Beelzebubs-Tales-to-His-Grandson-by-G-I-Gurdjieff

sians,' 'Sikitians,' 'Aravians,' and various other names ending in 'ian.'"Yes . . . and now, after so many centuries I am here again in theircontemporary 'center of culture,' this time in the city of Paris"And again it is the same . . . shouting, uproar, laughter, invective . . . justas it was in the city of Babylon, in Koorkalai, and even in Samlios, their firstcenter of culture."Do not these contemporary beings gather to pass the time in a wayunbecoming to three-brained beings, as did the beings of all former periods ofexistence on that ill-fated planet?"During all the time I have been observing these unfortunates, not onlyhave whole peoples and many of their centers of culture disappeared withouta trace but even the very terra firma on which they existed has completelychanged or disappeared from the face of the planet, as happened for exampleto the continent of Atlantis."After Samlios, their next center was established on the continent ofGrabontzi. Have not the peoples inhabiting it also disappeared in the sameway? And if the continent itself has not vanished, at least the place where itscenter lay is now so completely covered with sands that nothing remains butthe desert known as the 'Sahara. '"Again many centuries passed. Their new center was established inTikliamish. What is left of it but a desert, called the 'Black Sands'?"If, by chance, some once famous nation has been spared to the thousandthgeneration, it is now vegetating in complete nothingness, somewhere not farfrom the place where it formerly existed."Centuries have succeeded centuries"I saw their center of culture, the city of Babylon. What has remained ofthis truly great city? A few stones of the