Across the Zodiac (13 page)

I learned afterwards that the privilege of intercourse with the ladies
of the household, restricted as it was, was wholly exceptional, and
even in this family was conceded only out of consideration for one who
could not safely be allowed to leave the house.

Though treated with the greatest kindness and courtesy, I soon found
reason to understand that I was, at least for the present, a prisoner.
My host or his son never failed to invite me each day to spend some
time in the outer enclosure, but never intentionally left me alone
there. On one occasion, when Kevimâ had been called away and I
ventured to walk down towards the gate, my host's youngest child, who
had been playing on the roof, ran after me, and reaching me just as my
foot was set on the spring that opened the gate or outer door, caught
me by the hand, and looking up into my face, expressed by glance and
gesture a negative so unmistakable that I thought it expedient at once
to comply and return to the house. There my time was occupied, for as
great a part of each day as I could give to such a task without
extreme fatigue, in mastering the language of the country. This was a
much simpler task than might have been supposed. I soon found that,
unlike any Terrestrial tongue, the language of this people had not
grown but been made—constructed deliberately on set principles, with
a view to the greatest possible simplicity and the least possible
taxation of the memory. There were no exceptions or irregularities,
and few unnecessary distinctions; while words were so connected and
related that the mastery of a few simple grammatical forms and of a
certain number of roots enabled me to guess at, and by and by to feel
tolerably sure of, the meaning of a new word. The verb has six tenses,
formed by the addition of a consonant to the root, and six persons,
plural and singular, masculine and feminine.

The terminations are the three pronouns, feminine and masculine,
singular and plural, each represented by one of twelve vowel
characters, and declined like nouns. When a nominative immediately
follows the verb, the pronominal suffix is generally dropped, unless
required by euphony. Thus, "a man strikes" is
dak klaftas
, but in
the past tense,
dakny klaftas
, the verb without the suffix being
unpronounceable. The past tense is formed by the insertion of
n
(
avnâ
: "I have been"), the future by
m
:
avmâ
. The imperative,
avsâ
; which in the first person is used to convey determination or
resolve;
avsâ
, spoken in a peremptory tone, meaning "I
will
be,"
while
avso
, according to the intonation, means "be" or "thou shalt
be;" i.e., shalt whether or no.
R
forms the conditional,
avrâ
, and
ren
the conditional past,
avrenâ
, "I should have been." The need
for a passive voice is avoided by the simple method of putting the
pronoun in the accusative; thus,
dâcâ
signifies "I strike,"
dâcal
(me strike) "I am struck." The infinitive is
avi; avyta
, "being;"
avnyta
, "having been;"
avmyta
, "about to be." These are declined
like nouns, of which latter there are six forms, the masculine in
â,
o, and y,
the feminine in
a, oo, and e;
the plurals being formed
exactly as in the pronominal suffixes of the verb. The root-word,
without inflexion, alone is used where the name is employed in no
connection with a verb, where in every terrestrial language the
nominative would be employed. Thus, my guide had named the
squirrel-monkeys
ambau
(sing.
ambâ
); but the word is declined as
follows:—

Singular.
Plural.

Nominative
ambâs ambaus

Accusative
ambâl ambaul

Dative, to
or
in
ambân ambaun

Ablative, by
or
from
ambâm ambaum

The five other forms are declined in the same manner, the vowel of the
last syllable only differing. Adjectives are declined like nouns, but
have no comparative or superlative degree; the former being expressed
by prefixing the intensitive syllable
ca
, the latter, when used
(which is but seldom) by the prefix
ela
, signifying
the
in an
emphatic sense, as his Grace of Wellington is in England called
The
Duke
par excellence
. Prepositions and adverbs end in
t
or
d
.

