Then something cold touched my hand. I started violently, and saw close to me a dim pinkish thing, looking more like a flayed child than anything else in the world. The creature had exactly the mild but repulsive features of a sloth, the same low forehead and slow gestures.<\/p>\n
As the first shock of the change of light passed, I saw about me more distinctly. The little sloth-like creature was standing and staring at me. My conductor had vanished. The place was a narrow passage between high walls of lava, a crack in the knotted rock, and on either side interwoven heaps of sea-mat, palm-fans, and reeds leaning against the rock formed rough and impenetrably dark dens. The winding way up the ravine between these was scarcely three yards wide, and was disfigured by lumps of decaying fruit-pulp and other refuse, which accounted for the disagreeable stench of the place.<\/p>\n
The little pink sloth-creature was still blinking at me when my Ape-man reappeared at the aperture of the nearest of these dens, and beckoned me in. As he did so a slouching monster wriggled out of one of the places, further up this strange street, and stood up in featureless silhouette against the bright green beyond, staring at me. I hesitated, having half a mind to bolt the way I had come; and then, determined to go through with the adventure, I gripped my nailed stick about the middle and crawled into the little evil-smelling lean-to after my conductor.<\/p>\n
It was a semi-circular space, shaped like the half of a bee-hive; and against the rocky wall that formed the inner side of it was a pile of variegated fruits, cocoa-nuts among others. Some rough vessels of lava and wood stood about the floor, and one on a rough stool. There was no fire. In the darkest corner of the hut sat a shapeless mass of darkness that grunted \u201cHey!\u201d as I came in, and my Ape-man stood in the dim light of the doorway and held out a split cocoa-nut to me as I crawled into the other corner and squatted down. I took it, and began gnawing it, as serenely as possible, in spite of a certain trepidation and the nearly intolerable closeness of the den. The little pink sloth-creature stood in the aperture of the hut, and something else with a drab face and bright eyes came staring over its shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey!\u201d came out of the lump of mystery opposite. \u201cIt is a man.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a man,\u201d gabbled my conductor, \u201ca man, a man, a five-man, like me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShut up!\u201d said the voice from the dark, and grunted. I gnawed my cocoa-nut amid an impressive stillness.<\/p>\n
I peered hard into the blackness, but could distinguish nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a man,\u201d the voice repeated. \u201cHe comes to live with us?\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a thick voice, with something in it\u2014a kind of whistling overtone\u2014that struck me as peculiar; but the English accent was strangely good.<\/p>\n
The Ape-man looked at me as though he expected something. I perceived the pause was interrogative. \u201cHe comes to live with you,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a man. He must learn the Law.\u201d<\/p>\n
I began to distinguish now a deeper blackness in the black, a vague outline of a hunched-up figure. Then I noticed the opening of the place was darkened by two more black heads. My hand tightened on my stick.<\/p>\n
The thing in the dark repeated in a louder tone, \u201cSay the words.\u201d I had missed its last remark. \u201cNot to go on all-fours; that is the Law,\u201d it repeated in a kind of sing-song.<\/p>\n
I was puzzled.<\/p>\n
\u201cSay the words,\u201d said the Ape-man, repeating, and the figures in the doorway echoed this, with a threat in the tone of their voices.<\/p>\n
I realised that I had to repeat this idiotic formula; and then began the insanest ceremony. The voice in the dark began intoning a mad litany, line by line, and I and the rest to repeat it. As they did so, they swayed from side to side in the oddest way, and beat their hands upon their knees; and I followed their example. I could have imagined I was already dead and in another world. That dark hut, these grotesque dim figures, just flecked here and there by a glimmer of light, and all of them swaying in unison and chanting,<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to go on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to suck up Drink; that is the Law. Are we not Men?<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to eat Fish or Flesh; that is the Law. Are we not Men?<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to claw the Bark of Trees; that is the Law. Are we not Men?<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to chase other Men; that is the Law. Are we not Men?\u201d<\/p>\n
And so from the prohibition of these acts of folly, on to the prohibition of what I thought then were the maddest, most impossible, and most indecent things one could well imagine. A kind of rhythmic fervour fell on all of us; we gabbled and swayed faster and faster, repeating this amazing Law. Superficially the contagion of these brutes was upon me, but deep down within me the laughter and disgust struggled together. We ran through a long list of prohibitions, and then the chant swung round to a new formula.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis<\/i> is the House of Pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis<\/i> is the Hand that makes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis<\/i> is the Hand that wounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis<\/i> is the Hand that heals.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so on for another long series, mostly quite incomprehensible gibberish to me about Him<\/i>, whoever he might be. I could have fancied it was a dream, but never before have I heard chanting in a dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis<\/i> is the lightning flash,\u201d we sang. \u201cHis<\/i> is the deep, salt sea.\u201d<\/p>\n
