Read The Totems of Abydos Online
Authors: John Norman
“Let us move on,” said Rodriguez to the nearest Pon, gesturing ahead.
Again the party moved forward.
“You are certain you saw nothing?” asked Rodriguez.
“Yes,” said Brenner. “I am certain.”
“I have it!” said Brenner. “I now know what it was!”
“What?” asked Rodriguez.
“Some days ago I examined a scarp,” said Brenner. He looked about himself. No Pons were close at hand. They had drawn off a bit. It was noon, and the party was resting. “There was something unusual about it, something I could not at the time place, but troubled me.”
“Why are you speaking so softly?” asked Rodriguez.
“It was not something on the scarp, not something there. That is what I noticed, not something there, but that something was not there!”
“I do not understand,” said Rodriguez.
“The Pons are amongstst the most primitive forms of rational, or semirational life, we know of,” said Brenner.
“True,” said Rodriguez.
“They do not even have a native pottery,” said Brenner.
“No,” said Rodriguez.
It might be mentioned here that the Pons did, of course, have a nonindigenous pottery, in the sense of a pottery received in trade from Company Station. Too, of course, they had certain other goods from Company Station, scarps, as we have noted, and, too, naturally, certain other items, for example, pots and kettles.
“Even their form of social organization is primitive,” said Brenner. “They lack chieftains, or kings.”
“It seems so,” said Rodriguez.
“They are utterly simple, utterly primitive,” said Brenner.
“Not really,” said Rodriguez. “They have had contacts with more advanced cultures, for example.” To expand briefly on this we might note that it is difficult for a “primitive society” to remain primitive after it is discovered, because, almost immediately, exchanges occur and influences begin. In this sense, the very investigation of the data tends to contaminate the data. The observer’s presence, so to speak, obtrudes into the data, not simply in his categories, his concepts, his judgments, in his interests, and such, but, even more insidiously, at least from the point of view of an objective inquiry, in his own cultural influence. The very beads he distributes create new values. What he chooses to wear and eat, and how and where he sleeps, may constitute implicit criticisms, and so on.
“They are amongst the most primitive peoples known to science,” said Brenner.
“They are perhaps more advanced than some totemic cultures,” said Rodriguez, “as they are supposed to possess at least the rudiments of an agriculture.”
“A primitive level of agriculture at best,” said Brenner.
“That would seem to be the case,” said Rodriguez.
Some of the Pons on the trek, it might be observed, had supplemented a diet of roots and brush fruit with meal, boiled with water, which practice, of course, tended to corroborate the existence of a native form of agriculture, of some level at least.
“Where would you rank them?” asked Brenner.
“Technologically?” asked Rodriguez.
“Yes!” said Brenner.
“Very low,” said Rodriguez. “For most practical purposes they are a stone-age culture, except, of course, that they do not hunt animals, and do possess something of an agriculture. Too, they can weave, obviously. Certain other limitations in their culture are doubtless by choice, such as the refusal to herd animals, or to use them for food. It is even likely they deny themselves the use of bone implements, because of similar reservations.”
“You see them then as a mix, as being anomalous in some ways?”
“Certainly,” said Rodriguez.
“How do you see them biologically?” asked Brenner.
“That is where in particular I think they are extremely important,” said Rodriguez. “I see them as biologically primitive, as basically unevolved, as, in effect, simplistic simian organisms. In this sense I think they are, in their psychic development, in their rudimentary capacities, in their intellectualistic dispositions, in their world picturings, in their mental outlook, in how they think, and such, at a very primitive level. That is what makes them such a beautiful object of study. They do not even have the mental capacity to borrow and adapt the subtleties of later cultures, and not even the subtleties of mathematics and science, but the subtleties even, say, of heroes and gods, of myths and religions. In this sense, as much or more than culturally, I think of them as being, as I said on the ship, “at the beginning.” Here, in their thought, in their totemism, I hope to find the seeds of civilization, where it came from, how it arose. Here we revisit the earth, as it was, so to speak, before the Garden of Eden.”
“You do regard them as primitive, biologically, and culturally?”
“Of course,” said Rodriguez.
“They trade for their scarps,” said Brenner.
“Of course,” said Rodriguez.
“And for pans and such?”
“Of course,” said Rodriguez.
“What do you think the likelihood would be of their possessing a native metallurgy?” asked Brenner.
“Zero, at best,” grinned Rodriguez.
“You do not think it likely?”
“No,” said Rodriguez. “Now if you were talking about the six-inch Abderan weed snake or the marine slug of Chios that would be different.”
“You do not think it likely?”
“The thought is absurd,” said Rodriguez. “Look at them. Consider them. Their brains are about the size of your fist. They do not even work clay. They do not even have a native pottery.”
“They trade for their scarps,” said Brenner.
“Of course,” said Rodriguez.
“Where do they obtain them?” asked Brenner.
“Company Station,” said Rodriguez.
“I examined a scarp recently,” said Brenner. “It did not bear the company mark.”
“Is that what this is all about?” asked Rodriguez.
“Yes,” admitted Brenner.
“The scarp may not have been marked,” said Rodriguez. “It might have been missed, the stamper malfunctioning. It might have been defective, and rejected by quality control before being marked, but somehow, by intent or otherwise, been included amongstst trade goods. The company might not even mark them all. It may have been received through the company, or through a company employer, and had its source in an independent supplier. It might even have been made in a shop at Company Station by a mechanic, and not even be a company scarp.”
“Of course,” admitted Brenner. “There are many possible explanations.”
