h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A diagram? It is supposed to illustrate some process?

Well, as I said before it shows lots of animals growing out of a mountain with large amphoras, which could be used to illustrate...

Spring? Is this a diagram to go with Spring?

We need a smiley I suspect.

Anything to do with the changing of seasons?

No, nothing to do with seasons, either. There's nothing *growing* out of the mountain, not exactly.

I see plants; are these not growing out of the mountain?

So... Lots of animals coming out of the mountain where they have been hiding? Or because they came in from 'the other side', wherever that may be, and ended up on 'this side'?

Anything to do with dreams?

Or an artistic event in the broader sense (like a zoo -- the artful bit is how to keep different species together happily)?

Spontaneous generation?

Actually, I am getting a bit lost ( doesn't help). Can somebody summarise what we know, what is rather on the right track and what is wrong about these pictures?

Not spontaneous generation. No dreams, and they're only "hiding" in the broadest sense of the word. "Zoo" doesn't quite cut it, either, but it's closer.

To summarise:

Picture one shows a lot of plants, animals, vases, and so on. Nobody's gotten much further than that. It's a diagram more than a picture, and was originally published in a sort of encyclopaedia. The question is mostly one of *what* the things in the picture are.

Picture two is a scientific illustration and shows a cyclops, which is somehow connected to picture one, and an elephant, though there is no elephant in picture one.

The two pictures were made about 100 years apart and in different countries.

Thanks Mala

I'll sleep on it. Maybe I will get a nightly revelation

Is it important that the vases are more at the bottom, animals in the middle and flowers on top of the hill?

No - but it *is* important to not just concentrate on the animals - unless of course just concentrating on the animals helps you

You mean that the vases and plants are important too, or also the hill and the stream behind?

More the vases and plants. The animals are cute, sure, but they're not all there is to the pict- er, diagram.

In truth, the plants are cute too.

Yes, the little oak leaves...

For another clue - you'll never get it if you keep thinking with your brain set to "21st Century".

Oh, that's the problem It's not set to anything -- I simply forgot to switch it on

Do say if you need more clues, everyone

So, 15 and 16th Century then....

(Where are all the others? I see gandalftwin's eyes! Help!! )

A kind of map?