"I think I'd like it."
Yoritomo shrugged slightly. "Perhaps you would. But it would not be theasset you think. Look at it soberly, my friend.
"The most difficult teaching job in the universe is the attempt to teachan organism something it already knows. True? Yes. If a man already knowsthe shape of the Earth, it will do you no good to attempt to teach him. Ifhe _knows_ that the Earth is flat, your contention that it is round willmake no impression whatever. He _knows_, you see. He _knows_.
"Now. Imagine a race with a perfect memory--one which does not fade. Amemory in which each bit of data is as bright and fresh as the moment itwas imprinted, and as readily available as the data stored in a robot'smind. It is, in effect, a robotic memory.
"If you put false data into the memory bank of a computer--such as tellingit that the square of two is five--you cannot correct the error simply bytelling it that the square of two is four. You must first remove theerroneous data, not so?
"Very good. Then let us look at the Nipe race, wherever it was spawned inthis universe. Let us look at their race a long time back--when they firstbecame _Nipe sapiens_. Back when they first developed a true language.Each child, as it is born or hatched or budded--whatever it is they do--istaught as rapidly as possible all the things it must know to survive. Andonce it is taught a thing, it _knows_. And if it is taught a falsehood,then it cannot be taught the truth."
"Wouldn't cold reality force a change?" Stanton asked.
"Ah. In some cases, yes. In most, no. Look: Suppose a primordial Nipe runsacross a tiger--or whatever passes for a tiger on their planet. He hasnever seen a tiger before, so he does not see that this particular tigeris old, ill, and weak. He hits it on the head, and it drops dead. He takesit home for the family to feed on.
"'How did you kill it, Papa?'"
"'I walked up to it, bashed it on the noggin, and it died. That is the wayto kill tigers.'"
Yoritomo smiled. "It is also a good way to kill Nipes. Eh?" He took thetowel and wiped Stanton's brow again.
"The error," he continued, "was made when Papa Nipe generalized from _one_tiger to _all_ tigers. If tigers were rare, this bit of lore might bepassed on for many generations. Those who learned that most tigers are_not_ conquered by walking up to them and hitting them on the nogginundoubtedly died before they could pass this bit of information on. Then,one day, a Nipe survived the ordeal. His mind now contained conflictinginformation, which must be resolved. He _knows_ that tigers are killed inthis way. He also _knows_ that this one did not die. Plainly, then, _this_one is not a tiger. Ha! He has the solution!
"What does he tell his children? Why, first he tells them how tigers arekilled. Then he warns them that there is an animal that looks _just like_a tiger, but is _not_ a tiger. One should not make the mistake of thinkingit _is_ a tiger or one will get badly hurt. Since the only way to tell thetrue tiger from the false is to hit it, and since that test may provefatal to the Nipe who tries it, it follows that one is better off if oneavoids all animals that look like tigers. You see?"
"Yeah," said Stanton. "Some snarks are boojums."
"Exactly! Thank you for that allusion. I must remember to use it in myreport."
"It seems to me to follow," Stanton said musingly, "that there would besome things that they'd never learn the truth about, once they'd gotten awrong idea in their heads."
"Ah! Indeed. It is precisely that which led me to formulate my theory inthe first place. How else to explain the fact that the Nipe, for all histechnical knowledge, is still in the ancient ritual-taboo stage ofdevelopment?"
"A savage?"
Yoritomo smiled. "As to his savagery, I think no one on Earth woulddisagree. But they are not the same thing. What I do mean is that the Nipeis undoubtedly the most superstitious and bigoted being on the face ofthis planet."
XIV
There was a knock at the door, and the physical therapist put his head in."Sorry to interrupt, but the clam is done. I'll give him a rubdown, Doc,and you can have him back."
"Excellent. Would you come up to my office, Bart, as soon as you've hadyour mauling?"
"Sure. I'll be right up."
Yoritomo left, and the P.T. man opened the steam box. "Feel O.K., Bart?"
"Yeah, sure," he said abstractedly as he got up on the rubdown table andlay prone. The therapist saw that Stanton was in no mood for conversation,so he proceeded with the massage in silence.
For the first time, Stanton was seeing the Nipe as an individual, as aperson, as a thinking, feeling being.
_We have a great deal in common, you and I, he thought. Except that you'rea lot worse off than I am._
* * * * *
I'm actually feeling sorry for the poor guy, Stanton thought. Which, Isuppose, is better than feeling sorry for myself. The only differencebetween us freaks is that you're a bigger freak than I am. "Molly O'Gradyand the Colonel's lady are sisters under the skin."
Where'd that come from? Something I learned in school, I guess--like thesnarks and boojums.
"He would answer to Hi! or to any loud cry, Such as Fry me! or Fritter my wig!"
Who was that? The snark? No.
_Damn_ this memory of mine!
Or can I even call it mine when I can't even use it?
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
Another jack-in-the-box thought popping up from nowhere.
The only way I'll ever get all this stuff straightened out is to get moreinformation. And it doesn't look as though anyone is going to give it tome on a platter. The Institute seems to be awfully chary about givinginformation away. George even had to chase away old rub-and-pound, here(That feels good!) before he would talk about the Nipe. Can't blame 'emfor that, I guess. There'd be hell to pay if the public ever found outthat the Nipe has been kept as a pet for six years.
How many people has he killed in that time? Twenty? Thirty? How much blooddoes Colonel Mannheim have on his hands?
"Though they know not why, Or for what they give, Still, the few must die, That the many may live."
I wonder whether I read all that stuff complete or just browsed through acopy of Bartlett's Quotations. Fragments.
We've got to get organized here, brother. Colonel Mannheim's little puppetis going to cut his strings and do a Pinocchio.
* * * * *
"O.K., Bart," the P.T. said, giving Stanton a final slap, "you're all set.See you tomorrow."
"Right. Gimme my clothes."
Stanton dressed and took the elevator up to Yoritomo's office. Thissection of the building was off-limits to the other patients in theInstitute, but Stanton, the star border, had free rein.
Not that it mattered, one way or another. There wasn't any way they couldhave stopped him. Aside from the fact that he was physically capable ofgoing through or around almost any guards they wanted to put up, there wasalso the little matter of gentle blackmail. When a man is genuinelyindispensable, he can work wonders by threatening to drop the wholebusiness.
He felt as though he had been slowly awakening from a long sleep. Atfirst, he had accepted as natural that he should obey orders and do as hewas told without question, as thought he had been drugged or hypnotized.
_And it's very likely they subjected me to both at one time or another,_he told himself.
But now his brain was beginning to function again, and the need to knowwas strong in his mind.
* * * * *
Dr. Yoritomo was sitting in one of the big, soft chairs, puffing at hispipe, but he leaped to his feet when Stanton came in.
"Ah! About the ritual-taboo culture of the Nipe! Yes. Sit down. Yes. So.Do you find it impossible that a high technology could be present in sucha system?"
"No. I've been thinking about it."
"Ah, so." He sat down again. "Then _you_ will please tell _me_."
; "Well, let's see. In the first place, let's take religion. In tribalcultures, religion is--uh--animistic, I think the word is."
Yoritomo nodded silently.
"There are spirits everywhere," Scanton went on. "That sort of belief, itseems to me, would grow up in any race that had imagination, and the Nipesmust have plenty of that, or they wouldn't have the technology they dohave."
"Very good. _Very_ good. But what evidence have you that this technologywas not given them by some other race?"
"I hadn't thought of that." Stanton stared into space for a moment, thennodded his head. "Of course. It would take too long for another race toteach it to them; it