The Totems of Abydos (37 page)

“Are you all right?” asked Rodriguez, again.

“Yes,” said Brenner, angrily.

Some of the Pons looked up at him, through the holes in the hoods, blinking. Their eyes seemed large, and soft.

“This is as far as we are going,” said Rodriguez, “without seeing whom we are with.”

“What do you mean?” asked Brenner.

One of the Pons suddenly squeaked, seized by the arm by Rodriguez.

“Stop!” said Brenner, horrified.

But Rodriguez had his free hand on the hood covering the creature’s head. It squirmed. It tried to hold the hood over its features. “Grab that one!” said Rodriguez, gesturing with his head to another Pon.

“No!” said Brenner. “Stop!”

“He’s a strong little bastard,” said Rodriguez.

“Stop!” said Brenner.

Then Rodriguez had jerked away the hood.

“It may bite!” said Brenner.

But the Pon did not bite. Rodriguez held it now, firmly, by the back of the neck and, with his free hand, forced open its mouth.

“Must you do that?” asked Brenner.

“See?” asked Rodriguez, grinning.

“Yes,” said Brenner.

“No fangs,” smiled Rodriguez.

“It may be poisonous,” said Brenner.

“I doubt it,” said Rodriguez.

The dendition of the Pon was regular, small, and fine.

The other Pons had scurried back, away from Rodriguez and the sled. They stood about, a few feet back.

“Do not be afraid,” said Brenner, soothingly.

Rodriguez released the Pon. Interestingly, it did not run away. It stood near him, looking up at him.

“Do you think you’re going to buy it, or sell it, or something?” asked Brenner.

Rodriguez laughed.

Slavers sometimes force open the mouths of captured free women, as a portion of their assessment. The nature of a female’s dentition can be informative, providing as it does an index to such things as her general health and condition, her accustomed diet, her age, and, even, in some cases, her former socioeconomic class. Sometimes the mouths of women in markets are also forced open but this is usually merely to remind them that they are slaves, as they, subject to the submission consequent upon their condition, may not only not attempt to prevent, but must, upon any appropriate indication, comply with, and abet, all such inquiries, inspections, and examinations.

“You should not have done that,” said Brenner. “You might frighten them. You might make it difficult to win their confidence. You might contaminate the data. You might even be violating some kind of taboo.”

“No,” said Rodriguez. “I know what I am doing. These little bastards have shown up often enough at Company Station without hoods. I checked that with the operator at the gates.”

“The hoods, then, are for our benefit,” said Brenner.

“Apparently,” said Rodriguez.

“Why would they conceal their faces from us?” asked Brenner.

“I’m not sure,” said Rodriguez.

“If they had anything to hide, they surely would not have invited us in,” said Brenner.

“I would think not,” said Rodriguez.

“They may be afraid of us,” said Brenner.

“Possibly,” said Rodriguez.

“Perhaps they are pathologically shy,” said Brenner.

“Perhaps,” said Rodriguez.

“Perhaps it is a custom to welcome guests while hooded?” said Brenner.

“Perhaps,” said Rodriguez.

“Perhaps it is really intended to have its full effect later, in rendering familiar, or unsuspect, a concealment for their females,” said Brenner.

“That is possible,” said Rodriguez. “By hooding all, they might hope to indirectly achieve such a desiderated objective, in an apparently innocent manner.”

On many worlds, of course, and in particular on those on which men were untamed, and proud, it was customary for free women to veil themselves, putatively that their beauty not constitute an irresistible provocation to sexual predation. To be sure, there seemed to be cultural ambiguities in such matters. For example, there was little doubt that veiling was in its way, rather like vulnerability and shyness in a woman, often sexually stimulatory to the male. It tended to suggest that she was a concealed treasure, and to enhance her aspects of remoteness, mystery, and inaccessibility. Besides, were veils not meant to be removed? Accordingly, veiling, the intent of which might seem to be to reduce the temptations which might otherwise overwhelm strong, excitable males, did not always have this effect. Too, it might be noted that the free women on these worlds often lavished great care and ingenuity on these veils, treating them less as defensive opacities, behind which they might hide, than as stimulatory accessories to their desirability. As a note it might be added that slaves on such worlds, and on such worlds, where there are strong men, there are always slaves, were commonly denied veiling. That dignity was not to be theirs. Rather, as was appropriate, given the lowliness and degradation of their condition, let them be shamed, refused the security and honor of the veil. Let their faces be bared, exposed to the gaze of any.

“But we do not really know,” said Brenner.

“No,” said Rodriguez, “but in any event I will not go into the forests with things whose faces I cannot see.”

Brenner looked at the Pon. It was tiny, of course, hardly coming to Rodriguez’s waist. It was fine boned. It seemed childlike. Its head and face were covered with hair, the face’s hair a lighter down. It’s eyes were large. Its hands and feet, as its body, were small. It had five digits on each hand, as Brenner would have expected, from the reports. Its nose was not prominent, but broad and flat. Its forehead sloped slightly backward. Its jaw was slightly prognathous. Its appearance, on the whole, was rather simian. Brenner, like Rodriguez, doubted that it was poisonous. It was regarding Rodriguez quizzically, sometimes blinking with the large eyes. It seemed surprising to Brenner that something like that, which resembled the tiny apes of Thera, was rational, that it could think, to some extent, and speak. To be sure, they lacked metallurgy and native pottery. They did have a culture, of a sorts, however simplistic. They were primitive. They were reputedly totemistic. The totem animal, Brenner recalled, was the Abydian mouse, or Abydian ground git, a tiny, stub-tailed rodent. That seemed fitting for the Pons.

