The Stones of Nomuru

Sudden motion at the other end of the coop caught Salazar's eye. What looked like a heap of rags sat up. In the growing light, a craggy, middle-aged Terran face appeared. A pair of pale eyes locked on Salazar's, and a thin-lipped mouth uttered:

"Hvem er De? Who are you?"

"Keith Salazar, from the university." When Travers shook Pokrovskii's shoulder, the Suvarovian looked up; and Salazar completed introductions, adding: "Aren't you the Reverend Hjalmar Ragnarsen, who recently disappeared?"

"I am that miserable sinner. I know who you are. Why are you people here?"

Salazar summarized the hunting trip and their unceremonious capture. "And you?"

The man sighed. "Professor Salazar, I have learned that the forces of evil can pervert the best intentions. I came among the Choshas to bring them a message of Christian love and peace; and what happens?"

The missionary paused until Salazar was forced to ask: "What did happen?"

"My first discovery was that Chief Kampai speaks English, at least better than I expected. He also reads the language. I gave him a Bible and found that he is an extremely fast, perceptive reader with an eidetic memory. In a sixtnight he had gone through the whole of the Old and New Testaments, including all the minor prophets, and could quote a passage anywhere from that enormous work."

"Oh!" said the archaeologist. "So that's why he talks Jacobean English!"

"Yes; he believes that is the language of Jesus. He is actually convinced that Jesus appears in dreams and gives him orders to exterminate all the sedentary Kukulcanians on this continent. When this has been done, he thinks Jesus will tell him what to do next. The worst is that, however outrageous his intentions, he can always quote a line of Scripture to justify them.

"For instance, because God favored Abel's offerings of lamb over Cain's of grain, he is sure that God prefers the pastoral life of the Choshas over the agricultural ways of the settled nations.

"He lured the other Chosha chiefs to a parley and killed the lot, making himself the Grand Khan of the nomadic tribes. For justification, he cites the killings of Uriah, Joab, and so forth by David and Solomon."

Salazar commented: "Such treachery is un-Kookish."

"Oh, Kampai cites Samuel's butchering of his prisoner, King Agag."

"Lucky you didn't bring a copy of Machiavelli's Il Principe," said Salazar dryly. "How about this extermination of sedentary peoples?"

"He quotes Deuteronomy twenty, where the Lord tells the Israelites that in the land of Canaan, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt leave alive nothing that breatheth, but thou shalt utterly destroy them.' He also mentions First Samuel twenty-seven, how David as a bandit chieftain raided towns and left neither man nor woman alive.' "

"Well," said Salazar, "how would you interpret these passages?"

"My dear professor! I am no simpleminded Biblical literalist. We must understand these things in the light of the conditions in those ancient times. It is my business to separate the divinely-inspired parts from the accretions, the myths and legends—"

"Hey!" said Bergen, finally wide awake. "You guys can argue theology all day; but I want to know, first, what these stinkers are going to do with us; and second, how the hell do we get out?"

"I know no more than you," said Ragnarsen. "Have you seen that pole in front of the big tent, on which Kampai hangs the heads of his enemies?"

"God, no," said Bergen. "It was dark when we got here. Does it include human heads?"

"I believe there are a couple, along with those of the rival chiefs. Kampai cites David's taking Goliath's head for a trophy."

"Goddam natives!" fumed Bergen. "If we could only get in touch with our people in the settlements, we could wipe the bloodthirsty vermin out!"

Salazar said: "After all, Conrad, you collect the heads of other species for trophies. So what's the difference between you and Kampai?"

"Because I'm human, that's what! I got a soul, or at least people like the Reverend here tell me so. They don't."

"They have a similar belief in a spirit that .survives the body. Their evidence is about as good as yours."

"You can treat 'em like they was human; but I know what species I belong to. We ought to show 'em who's boss! The way you old Kookish hands bow and scrape to their chiefs and kings disgusts me. I won't kneel down to any fucking animal! If it wasn't for that pack of spineless, do-gooding, time-serving bureaucrats—"

"I say!" interrupted Travers. "That's unfair. I'm one of those civil servants. In my department, at least, we try to do the right thing. We know we can't please everybody."

"You know the history of the policy, Mr. Bergen," said Ragnarsen. "There are reasons—"

"Bullshit!" roared Bergen. "Now you see what damage meddling by you parsons does. The natives weren't bothering us until you came all the way from Terra to fill them with ideology, which they turn to then-own purposes."

"You are unyust—I mean unjust!" cried Ragnarsen.

Salazar shouted, in the authoritative tone he used on refractory students: "Quiet, all of you! We can't afford to quarrel. Tell me, Reverend, how is it that, if you brought Kampai his new creed, he's thrown you in the clink?"