[ssf] And in the spring I shed my skin in the spring i shed my skin, it blows away with the changing wind ...

[ta republique]

  ... in that Empire, the Art of Cartography
  attained such Perfection, that the Map
  of a single Province, covered the space
  of an entire City, and the Map of the Empire
  the entirety of a Province ...

  ... in the course of Time, these extensive Maps
  were found somehow wanting, and consequently
  the College of Cartographers, evolved a Map
  of the Empire, that was of the same Scale
  as the Empire, and indeed coincided with it
  point for point ...

  ... succeeding Generations, less attentive
  to the Study of Cartography than their Forebears
  came to judge a Map of such Magnitude as Useless
  and not without Irreverence, they abandoned it
  to the rigors of the Sun and the Rain ...

  ...in the western Deserts, tattered Map Fragments
  may still be found, Sheltering an occasional
  Beast or Beggar ...

  ... throughout the Land, no further Relics
  of the Disciplines of Geography, are thought
  to now exist ...


-- Suarez Miranda

  Viajes de varones prudentes,
  Libro IV,Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658