They walked on, in silence, beside the sled for a time.
“Do you know the one that had the scarp?” said Rodriguez.
“Yes,” said Brenner. Over the past few days he had become adept at distinguishing amongst the Pons. As was common with the Pons, as with most sorts of creatures, rabbits, gits, sheep, and such, one recognized them at the beginning only by general, obvious characteristics, and then, later, as one grew more familiar with them, one drew finer distinctions. One begins by recognizing sorts, and, later, individuals within the sorts. Many creatures in the galaxy, incidentally, had difficulty in telling the members of Brenner’s and Rodriguez’ species apart. Whereas to a member of their species, they appeared quite different, indeed, obviously so, even so acute, if ponderous, an intelligence as that of a megabregma might confuse them. To be sure, there was not much interest in the galaxy, amongstst most creatures, in telling the members of Brenner’s and Rodriguez’ species apart. Indeed, there was generally not much point in doing so. Whereas Brenner was now adept at telling the Pons apart, he being interested in them, at least to some extent, and having made a serious effort, if only as a scientist, to do so, it must be admitted that Rodriguez, in spite of his considerable intelligence, had given the matter little consideration. He did not have a great deal of interest, certainly at least at present, in individualizing Pons. It did not seem to him important to do so. He regarded them all as rather ineffectual and despicable, and, for most practical purposes, interchangeable. And, in this, Brenner thought he might actually have the most appropriate perspective. For certain purposes of study, one git or slug, so to speak, would do as well as another.
“Which one?” asked Rodriguez.
“That one,” said Brenner.
Brenner was naturally intrigued at Rodriguez’ apparent interest. Whereas Rodriguez had earlier, at least to Brenner’s satisfaction, settled the matter quite adequately, sufficiently accounting for it, appropriately dismissing it for its inconsequentiality, he had not, apparently, at least upon reflection, managed to similarly assuage his own curiosity. It would be something of an anomaly, of course, to find a company object, particularly a manufactured article, an object for sale or trade, which did not bear the company mark. Rodriguez’ interest, of course, once expressed, immediately revived Brenner’s.
“You!” barked Rodriguez.
The Pons looked up, like small animals startled by a sudden, unexpected, possibly dangerous noise, then holding so still and silent as to be almost invisible.
“You!” said Rodriguez. “Yes, you! Come here. Quick! Quick!”
Rodriguez gestured, impatiently.
Reluctantly the Pon approached, its eyes wide like small moons. It was a small, timid creature.
“Do not be afraid,” said Brenner, slowly, clearly, softly, coaxingly, soothingly.
To be sure, Rodriguez could have broken its neck with one hand.
When it was close enough Rodriguez reached out and drew it to him by the robes.
The other Pons watched, curiously. They made no move to intercede for, or to protect or defend, their fellow creature. That was not the way of the Pons. They were not powerful animals, of course, and, too, perhaps, what was one Pon more or less? This sort of reluctance was understood by some on the home world to be a form of cowardice but by many others as a moral sublimity. If offense were wrong so, too, must be defense. Were not all knives sharp? What difference did it make which way the weapons were pointed? Self-defense, then, must be a criminal act, one worthy only of criminals, one by means of which one put oneself exactly on their level. Too, was not such affront in its way a denial to the predator or aggressor of his rights? Benevolence, and love of other life forms, and recognition of the brotherhood of species, was also muchly praised. More than one Humbler saint, for example, had reputedly fed himself to wild beasts lest they go hungry.
Rodriguez pulled the scarp from the little fellow’s belt and looked at it.
“There,” said Rodriguez.
Brenner looked at the scarp. It bore the company mark.
“You made a mistake,” said Rodriguez.
“Yes,” said Brenner, slowly, uncertainly. “I must have made a mistake.”
Rodriguez stuffed the scarp back in the belt of the Pon’s robes. “Go,” said Rodriguez, indicating that it return to its brethren, over to one side.
It lost no time in doing so.
“That is the right fellow?” asked Rodriguez.
“Yes,” said Brenner.
“It seems strange that you should have overlooked so obvious a mark,” said Rodriguez.
“Yes,” said Brenner.
“You made a mistake,” said Rodriguez.
“Yes,” said Brenner. “I must have made a mistake.”
Brenner watched the brush. He could hear movements within it. The hair rose on the back of his neck. He did not have the weapon. Rodriguez, a few moments ago, had taken it suddenly, seizing it up and hurrying down their backtrail. The Pons, those with the sled, and the others, and Brenner, had stopped.
“You seem apprehensive,” Brenner had said to Rodriguez, earlier in the morning.
Rodriguez had not responded.
“The forest is quiet,” Brenner had said.
“It is too quiet,” had said Rodriguez.
“I do not understand,” said Brenner.
“It should teem with life,” said Rodriguez, “but except for a handful of tiny things, some gits, some snakes, some fliers, and such, nothing.
“What is your explanation?” asked Brenner.
“It would seem that our reports on the indigenous fauna must be mistaken,” said Rodriguez.
“It would seem so,” said Brenner.
“There are other possible explanations, of course,” said Rodriguez.
Brenner regarded him.
“Our own passage, for example,” said Rodriguez.
Brenner nodded. They, and even the Pons, would be strangers here. The police, on various worlds, for example, in pursuing bandits, insurgents, and such, in jungles, often carried recordings of animal life with them, birdcalls, insect sounds, simian barkings, and such, indexed to the area and the time of day or night, which they broadcast in their search. In this fashion, their presence might not be belied to their quarry by any sudden or unexpected silencing of the local wildlife.