On Blue's waters

He came to me only slowly, clearly very conscious (as I was myself) that I had shot at him a moment before; and very conscious, too, that I still held the slug gun. I laid it aside and spoke to him, and although I no longer remember just what it was I said, it must have been effective; before long his head was between my hands, as it had sometimes been when we two were alone in the sloop upon the wide, wide sea. I talked to him until the day ended and the stars appeared, while stroking his muzzle and rubbing his ears; and no doubt a great deal of it was nonsense; one thing impressed me, however, and I should record it here. These, I believe, were my exact words: “You thought I was gone, didn’t you, Babbie? Well, I just about was. Poor Babbie! Poor, poor Babbie! You thought I was dead.”

At which he nodded.

I went a-hunting today for the first time since Hari Mau brought me here. It might be more accurate to say that I watched the others hunt, since I killed nothing. But then, neither did they.

These people hold cattle sacred (as I may have mentioned before), seeing the embodiment of Great Pas in the bulls and that of Echidna in the cows. Out of regard for these deities, they will not eat beef or knowingly wear or possess any leather items made from the skins of cattle. When they sacrifice cattle, as they do almost daily, the entire carcass is consumed by the altar fire.

The result of all this is that cattle are raised here only for religious purposes, and although there was a good supply as long as there were frozen embryos from the landers to implant, their numbers have fallen so low of late that the priests are seriously concerned. Since the gods cannot be seen here as they used to be in the Sacred Windows of the Long Sun Whorl, the priests feel it absolutely necessary that their symbols be seen as often as possible. Thus no sooner had some farmers reported wild cattle than a party of eager volunteers was recruited to capture them. It was a delicate operation, since the sacred animals could not be harmed or even made to suffer any indignity.

We rode out about an hour after shadeup, located the herd: without much trouble, and surrounded it, turning back the animals that tried to bolt by riding at their shoulders and flourishing yellow flags embroidered in scarlet thread with quotations from the Writings. Or rather, as I ought to have said, from what are called the Sacred Books here; these are rather different, I believe, from the Chrasmologic Writings we knew back in Old Viron.

They were generally effective, however, although we lost one heifer and a horse was gored. When we had tired the most rebellious and had the herd together, a holy man approached it on foot, hung every animal with garlands, put a noose of red and yellow rope over the head of each, and led them away, nine head plus three carves. They will be kept at the temple until they are tame enough to be permitted to wander at large. The priests say that will be very soon.

Before I described our cattle hunt, I should have given some reason for including it; but to write the truth, I am not sure I had any at the time. It had occurred that day and my mind was full of it, and that is all; but when I think about the walk back to the sloop with Babbie, I can see that it fits in well enough. He had begun to revert to the wild state, as the cattle had. Like the holy man, I was able to retame him because I meant him no harm.

After chewing Oreb’s quill for a minute or two, I have decided to take the analogy further. It should prove amusing, and may even be enlightening.

The inhumu had told me that we human beings were the cattle of his kind. They drink our blood in preference to the blood of animals merely because they prefer it (this is what he said), just as we prefer the milk of cattle to that of goats. Various other animals give milk too: pigs, dogs, and sheep, for example. Yet we do not even try to milk those.

The more intelligent an animal is, the more difficult it is to tame. I am not going to offer that as an opinion, because I am convinced that it is a fact. Let us consider a progression, beginning with the hus. Hus are more intelligent than nittimonks, nittimonks more intelligent than dogs, and dogs more intelligent than cattle. Adult cattle can be captured and tamed in a few weeks. Adult dogs, born in the wild, can scarcely be tamed at all; and unless they have been raised among humans they are almost untrainable. Young nittimonks can be tamed, but can be trained only with the greatest difficulty, and they are never reliable.