous hum
Indicat Motorem Bum!
Implet in the Corn and High
Terror me Motoris Bi:
Bo Motori clamitabo
Ne Motore caeder a Bo –
Dative be or Ablative
So thou only let us live:
Whither shall thy victims flee?
Spare us, spare us, Motor Be!
This rhyme, it is said, was chiefly intended as a jest for the amusement of his fellows, ridiculing the vulgar name of the monsters; for Pius himself had not as yet been troubled by them. But when, not long afterwards, the throngs of the Motores were so increased that the very halls of the academy were shaken, he added the further lines:
Thus I sang; and still anigh
Came in hordes Motores Bi,
Et complebat omne forum
Copia Motorum Borum.
How shall wretches live like us
Cincti Bis Motoribus?
Domine, defende nos
Contra hos Motores Bos!
The prayer of Pius was not answered. Indeed the Motores continued to bring forth an ever larger progeny; for (shame to relate) many of the citizens harboured the monsters, feeding them with the costly oils and essences which they required, and building houses for them in their gardens. For the Daemon promised to each separately that any Motor which he so tended would become his servant, and would bear him with great speed wherever he wished; and thus he would outstrip all other men, and he would, moreover, be rid for ever of the labour of walking. And to the consiliarii[3] of the city the Daemon said: ‘Build now great pavilions for the Motores Bi, and behold! they will carry the citizens through the city, and into the city, and out of the city swiftly; and so any man will be able to dwell wherever he has a mind, even out in the beautiful country, and yet reach the place of his work more punctually than those who live in the narrow streets and walk like animals.’
Soon, therefore, the stench of the Motores rose above the steeples of the city, and the din of their passing shook the halls and houses to their foundations. Men were rocked in their beds, but this did not induce sleep.
And daily the tumult increased, for the monsters had also been harboured in other towns, whose inhabitants rushed to Bovadium, or passed roaring through it, heedless of its inhabitants, or its academy, or even of its emporia.[4]
Then many citizens remembered the words of Pius, and they were no longer amused, saying openly that these Motores were ruining the city; but always they laid the chief blame on those who came from other towns. For most even of those who cried the loudest now had Motores of their own; and at that time the greatest anxiety of the citizens was still how to deal with them when they were not rolling on their wheels. Therefore they grudged the room taken up by strangers; for they themselves could no longer leave their own monsters idle in the squares and streets all day, until having finished drinking (or whatever other purpose had brought them into the town) they wished at last to roll home.
They began, therefore, to debate the ‘Traffic Problem’, not meaning (as it appears) the making and selling of Motores, honourable occupations approved by the Daemon, but the performance by the monsters of the function for which they were constructed, rolling along roads. Many Planners then arose, who proposed this plan and that; but the only plan that was never put forward in any debate was that the Motores should be restricted or even prohibited. For at heart men were enamoured of the Motores; and the secret wish of every man was that he alone should possess a Motor and ride it at ease, but other men should go on foot and preserve the peace. Indeed at that time (while Motores could still move about the country) men were for ever riding here and there looking for peace, which their Motores destroyed as soon as they found it. Any man who could not afford a Motor of his own in which he could go in search of peace, envied those who could; and some sold their children into slavery, or anything else they could spare, and offered gold to the Daemon, if he would provide them with Motores faster than those owned by their neighbours, so that they could find peace before their neighbours got there. And since the Motores proved to be as short-lived as they were voracious, and those who had once kept one wished always for a successor, nothing came of the debates; for no one would listen to any plan that might hinder the supply of new monsters.
Therefore, highly pleased, the Daemon saw to it that his agents produced more and more Motores; and he laughed, for no one seemed yet to have perceived the fraud that he had practised. He had promised speed; and he had promised ease and the saving of time. But as for speed: before long the Via Maxima was packed with an unceasing stream of Motores crawling so slowly from halt to halt that a man on foot could (like an animal) walk its whole length and back to find a ‘mounted’ friend only ten yards further on his way, while the horn of his Motor trumpeted in vexation. And as for ease: the ‘owners’ now had a multitude of cares (tending the ailments of the monsters, and seeking places where to leave them) which consumed most of their time to no purpose.
It is true that there were not a few who had ceased to govern their Motores, but had become their servants, finding their chief pleasure in waiting on them. Such men cared very little what their Motores did, so long as their skins shone and they purred. Indeed on the days formerly set aside for prayers and rites in the temples many would now wheel their Motores out upon a platform before their houses and there tend them and worship them, prostrate upon the ground. On these days the Motores looked indeed as if prepared for a great ceremony, but their ‘owners’ were content with the dirty garments of slaves.
There remained, however, many, not yet so besotted, who in their innocence expected the Motores to earn their keep; and they were disappointed. For they discovered that if they proposed to ‘go by Motor’, they might indeed (when fortunate) ‘go’, but they could do nothing else: on the way they could neither think nor speak nor look aside; and when (if still more fortunate) they arrived they were exhausted; for they were consumed by anxiety, either to avoid being trapped immovably in a press of other Motores, or if they found a freer road to escape violent death. For those who had purchased ‘speed’ now often sat for hours looking at the unsavoury hinder-end of a Motor in front, and so great a fury was engendered in them that, when released, they rushed headlong like madmen, slaying any fools on foot that they met, or crashing recklessly into rival Motores. In this way thousands were dismembered or burned to death.
