wouldn't be worth the trouble unless thishypothetical other race killed off all the adult Nipes and started thelittle ones off fresh. And if that had happened, their ritual-taboo systemwould have disappeared, too."
"That argument is imperfect," Yoritomo said, "but it will do for themoment. Go on with the religion."
"O.K.; religious beliefs are not subject to pragmatic tests. That is, thespiritual beliefs aren't. Any belief that _could_ be disproven wouldeventually die out. But beliefs in ghosts or demons or angels or lifeafter death aren't disprovable. So, as a race increases its knowledge ofthe physical world, its religion tends to become more and more spiritual."
"Agreed. Yes. But how do you link this with ritual-taboo?"
"Well, once a belief gains a foothold, it's hard to wipe it out, evenamong humans. Among Nipes, it would be well-nigh impossible. Once a codeof ritual and social behavior was set up, it became permanent."
"For example?" Yoritomo urged.
"Well, shaking hands, for example. We still do that, even if we don't haveit fixed solidly in our heads that we _must_ do it. I suppose it wouldnever occur to a Nipe not to perform such a ritual."
"Just so," Yoritomo agreed vigorously. "Such things, once established,would tend to remain. But it is a characteristic of a ritual-taboo systemthat it resists change. How, then, do you account for their hightechnological achievements?"
"The pragmatic engineering approach, I imagine. If a thing works, it isusable. If not, it isn't."
"Very good. Now it is my turn to lecture." He put his pipe in an ash trayand held up a long, bony finger. "Firstly, we must remember that the Nipeis equipped with an imagination. Secondly, he has in his memory atremendous amount of data, all ready at hand. He is capable of working outtheories in his head, you see. Like the ancient Greeks, he finds no needto test such theories--_unless_ his thinking indicates that such anexperiment would yield something useful. Unlike the Greeks, he has noaversion to experiment. But he sees no need for useless experiment,either.
"Oh, he would learn, yes. But, once a given theory proved workable, howresistant he would be to a new theory. How long--how _incredibly_ long--itwould take such a race to achieve the technology the Nipe now has!"
"Hundreds of thousands of years," said Stanton.
Yoritomo shook his head briskly. "Puh! Longer! Much longer!" He smiledwith satisfaction. "I estimate that the Nipe race first invented the steamengine not less than ten million years ago." He kept smiling into the deadsilence that followed.
* * * * *
After a long minute, Scanton said: "What about atomic energy?"
"At least two million years ago. I do not think they have had theinterstellar drive more than fifty thousand years."
"No wonder our pet Nipe is so patient," Stanton said wonderingly. "Iwonder 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 donequite 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? Andthat they are very nearly illiterate?"
"No," Stanton admitted, "it hadn't."
"The Nipe, like Man, is omnivorous. Specialization tends to lead any raceup a blind alley, and dietary restrictions are a particularly perniciousform of specialization. A lion would starve to death in a wheat field. Ahorse would perish in a butcher shop full of steaks. A man will survive aslong 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 methodof increasing the viability of the race by removing the unfit. It survivestoday in some societies. Before and immediately after the Holocaust, therewere still primitive societies on Earth which made a rather hard ordealout of the Rite of Passage--the ceremony that enabled a boy to become aMan, 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 testsor they would not have become what they are. And we have already agreedthat, once the Nipes adopted something of that kind, it remained withthem, not so? Yes.
"Also, it is extremely unlikely that the Nipe civilisation--if such it canbe 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 isritually murdered and eaten with due solemnity.
"Ah. You frown, my friend. Have I made them sound heartless, without thefiner feelings that we humans are so proud of? Not so. When Junior Nipefails his puberty tests, when Mama and Papa Nipe are sent to their finalreward, I have no doubt that there is sadness in the hearts of their lovedones as the honored T-bones are passed around the table.
"My own ancestors, not too far back, performed a ritual suicide bydisemboweling themselves with a sharp knife. Across the abdomen--so!--andup into the heart--so! It was considered very bad form to die or faintbefore the job was done. Nearby, a relative or close friend stood with asharp sword, to administer the _coup de grace_ by decapitation. It was allvery 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. "Yourargument sounds logical enough, but logic alone isn't enough."
"True! True!" Yoritomo jabbed the air twice with his finger. "Evidencewould 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 isnot a criminal. No. He is a gentleman. He behaves as a gentleman. He isshipwrecked on an alien planet. Around his, he sees evidence that ours isa technological society. But that is a contradiction! A paradox!
"For _we_ are not civilized! No! We are not rational! We are not sane! Wedo not obey the Laws, we do not perform the Rituals. We are animals.Apparently intelligent animals, but animals never the less. How can thisbe?
"Ha! Says the Nipe to himself. These animals must be ruled over by RealPeople. It is the only explanation. Not so?"
"Colonel Mannheim mentioned that. Are you implying that the Nipe thinksthat there are other Nipes around, running the world from secret hideouts,like the Fu Manchu novel?"
"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 Earthlanguages. He picked up Russian in less then eight months simply bylistening and observing. Like our own race, his undoubtedly evolved manylanguages during the beginnings of its progress--when there were manytribes, separated and out of communication. It would not surprise me tofind that most of those languages have survived and that our distressedastronaut knows them all. A new language would not distress him.
"Nor would strangely-shaped intelligent beings distress him. His raceshould be aware, by now, that such things exist. But it is very likelythat he equates _true_ intelligence with technology, and I do not think hehas ever met a race higher than the barbarian level before. Such raceswere not, of course, human--by his definition. They showed possibilities,perhaps, but they had not evolved far enough. Considering the time spaninvolved, it is not at all unlikely that the Nipe thinks of technology assomething that evolves with a race in the same way intelligence does--orthe body itself.
"So it would not surprise him to find that the Real People of this systemwere humanoid in shape. That is something new, and he can absorb it. Itdoes not contradict anything he _knows_.
"_But--!_ Any truly intelligent being which did not obey the Law andfollow the Ritual _would_ be a contradiction in terms. For he has nonotion of a Real Person without those characteristics. Without thosecharacteristics, technology is impossible. Since
he sees technology allaround him, it follows that there must be Real People with thosecharacteristics. Anything else is unthinkable."
"It seems to me that you're building an awfully involved theory out ofpretty flimsy stuff," Stanton said.
Yoritomo shook his head. "Not at all. All evidence points to it. Why, doyou suppose, does the Nipe conscientiously devour his victims, oftenrisking his own safety to do so? Why do you suppose he never uses anyweapons 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