"The Coming Race", Chapter XXV, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

5'10" = 178 cm - the text is actually missing the word 'five', it just says 'feet 10 inches", but 4'10" would be entirely too shorter, shorter than most women, and 6'10" would be a giant, probably larger than even most gy, so that can't be right either, given he is so impressed with the size of the gy. Only 5'10" makes sense, so I went ahead and made the correction in my recording.

Regarding Aph-Lin's "law" about questioning our narrator, the author gives us this footnote: Literally "has said, In this house be it requested." Words synonymous with law, as implying forcible obligation, are avoided by this singular people. Even had it been decreed by the Tur that his College of Sages should dissect me, the decree would have ran blandly thus,—"Be it requested that, for the good of the community, the carnivorous Tish be requested to submit himself to dissection."

Robert Owen: a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the co-operative movement.

The picture used is A Banquet in Nero's palace, illustration from 'Quo Vadis', c.1910, by Ulpiano Checa y Sanz.

I use it here because it shows what appears to be the series of smaller tables for guests rather than one giant table. Obviously the Vril would not carry on in the manner of these Romans, but the setting might perhaps be similar.

To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0025