A horrible fancy came into my head that Moreau, after animalising these men, had infected their dwarfed brains with a kind of deification of himself. However, I was too keenly aware of white teeth and strong claws about me to stop my chanting on that account.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis<\/i> are the stars in the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n
At last that song ended. I saw the Ape-man\u2019s face shining with perspiration; and my eyes being now accustomed to the darkness, I saw more distinctly the figure in the corner from which the voice came. It was the size of a man, but it seemed covered with a dull grey hair almost like a Skye-terrier. What was it? What were they all? Imagine yourself surrounded by all the most horrible cripples and maniacs it is possible to conceive, and you may understand a little of my feelings with these grotesque caricatures of humanity about me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a five-man, a five-man, a five-man\u2014like me,\u201d said the Ape-man.<\/p>\n
I held out my hands. The grey creature in the corner leant forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to run on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He put out a strangely distorted talon and gripped my fingers. The thing was almost like the hoof of a deer produced into claws. I could have yelled with surprise and pain. His face came forward and peered at my nails, came forward into the light of the opening of the hut and I saw with a quivering disgust that it was like the face of neither man nor beast, but a mere shock of grey hair, with three shadowy over-archings to mark the eyes and mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has little nails,\u201d said this grisly creature in his hairy beard. \u201cIt is well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He threw my hand down, and instinctively I gripped my stick.<\/p>\n
\u201cEat roots and herbs; it is His will,\u201d said the Ape-man.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am the Sayer of the Law,\u201d said the grey figure. \u201cHere come all that be new to learn the Law. I sit in the darkness and say the Law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is even so,\u201d said one of the beasts in the doorway.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvil are the punishments of those who break the Law. None escape.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNone escape,\u201d said the Beast Folk, glancing furtively at one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone, none,\u201d said the Ape-man,\u2014\u201cnone escape. See! I did a little thing, a wrong thing, once. I jabbered, jabbered, stopped talking. None could understand. I am burnt, branded in the hand. He is great. He is good!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNone escape,\u201d said the grey creature in the corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone escape,\u201d said the Beast People, looking askance at one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor every one the want that is bad,\u201d said the grey Sayer of the Law. \u201cWhat you will want we do not know; we shall know. Some want to follow things that move, to watch and slink and wait and spring; to kill and bite, bite deep and rich, sucking the blood. It is bad. \u2018Not to chase other Men; that is the Law. Are we not Men? Not to eat Flesh or Fish; that is the Law. Are we not Men?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNone escape,\u201d said a dappled brute standing in the doorway.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor every one the want is bad,\u201d said the grey Sayer of the Law. \u201cSome want to go tearing with teeth and hands into the roots of things, snuffing into the earth. It is bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNone escape,\u201d said the men in the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome go clawing trees; some go scratching at the graves of the dead; some go fighting with foreheads or feet or claws; some bite suddenly, none giving occasion; some love uncleanness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNone escape,\u201d said the Ape-man, scratching his calf.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone escape,\u201d said the little pink sloth-creature.<\/p>\n
\u201cPunishment is sharp and sure. Therefore learn the Law. Say the words.\u201d<\/p>\n
And incontinently he began again the strange litany of the Law, and again I and all these creatures began singing and swaying. My head reeled with this jabbering and the close stench of the place; but I kept on, trusting to find presently some chance of a new development.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to go on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?\u201d<\/p>\n
We were making such a noise that I noticed nothing of a tumult outside, until some one, who I think was one of the two Swine Men I had seen, thrust his head over the little pink sloth-creature and shouted something excitedly, something that I did not catch. Incontinently those at the opening of the hut vanished; my Ape-man rushed out; the thing that had sat in the dark followed him (I only observed that it was big and clumsy, and covered with silvery hair), and I was left alone. Then before I reached the aperture I heard the yelp of a staghound.<\/p>\n
