B306 <=> B308 [BTG XXIII Beelzebub’s fourth sojourn, p. 307]

“The observatory, I then saw, had five of these hollows.

“They began, in relation to the horizon, from different places of the surface of the planet occupied by the observatory, but they all met at a small underground common hollow which was something like a cave. From there, the specialists, then called Astrologers, made their observations for the purpose of studying, as I have already told you, the visible presences and results of the reciprocal action of other cosmic concentrations belonging to their own solar system as well as to other systems of the Great Universe.

“They made these observations of theirs through any one of the mentioned hollows which looked out in different directions on to their horizon, according to the given position of their planet relative to the cosmic concentration observed in the process of the ‘common cosmic harmonious movement.’

“I repeat, my boy, that although the chief peculiarity of the observatory constructed there by the three-brained beings of the future Egypt proved not to be new to me, since this principle had also been utilized in my observatory on Mars, with only this difference, that my seven long pipes were fixed not within the planet but on it, nevertheless all their innovations were so interesting in detail that, for any case that might arise, I even made, during my stay there, a detailed sketch of everything I saw, and later even used something of it for my own observatory.

“And as regards the other ‘constructions’ there, I shall perhaps tell you about them in detail sometime later, but meanwhile, I will only say that all these independent constructions which were then not quite finished were situated not far from the observatory itself, and were intended – as I elucidated during my inspection under the guidance of the constructor who accompanied us and who was a friend of one of our tribe – partly for the same purpose of observing other suns and planets of our Great Universe, and partly for determining and intentionally directing the course of the surrounding atmosphere in order to obtain the ‘climate’ desired.