ON THE SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE MOON

Some spirits appeared overhead, and I heard from there voices like thunder; for their voices thundered just like the claps of thunder which come from the clouds following lightning flashes. I supposed that there were a huge number of spirits who knew the trick of making their voices sound like that. The more simple spirits present with me laughed at them, which very much surprised me. The reason for their laughter was soon revealed, which was that these thundering spirits were not numerous, but only few, and also as small as boys. Another reason was that previously they had struck terror into them by similar thunderings, yet had not been able to do them any harm.

[2] To show me what they were like, some of them came down from the height where they were thundering. I was surprised to see one carrying another on his back, so they approached me as a pair. Their faces were not unattractive in appearance, but longer than those of other spirits. In height they resembled a boy of seven, but were stronger in body; so they were dwarfs. I was told by angels that they were from the moon.

[3] The one who was carried by another came to me, attaching himself to my left side below the elbow. He spoke to me from that position, and said that when they give voice they thunder like that. This frightens spirits who want to harm them, making some of them run away, so that they can go where they want in safety. To prove to me that they could make such a noise, he retreated from me to join a few others, but without going out of sight, and made the same kind of thunder. Moreover, they demonstrated that their voice came out of their abdomen like a belch, and this caused the thunder.

[4] I gathered that this arises from the fact that the inhabitants of the moon do not speak so much from the lungs like the inhabitants of other worlds, but from the abdomen, using some air which collects there. This is because the moon is not surrounded by the same kind of atmosphere as the other worlds. I was informed that the spirits of the moon answer in the Grand Man to the scutiform or xiphoid cartilage,* to which the ribs are connected in front, and from which the linea alba descends, which is the fulcrum of the abdominal muscles. [* Both these terms were formerly in use for what is to-day generally called the sternum.-TR.]