“No hoods! No masks!” said Rodriguez to the Pon. “No hoods! No masks!”

He then lifted the small creature into the air, and shook it, good-naturedly, as one might a child.

“We are friends,” said Rodriguez. “Friends. There are no secrets between us, no masks, no hoods. We will tell one another everything. In the village you will behave as you always do. Do not be different because of us. In time you will pay no attention to us. It will be like we were not there. We want to find out about you. We want to know all about you. You are interesting. We like you. We will be friends. We will give you gifts, beads, pretty glass, nice things. Do you understand?”

The Pon, lifted up, Rodriguez’ hands under its arms, looked down at Rodriguez.

Then Rodriguez set it down, gently.

It then hurried to the others.

“Do you think it understood?” asked Brenner.

“I think so,” said Rodriguez. “These things trade at Company Station.”

“Do you think it is their leader?” asked Brenner.

“They do not have leaders, at least in the sense you are thinking of,” said Rodriguez. “They have little if any social organization. He was the first one I could get my hands on.”

“Look,” said Brenner.

The Pons, one by one, some of them looking away, or down, pulled away their hoods.

“Good! Good!” called Rodriguez to them. “We are friends, friends!”

Brenner thought they were all males, but he was not sure. The features of many were sufficiently fine as to make a mistake in such matters possible. The shapeless, nondescript nature of their garb, too, presented its problems. On the other hand, as they were bipedalian, and mammalian, or mammalian1ike, it seemed that some indications of feminine sexuality, if females were amongst them, ought to manifest themselves in even so inauspicious an environment. Yet he did not note such indications. There might, of course, be very few differences between the sexes of the Pons. Rodriguez had conjectured that they approached the unisexual ideal which was so prized, and yet still so imperfectly attained, on the home world. We can learn much from Pons, thought Brenner. His conjecture, incidentally, that they were all males was, in this case, we might note, correct.

“It seems they are cooperative,” said Brenner. “I am surprised they did not all rush away and leave us here. You may have jeopardized the entire expedition.”

“Not at all,” said Rodriguez. “We have something they want.”

“What is that?” asked Brenner.

“Beads, hard candy, mirrors, buttons, colored glass,” said Rodriguez, “that sort of thing.”

“Why did you insist on the removal of the hoods?” asked Brenner.

“Surely you were curious to see what they looked like?”

“Of course,” said Brenner. “But you could have waited until we knew them better, until we had won their confidence, until we had reached the village.”

“You have never been in a place like the forest, have you?” asked Rodriguez.

“No,” said Brenner.

“I am not going to follow something into the forests whose behavior I cannot interpret,” said Rodriguez.

“The forests are dangerous?”

“I think so.”

“And so you wished to see if they were unusually alert at times, if they were being evasive, if they were frightened.”

“Yes, such things,” said Rodriguez.

“You don’t trust them, do you?” asked Brenner.

“No,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner was silent.

“Too, of course,” said Rodriguez, “it is important to rob them of their anonymity, to individualize them, to reduce them to openness, to make them more helpless, more vulnerable to us.”

Brenner nodded. It was for such reasons, he supposed, as for many others, as well, that on various worlds slaves were denied veiling, that the least nuances of their expressions, in all their helplessness, in all their subtlety and delicacy, would be available to free persons. This contributes, of course, to their control.

Brenner looked at the Pons. All now, were unhooded. They were approximately the same height. They huddled together, watching himself and Rodriguez. Brenner hoped they had not been frightened.

Rodriguez consulted his compass.

“They seem sexless,” said Brenner.

“Back home even the Humblers would stand in awe of them,” said Rodriguez. “They would be on all the circuits, they would be celebrated as heroes of the times, they would be held up as shining examples to youth.”

“Because they are nothing, and have done nothing?” asked Brenner.

“Pretty much,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner suddenly, unaccountably, pitied the youth of the home world. How innocent they were. And how they would be warped and twisted, into what grotesque shapes would they be hammered, what eccentric, pathological, gruesome molds would they be expected to fill, and all to serve the ends of others, mocking them and exploiting them.

Brenner considered the Pons, standing there.

“I do not think I like Pons,” said Brenner.

“I would have thought you would esteem them,” said Rodriguez.

“How is that?” asked Brenner.

“Are they not, for most practical purposes, “sames”?”

“Yes,” said Brenner, guiltily. “I suppose they are.”

“So there,” said Rodriguez.

One of the Pons had come closer now, to look on.

Rodriguez showed him the compass. “See?” he asked. “Pretty?” Then he put the compass back in his pocket. The Pon, simple creature of the forest that it was, of course, would not understand the compass. At best it would seem to it like some sort of toy. Rodriguez then drew forth a sheet of paper from his jacket, on which he jotted something down. He had begun his map. He showed the paper to the Pon. “Paper,” he said. “Paper.”

The Pon looked up at him.

“They are illiterate, of course,” said Rodriguez. He put the paper back in his jacket. He then clapped his hands together, sharply. Brenner was startled. This seemed rude to him. “Ropes! Ropes! Pick up!” called Rodriguez. He clapped his hands together, twice more. The Pons hurried to the ropes.

“Why are you acting like this?” asked Brenner.

“We will teach them who is master,” said Rodriguez.

“You will alienate them,” said Brenner.

“No,” said Rodriguez. “They are only one step above gits, if that.”

“Are you ready?” asked Rodriguez.

“Of course,” said Brenner.

“You are all right?” he asked.

“Of course,” said Brenner. “Why do you ask?”

“I thought, before,” said Rodriguez, “that something might be wrong.”

“No,” said Brenner.

“Weren’t you crying?” asked Rodriguez.