In another moment I was standing outside the hovel, my chair-rail in my hand, every muscle of me quivering. Before me were the clumsy backs of perhaps a score of these Beast People, their misshapen heads half hidden by their shoulder-blades. They were gesticulating excitedly. Other half-animal faces glared interrogation out of the hovels. Looking in the direction in which they faced, I saw coming through the haze under the trees beyond the end of the passage of dens the dark figure and awful white face of Moreau. He was holding the leaping staghound back, and close behind him came Montgomery revolver in hand.<\/p>\n
For a moment I stood horror-struck. I turned and saw the passage behind me blocked by another heavy brute, with a huge grey face and twinkling little eyes, advancing towards me. I looked round and saw to the right of me and a half-dozen yards in front of me a narrow gap in the wall of rock through which a ray of light slanted into the shadows.<\/p>\n
\u201cStop!\u201d cried Moreau as I strode towards this, and then, \u201cHold him!\u201d<\/p>\n
At that, first one face turned towards me and then others. Their bestial minds were happily slow. I dashed my shoulder into a clumsy monster who was turning to see what Moreau meant, and flung him forward into another. I felt his hands fly round, clutching at me and missing me. The little pink sloth-creature dashed at me, and I gashed down its ugly face with the nail in my stick and in another minute was scrambling up a steep side pathway, a kind of sloping chimney, out of the ravine. I heard a howl behind me, and cries of \u201cCatch him!\u201d \u201cHold him!\u201d and the grey-faced creature appeared behind me and jammed his huge bulk into the cleft. \u201cGo on! go on!\u201d they howled. I clambered up the narrow cleft in the rock and came out upon the sulphur on the westward side of the village of the Beast Men.<\/p>\n
That gap was altogether fortunate for me, for the narrow chimney, slanting obliquely upward, must have impeded the nearer pursuers. I ran over the white space and down a steep slope, through a scattered growth of trees, and came to a low-lying stretch of tall reeds, through which I pushed into a dark, thick undergrowth that was black and succulent under foot. As I plunged into the reeds, my foremost pursuers emerged from the gap. I broke my way through this undergrowth for some minutes. The air behind me and about me was soon full of threatening cries. I heard the tumult of my pursuers in the gap up the slope, then the crashing of the reeds, and every now and then the crackling crash of a branch. Some of the creatures roared like excited beasts of prey. The staghound yelped to the left. I heard Moreau and Montgomery shouting in the same direction. I turned sharply to the right. It seemed to me even then that I heard Montgomery shouting for me to run for my life.<\/p>\n
Presently the ground gave rich and oozy under my feet; but I was desperate and went headlong into it, struggled through kneedeep, and so came to a winding path among tall canes. The noise of my pursuers passed away to my left. In one place three strange, pink, hopping animals, about the size of cats, bolted before my footsteps. This pathway ran up hill, across another open space covered with white incrustation, and plunged into a canebrake again. Then suddenly it turned parallel with the edge of a steep-walled gap, which came without warning, like the ha-ha of an English park,\u2014turned with an unexpected abruptness. I was still running with all my might, and I never saw this drop until I was flying headlong through the air.<\/p>\n
I fell on my forearms and head, among thorns, and rose with a torn ear and bleeding face. I had fallen into a precipitous ravine, rocky and thorny, full of a hazy mist which drifted about me in wisps, and with a narrow streamlet from which this mist came meandering down the centre. I was astonished at this thin fog in the full blaze of daylight; but I had no time to stand wondering then. I turned to my right, down-stream, hoping to come to the sea in that direction, and so have my way open to drown myself. It was only later I found that I had dropped my nailed stick in my fall.<\/p>\n
Presently the ravine grew narrower for a space, and carelessly I stepped into the stream. I jumped out again pretty quickly, for the water was almost boiling. I noticed too there was a thin sulphurous scum drifting upon its coiling water. Almost immediately came a turn in the ravine, and the indistinct blue horizon. The nearer sea was flashing the sun from a myriad facets. I saw my death before me; but I was hot and panting, with the warm blood oozing out on my face and running pleasantly through my veins. I felt more than a touch of exultation too, at having distanced my pursuers. It was not in me then to go out and drown myself yet. I stared back the way I had come.<\/p>\n
I listened. Save for the hum of the gnats and the chirp of some small insects that hopped among the thorns, the air was absolutely still. Then came the yelp of a dog, very faint, and a chattering and gibbering, the snap of a whip, and voices. They grew louder, then fainter again. The noise receded up the stream and faded away. For a while the chase was over; but I knew now how much hope of help for me lay in the Beast People.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":13,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-51","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/51\/revisions\/52"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/51\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}