Each form of the noun has, as a rule, its special relation to the verb
of the same root: thus from dâc, "strike," are derived
dâcâ
,
"weapon" or "hammer;",
dâco
, a "stroke" or "striking"
(as given)
both masculine;
dâca
, "anvil;"
dâcoo
, "blow" or "beating"
(as
received)
; and
dâke
, "a thing beaten," feminine. The sixth form,
dâky
, masculine, has in this case no proper signification, and not
being wanted, is not used. Individual letters or syllables are largely
employed in combination to give new and even contradictory meanings to
a root. Thus
n
, like the Latin
in
, signifies "penetration,"
"motion towards," or simply "remaining in a place," or, again,
"permanence."
M
, like the Latin
ab
or
ex
, indicates "motion
from."
R
expresses "uncertainty" or "incompleteness," and is
employed to convert a statement into a question, or a relative pronoun
into one of inquiry.
G
, like the Greek
a
or
anti
, generally
signifies "opposition" or "negation;"
ca
is, as aforesaid,
intensitive, and is employed, for example, to convert
âfi
, "to
breathe," into
câfi
, "to speak."
Cr
is by itself an interjection
of abhorrence or disgust; in composition it indicates detestation or
destruction: thus,
crâky
signifies "hatred;"
crâvi
, "the
destruction of life" or "to kill."
L
for the most part indicates
passivity, but with different effect according to its place in the
word. Thus
mepi
signifies "to rule;"
mepil
, "to be ruled;"
melpi
, "to control one's self;"
lempi
, "to obey." The
signification of roots themselves is modified by a modification of the
principal vowel or consonant,
i.e.
, by exchanging the original for
one closely related. Thus
avi
, "exist;"
âvi
, "be," in the positive
sense of being this or that;
afi
, "live;"
âfi
, "breathe."
Z
is a
diminutive;
zin
, "with," often abbreviated to
zn
, "combination,"
"union." Thus
znaftau
means "those who were brought into life
together," or "brethren."

I may add, before I quit this subject, that the Martial system of
arithmetic differs from ours principally in the use of a duodecimal
instead of a decimal basis. Figures are written on a surface divided
into minute squares, and the value of a figure, whether it signify so
many units, dozens, twelve dozens, and so forth, depends upon the
square in which it is placed. The central square of a line represents
the unit's place, and is marked by a line drawn above it. Thus a
figure answering to our I, if placed in the fourth square to the left,
represents 1728. In the third place to the right, counting the unit
square in both cases, it signifies 1/144, and so forth.

In less than a fortnight I had obtained a general idea of the
language, and was able to read easily the graven representations of
spoken sound which I have described; and by the end of a month (to use
a word which had no meaning here) I could speak intelligibly if not
freely. Only in a language so simple could my own anxiety to overcome
as soon as possible a fatal obstacle to all investigation of this new
world, and the diligent and patient assistance given by my host or his
son for a great part of every day, have enabled me to make such rapid
progress. I had noted even, during the short evening gatherings when
the whole family was assembled, the extreme taciturnity of both sexes;
and by the time I could make myself understood, I was not surprised to
learn that the Martials have scarcely the idea of what we mean by
conversation, not talking for the sake of talking, or speaking unless
they have something to discuss, explain, or communicate. I found,
again, that a new and much more difficult task, though fortunately one
not so indispensable, was still in store for me. The Martials have two
forms of writing: the one I have described, which is simply a
mechanical rendering of spoken words into artificially simplified
visible signs; the other, written by hand, with a fine pencil of some
chemical material on a prepared surface, textile or metallic. The
characters of the latter are, like ours wholly arbitrary; but the
contractions and abbreviations are so numerous that the mastery of the
mere alphabet, the forty or fifty single letters employed, is but a
single step in the first stage of the hard task of learning to read.
In no country on Earth, except China, is this task half so severe as
in Mars. On the other hand, when it is once mastered, a far superior
instrument has been gained; the Martial writing being a most terse but
perfectly legible shorthand. Every Martial can write at least as
quickly as he can speak, and can read the written character more
rapidly than the quickest eye can peruse the best Terrestrial print.
Copies, whether of the phonographic or stylographic writing, are
multiplied with extreme facility and perfection. The original, once
inscribed in either manner upon the above-mentioned
tafroo
or
gold-leaf, is placed upon a sheet of a species of linen, smoother than
paper, called
difra
. A current of electricity sent through the
former reproduces the writing exactly upon the latter, which has been
previously steeped in some chemical composition; the effect apparently
depending on the passage of the electricity through the untouched
metal, and its absolute interception by the ink, if I may so call it,
of the writing, which bites deeply into the leaf. This process can be
repeated almost
ad libitum
; and it is equally easy to take at any
time a fresh copy upon
tafroo
, which serves again for the
reproduction of any number of
difra
copies. The book, for the
convenience of this mode of reproduction, consists of a single sheet,
generally from four to eight inches in breadth and of any length
required. The writing intended to be thus copied is always minute, and
is read for the most part through magnifying spectacles. A roller is
attached to each end of the sheet, and when not in use the latter is
wound round that attached to the conclusion. When required for
reading, both rollers are fixed in a stand, and slowly moved by
clockwork, which spreads before the eyes of the reader a length of
about four inches at once. The motion is slackened or quickened at the
reader's pleasure, and can be stopped altogether, by touching a
spring. Another means of reproducing, not merely writings or drawings,
but natural objects, consists in a simple adaptation of the
camera
obscura
.
(The only essential difference from our photographs being
that the Martial art reproduces colour as well as outline, I omit this
description.)

