the truth was that ozma was thinking of events that had happened many years before in the history of the land of oz. not always had oz been a fairy realm. in those olden times oz had been nothing more than a remarkably beautiful country of rolling plains, wooded hills and rich farm lands. indeed, oz had not been so much different from our own united states, except that it was surrounded on all sides by a deadly desert. it was this desert which prevented curious men from the great outside world from finding their way to oz. for the fumes and gasses that rose from the shifting sands of the desert were deadly poison to all living things, and for a human to have set foot on the desert would have meant instant and terrible death. consequently, all living things avoided the deadly desert, and it is no wonder that oz was so entirely secluded and went unnoticed by the rest of the world for so many long years.