To": members
From: Dean
Re: The form of the Guide
" Well," I said, " I criticise your credulity. The drunkards of the
drunkards' cavern were beyond all credence. I can not conceive of such
abnormal creations, even in illusion. Had I met with your experiences I
would not have supposed, for an instant, that the fantastic shapes could
have been aught but a dream, or the result of hallucination, while, without
a question, you considered them real"
" You are certainly pressed for subjects about which to complain when you
resort to criticising the possibilities in creations of a mind under the
influence of a more powerful intoxicant than is known to surface earth" he
remarked. " However, I will show you that nature fashions animals in forms
more fantastic than I saw, and that even these figures were not overdrawn "
Without heeding his remark, I interrupted his discourse, determined to have
my say:
" And I furthermore question the uncouth personage you describe as your
guide. Would you have me believe that such a being has an existence outside
an abnormal thought-creation?"
" Ah," he replied, " you have done well to ask these two questions in
succession, for you permit me to answer both at once. Listen: The Monkey, of
all animals, seems to approach closest to man in figure, the Siamang Gibon
of Asia, the Baldheaded Saki of South America, with its stub of a tail,
being nearest. From these types we have great deviations as in the Wanderer
of India, with its whiskered face, and the Black Macaque of the Island of
Celebes, with its hairy topknot, and hairless stub of a tail, or the
well-known Squirrel Monkey, with its long supple tail, and the Thumbless
Spider Monkey, of South America. Between these types we have among monkeys,
nearly every conceivable shape of limb and figure, and in color of their
faces and bodies, all the shades of the rainbow.
" Some Squirrels jump and then sail through the air. The Sloth can barely
move on the earth. Ant-eaters have no teeth at all, while the Grizzly Bear
can crush a gun barrel with its molars.
" The Duck-billed Platypus of South Australia has the body of a mole, the
tail of a raccoon, the flat bill of a duck, and the flipper of a seal,
combined with the feet of a rat. It lays eggs as birds do, but suckles its
young as do other mammalia. The Opossum has a prehensile tail, as have some
monkeys, and in addition a living bag or pouch in which the female carries
her tiny young. The young of a kind of tree frog of the genus Hylodes,
breathe through a special organ in their tails; the young of the Pipa, a
great South American toad, burrow into the skin of the mother, and still
another from Chili, as soon as hatched, creep down the throat of the father
frog, and find below the jaw an opening into a false membrane covering the
entire abdomen, in which they repose in safety. Three species of frogs and
toads have no tongue at all, while in all the others the tongue is attached
by its tip to the end of the mouth, and is free behind. The ordinary
Bullfrog has conspicuous great legs, while a relative, the Cocilia ( and
others as well ) have a head reminding of the frog, but neither tail nor
legs, the body being elongated as if it were a worm. The long, slender
fingers of a Bat are united by means of a membrane that enables it to fly
like a bird, while as a contrast, the fingers of a Mole, its near cousin,
are short and stubby, and massive as compared with its frame. The former
flies through the air, the latter burrows ( almost flies ) through the
earth. The Great Ant-eater has a curved head which is drawn out into a
slender snout, no teeth, a long, slender tongue, a great bushy tail, and
claws that neither allow the creature to burrow in the earth nor climb into
trees, but which are admirably adapted to tear an ant-hill into fragments.
Its close relatives, the Apar and Armadillo, have a round body covered with
bony plates, and a short, horny, curved tail, while another relative, the
Long-tailed Pangolin, has a great alligator-like tail which, together-with
its body, is covered with horny, overlapping scales.
" The Greenland Whale has an enormous head occupying more than one-third its
length, no teeth, and a throat scarcely larger than that of a sucker fish.
The Golden Mole has a body so nearly symmetrical that, were it not for the
snout, it would be difficult to determine the location of the head without
close inspection, and it has legs so short that, were it not for the
powerful claws, they would not be observed at all. The Narwhal has a
straight, twisted tusk, a "-
" Hold, hold," I interrupted; " do you think that I am concerned in these
well known contrasts in animal structure?"
" Did you not question the possibility of the description I gave of my
grotesque drunkards, and of the form of my subterranean guide?" my guest
retorted.
" Yes; but I spoke of men, you describe animals."
" Man is an animal, and between the various species of animals that you say
are well known, greater distinctions can be drawn than between my guide and
surface-earth man. Besides, had you allowed me to proceed to a description
of animal life beneath the surface of the earth, I would have shown you that
my guide partook of their attributes. Of the creatures described, one only
was of the intra-earth origin- the Mole,-and like my guide, it is
practically eyeless."
Yahoo Groups removed 1 attachment from this message: etidorhpameeting5.jpg (image/jpeg)