While I was practising myself in the Martial language my host turned
our experimental conversations chiefly, if not exclusively, upon
Terrestrial subjects; endeavouring to learn all that I could convey to
him of the physical peculiarities of the Earth, of geology, geography,
vegetation, animal life in all its forms, human existence, laws,
manners, social and domestic order. Afterwards, when, at the end of
some fifty days, he found that we could converse, if not with ease yet
without fear of serious misapprehension, he took an early opportunity
of explaining to me the causes and circumstances of my unfriendly
reception among his people.

"Your size and form," he said, "startled and surprised them. I gather
from what you have told me that on Earth there are many nations very
imperfectly known to one another, with different dress, language, and
manners. This planet is now inhabited by a single race, all speaking
the same tongue, using much the same customs, and differing from one
another in form and size much less widely than (I understand) do men
upon your Earth. There you might have been taken for a visitor from
some strange and unexplored country. Here it was clear that you were
not one of our race, and yet it was inconceivable what else you could
be. We have no giants; the tallest skeleton preserved in our museums
is scarcely a hand's breadth taller than myself, and does not, of
course, approach to your stature. Then, as you have pointed out, your
limbs are longer and your chest smaller in proportion to the rest of
the body; probably because, as you seem to say, your atmosphere is
denser than ours, and we require ampler lungs to inhale the quantity
of air necessary at each breath for the oxidation of the blood. Then
you were not dumb, and yet affected not to understand our language and
to speak a different one. No such creature could have existed in this
planet without having been seen, described, and canvassed. You did
not, therefore, belong to us. The story you told by signs was quickly
apprehended, and as quickly rejected as an audacious impossibility. It
was an insult to the intelligence of your hearers, and a sufficient
ground for suspecting a being of such size and physical strength of
some evil or dangerous design. The mob who first attacked you were
probably only perplexed and irritated; those who subsequently
interfered may have been animated also by scientific curiosity. You
would have been well worth anatomisation and chemical analysis. Your
mail-shirt protected you from the shock of the dragon, which was meant
to paralyse and place you at the mercy of your assailants; the metal
distributing the current, and the silken lining resisting its passage.
Still, at the moment when I interposed, you would certainly have been
destroyed but for your manoeuvre of laying hold of two of your
immediate escort. Our destructive weapons are far superior to any you
possess or have described. That levelled at you by my neighbour would
have sent to ten times your distance a small ball, which, bursting,
would have asphyxiated every living thing for several yards around.
But our laws regarding the use of such weapons are very stringent, and
your enemy dared not imperil the lives of those you held. Those laws
would not, he evidently thought, apply to yourself, who, as he would
have affirmed, could not be regarded as a man and an object of legal
protection."