In Chap­ter XXIV of “The Com­ing Race,” the nar­ra­tor describes an expe­ri­ence with the funer­al cus­toms of the advanced under­ground civ­i­liza­tion he’s explor­ing. After dis­em­bark­ing from an air-boat, the nar­ra­tive begins with Aph-Lin, the nar­ra­tor’s host, being approached by a child who invites him to attend the funer­al of a recent­ly deceased rel­a­tive. Seiz­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to avoid an uncom­fort­able meet­ing with Zee and curi­ous about the funer­al pro­ceed­ings of this soci­ety, the nar­ra­tor requests to accom­pa­ny Aph-Lin.

Aph-Lin explains that for his peo­ple, the death of an elder­ly indi­vid­ual, who has lived to its fullest and desires to be reunit­ed with lost loved ones in a bet­ter world, is more a cel­e­bra­tion than a somber event. Depart­ing from the nether world is not shroud­ed in the sacred but approached as a joy­ous fes­ti­val. The nar­ra­tor is thus grant­ed per­mis­sion to par­take in the cer­e­mo­ny.

They pro­ceed to the deceased’s home, where var­i­ous fam­i­ly mem­bers and acquain­tances gath­ered around the body, dis­played on a couch, radi­at­ing peace and a smile that indi­cat­ed a pain­less tran­si­tion. The nar­ra­tor learns that the depart­ed, an elder­ly man well beyond his 130th year, had peace­ful­ly passed away after a dream about his deceased wife, eager­ly antic­i­pat­ing their reunion in the pres­ence of the All-Good.

Atten­tion is drawn to a mys­te­ri­ous, dark, metal­lic appa­ra­tus in the room, emit­ting a rich, sweet scent and adorned with small round holes through which a red light glows. This device, puz­zling the nar­ra­tor, sug­gests tech­no­log­i­cal means of han­dling the body, dis­tinct from Earth­’s bur­ial prac­tices.

As the town’s time-pieces melod­i­cal­ly chime the hour, sig­nal­ing the onset of the cer­e­mo­ny, the mood shifts with the com­mence­ment of more joy­ous music, reflect­ing the pro­found belief in an after­life that is but a hap­py con­tin­u­a­tion of exis­tence. This depic­tion con­trasts sharply with Earth­’s fune­re­al cus­toms, reveal­ing a cul­ture where death is not feared but cel­e­brat­ed as a hope­ful tran­si­tion.

This chap­ter, through its focus on death and the after­life, pro­vides a poignant reflec­tion on the soci­etal val­ues, atti­tudes, and tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ments of the under­ground soci­ety. It stark­ly con­trasts with the more somber atti­tudes toward death in the nar­ra­tor’s world, there­by reflect­ing on the broad­er themes of life, con­ti­nu­ity, and the human con­di­tion across dif­fer­ent civ­i­liza­tions.