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The Smoky God


The Smoky God
Willis George Emerson

THE SMOKY GOD

OR

A Voyage to the Inner World



Dedicated
TO
MY CHUM AND COMPANION
BONNIE EMERSON
MY WIFE


"He is the God who sits in the center, on
the navel of the earth, and he is the interpre-
ter of religion to all mankind." -- PLATO.

PART ONE. AUTHOR'S FOREWORD
I FEAR the seemingly incredible story which I am about to relate will be
regarded as the result of a distorted intellect superinduced, possibly, by the
glamour of unveiling a marvelous mystery, rather than a truthful record of the
unparalleled experiences related by one Olaf Jansen, whose eloquent madness so
appealed to my imagination that all thought of an analytical criticism has been
effectually dispelled.
Marco Polo will doubtless shift uneasily in his grave at the strange story I am
called upon to chronicle; a story as strange as a Munchausen tale. It is also
incongruous that I, a disbeliever, should be the one to edit the story of Olaf
Jansen, whose name is now for the first time given to the world, yet who must
hereafter rank as one of the notables of earth.
I freely confess his statements admit of no rational analysis, but have to do
with the profound mystery concerning the frozen North that for centuries has
claimed the attention of scientists and laymen alike.
However much they are at variance with the cosmographical manuscripts of the
past, these plain statements may be relied upon as a record of the things Olaf
Jansen claims to have seen with his own eyes.
A hundred times I have asked myself whether it is possible that the world's
geography is incomplete, and that the startling narrative of Olaf Jansen is
predicated upon demonstrable facts. The reader may be able to answer these
queries to his own satisfaction, however far the chronicler of this narrative
may be from having reached a conviction. Yet sometimes even I am at a loss to
know whether I have been led away from an abstract truth by the ignes fatui of a
clever superstition, or whether heretofore accepted facts are, after all,