B269 <=> B271 [BTG XXIII Beelzebub’s fourth sojourn, p. 270]

“Thanks to this Teskooano I was sometimes fully able, while seated in my house on Mars, to observe almost everything that proceeded on those parts of the surface of other planets of this solar system, which in the process of what is called the general-system-movement, were at the given time within the sphere of vision of my observatory.

“Well then, my dear boy, while Gornahoor Harharkh was then staying with me as my guest and we were once together observing the existence of these favorites of yours, a certain fact which we happened to notice was the cause of a very serious exchange of opinions between us concerning the three-centered beings of that peculiar planet of yours.

“The result of this ‘exchange of opinions’ of ours was that I undertook to descend onto the surface of that planet and to bring back to the planet Saturn a certain number of the beings called there ‘apes,’ in order to carry out certain elucidating experiments with them concerning the fact we had noticed and which had then surprised us.”

At this point of Beelzebub’s tales, he was given a “Leitoochanbros,” that is, a special metal plate on which is recorded the text of an etherogram received from somewhere or other, the addressee having only to hold it to his perceptive hearing organ to hear everything communicated in it.

When Beelzebub had in this way heard the contents of the Leitoochanbros handed to him, he turned to his grandson and said: