"At least two million years ago. I do not think they have had the
interstellar drive more than fifty thousand years."
"No wonder our pet Nipe is so patient," Stanton said wonderingly. "I
wonder what their individual life span is."
"Not long, in comparison," said Yoritomo. "Perhaps no longer than our own,
perhaps five hundred years. Considering their handicaps, they have done
quite well. Quite well, indeed, for a race of illiterate cannibals."
"How's that again?" Stanton realized that the scientist was quite serious.
"Hadn't it occurred to you, my friend, that they must be cannibals? And
that they are very nearly illiterate?"
"No," Stanton admitted, "it hadn't."
"The Nipe, like Man, is omnivorous. Specialization tends to lead any race
up a blind alley, and dietary restrictions are a particularly pernicious
form of specialization. A lion would starve to death in a wheat field. A
horse would perish in a butcher shop full of steaks. A man will survive as
long as there's something around to eat--even if it's another man.
"Also, Man, early in his career as top dog on Earth, began using a method
of increasing the viability of the race by removing the unfit. It survives
today in some societies. Before and immediately after the Holocaust, there
were still primitive societies on Earth which made a rather hard ordeal
out of the Rite of Passage--the ceremony that enabled a boy to become a
Man, if he passed the tests.
"A few millennia ago, a boy was killed outright if failed. And eaten.
"The Nipe race must, of necessity, have had some similar ritualistic tests
or they would not have become what they are. And we have already agreed
that, once the Nipes adopted something of that kind, it remained with
them, not so? Yes.
"Also, it is extremely unlikely that the Nipe civilisation--if such it can
be called--has any geriatric problem. No old age pensions, no old folks'
homes, no senility. When a Nipe becomes a burden because of age, he is
ritually murdered and eaten with due solemnity.
"Ah. You frown, my friend. Have I made them sound heartless, without the
finer feelings that we humans are so proud of? Not so. When Junior Nipe
fails his puberty tests, when Mama and Papa Nipe are sent to their final
reward, I have no doubt that there is sadness in the hearts of their loved
ones as the honored T-bones are passed around the table.
"My own ancestors, not too far back, performed a ritual suicide by
disemboweling themselves with a sharp knife. Across the abdomen--so!--and
up into the heart--so! It was considered very bad form to die or faint
before the job was done. Nearby, a relative or close friend stood with a
sharp sword, to administer the _coup de grace_ by decapitation. It was all
very sad and very honorable. Their loved ones bore the sorrow with pride."
His voice, which had been low and tender, suddenly became very brisk.
"Thank goodness it's gone out of fashion!"
"But how can you be _sure_ they're cannibals?" Stanton asked. "Your
argument sounds logical enough, but logic alone isn't enough."
"True! True!" Yoritomo jabbed the air twice with his finger. "Evidence
would be most welcome, would it not? Very well, I give you the evidence.
He eats human beings, our Nipe."
"That doesn't make him a cannibal."
"Not _strictly_, perhaps. But consider. The Nipe is not a monster. He is
not a criminal. No. He is a gentleman. He behaves as a gentleman. He is
shipwrecked on an alien planet. Around his, he sees evidence that ours is
a technological society. But that is a contradiction! A paradox!
"For _we_ are not civilized! No! We are not rational! We are not sane! We
do not obey the Laws, we do not perform the Rituals. We are animals.
Apparently intelligent animals, but animals never the less. How can this
be?
"Ha! Says the Nipe to himself. These animals must be ruled over by Real
People. It is the only explanation. Not so?"
"Colonel Mannheim mentioned that. Are you implying that the Nipe thinks
that there are other Nipes around, running the world from secret hideouts,
like the Fu Manchu novel?"
[Illustration]
"Not quite. The Nipe is not incapable of learning something new; in fact,
he is quite good at it, as witness the fact that he has learned many Earth
languages. He picked up Russian in less then eight months simply by
listening and observing. Like our own race, his undoubtedly evolved many
languages during the beginnings of its progress--when there were many
tribes, separated and out of communication. It would not surprise me to
find that most of those languages have survived and that our distressed
astronaut knows them all. A new language would not distress him.
