1541. Acquaintance based on outer characteristics is given by their facial expressions, especially in the province of the eyes, and also by their speech, which is different from other people's speech. It is not made up of sounds, like the languages of our earth's inhabitants, but is a kind of tacit speaking, belonging to a purer atmosphere, which is aimed at [the listener's] mouth. There it enters, then passes through the Eustachian tube, which seems to be their organ of hearing.
One of them spoke with me in that language, so that I would learn about it. It entered between my lips, the tissues of which were poised to receive this different kind of messages. Then it goes inside through the Eustachian tube, then upwards, and is clearly heard. It is a speech much richer and more perfect than one that strikes the ear, conveying many things at once.
1541. So far as external mediums are concerned, knowledge [of each other] is acquired from the face, especially the province about the eyes; and also from their speech, which is distinguished from that of others by not being sonorous like the speech of the inhabitants of our earth, but by being a kind of tacit speech, formed by means of a more subtle atmosphere, which is directed towards the mouth, and enters there, and thus [passes] through the Eustachian tube. This tube, it appears, is their organ of hearing. One of them spoke with me in this kind of speech, that I might know something of its nature. It entered through the lips, the fibers of which are disposed to a diverse receptivity, and thus penetrated through the Fallopian tube, and thus upwards. It was perspicuously perceived, and is much fuller and more perfect than a language addressed to the ear, inasmuch as it conveys at once a greater variety of ideas.
1541. Cognitio ab externis datur a faciebus, cumprimis ab oculorum provincia; tum a loquela eorum, quae distincta est a loquela aliorum, nam non est sonus, qualis loquelae incolarum nostrae telluris, sed est tacita quaedam loquela estque 1
atmosphaerae 2
subtilioris quae 3
dirigitur versus os, et ibi intrat, et sic per tubam Eustachianam 4
, quae, ut apparet, est eorum organum auditus, tali loquela mecum loquutus est unus, ut scirem; intrabat per labia, quae disposita sunt suis fibris ad recipiendas diversitates, et sic penetrat per tubam Eustachianam 5
, et sic sursum, percipitur perspicue, et est loquela plenior et perfectior multo, quam auris, nam plura simul fert.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has loquela, estque
2. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has atmosphaera
3. The Manuscript has subtilioris, quae
4. In the Manuscript Fallopianam in Eustachianam correctum
5. The Manuscript has Fallopiam sed vide annotationem mox supra