"Nor would strangely-shaped intelligent beings distress him. His race
should be aware, by now, that such things exist. But it is very likely
that he equates _true_ intelligence with technology, and I do not think he
has ever met a race higher than the barbarian level before. Such races
were not, of course, human--by his definition. They showed possibilities,
perhaps, but they had not evolved far enough. Considering the time span
involved, it is not at all unlikely that the Nipe thinks of technology as
something that evolves with a race in the same way intelligence does--or
the body itself.
"So it would not surprise him to find that the Real People of this system
were humanoid in shape. That is something new, and he can absorb it. It
does not contradict anything he _knows_.
"_But--!_ Any truly intelligent being which did not obey the Law and
follow the Ritual _would_ be a contradiction in terms. For he has no
notion of a Real Person without those characteristics. Without those
characteristics, technology is impossible. Since he sees technology all
around him, it follows that there must be Real People with those
characteristics. Anything else is unthinkable."
"It seems to me that you're building an awfully involved theory out of
pretty flimsy stuff," Stanton said.
Yoritomo shook his head. "Not at all. All evidence points to it. Why, do
you suppose, does the Nipe conscientiously devour his victims, often
risking his own safety to do so? Why do you suppose he never uses any
weapons but his own hands to kill with?
"Why? To tell the Real People that he is a gentleman!"
* * * * *
It made perfect sense, Stanton thought. It fitted every known fact, as far
as he knew. Still--
"I would think," he said, "that the Nipe would have realized, after ten
years, that there is no such race of Real People. He's had access to all
our records, and such things. Or does he reject them as lies?"
"Possibly he would, if he could read them. Did I not say he was
illiterate?"
"You mean he's learned to speak our languages, but not to read them?"
The scientist smiled broadly. "Your statement is accurate, my friend, but
incomplete. It is my opinion that the Nipe is incapable of reading any
written language whatever. The concept does not exist in his mind, except
vaguely."
"A technological race without a written language? That's impossible!"
"Ah, no. Ask yourself: What need has a race with a perfect memory for
written records--at least, in the sense we know them. Certainly not to
remember things. All their history and all their technology exists in the
collective mind of the race--or, at least, most of it. I dare say that the
less important parts of their history has been glossed over and forgotten.
One important event in every ten centuries would still give a historian
ten thousand events to remember--and history is only a late development in
our own society."
"How about communications?" Stanton said, "What did they use before they
invented radio?"
"Ah. That is why I hedged when I said he was _almost_ illiterate. There is
a possibility that a written symbology did at one time exist, for just
that purpose. If so, it has probably survived as a ritualistic form--when
an officer is appointed to a post, let's say, he may get a formal paper
that says so. They may use symbols to signify rank and so on. They
certainly must have a symbology for the calibration of scientific
instruments.
"But none of these requires the complexity of a written language. I dare
say our use of it is quite baffling to him. And if he thinks of symbols as
being unable to convey much information, then he might not be able to
learn to read at all. You see?"
"Where's your evidence for that?"
"It is sketchy, I will admit," said Yoritomo. "It is not as solidly based
as our other reconstructions of his background. The pattern of his raids
indicates, however, that his knowledge of the materials he wants and their
locations comes from vocal sources--television advertising,
eaves-dropping, and so on. In other words, he cases the joint by ear. If
he could understand written information, his job would have been much
easier. He could have found the materials more quickly and easily. From
this evidence, we are fairly certain that he can't read any Terrestrial
writing.
"Add to that the fact that he has never been observed writing down
anything himself, and the suspicion dawns that perhaps he _knows_ that
symbols can only convey a very small amount of specialized information.
Eh?
"As I said, it is not proof."
"No. But the whole thing makes for some very interesting speculation,
doesn't it?"
"Very interesting indeed." Yoritomo folded his hands in his lap, smiled
seraphically, and looked at the ceiling. "In fact, my friend, we are now
so positive of our knowledge of the Nipe's mind that we are prepared to
enter into the next phase of our program. Within a very short while, if we
are correct, we shall, with your help, arrest the most feared
arch-criminal that Earth has ever known." He chuckled, but there was
little mirth in it. "I dare say that the public will be extremely happy to
hear of his death, and I know that Colonel Mannheim and the rest of us
will be glad to know that he will never kill again."
Stanton saw that the fateful day was looming suddenly large in the
future. "How soon?"
"Within days." He lowered his eyes from the ceiling and looked into
Stanton's face with a mildly bland expression.
"By the way," he said, "did you know that your brother is returning to
Earth tomorrow?"