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first defeat. He recounted our Homeric struggle with a gusto that made
the roof reverberate, and roared his impatient eagerness for us to
fare forth and do battle together against the foes of Koth.
He was borne back to his own chamber, still bellowing his admiration
and gory plans for the future, and I experienced a warm glow in my
heart for this great-hearted child of nature, who was far more of a
man than many sophisticated scions of civilization that I had met.
And so I, Esau Cairn, took the step from savagery to barbarism. In
the vast domed council hall before the assembled tribesmen, as soon as
I was able, I stood before the throne of Khossuth Skullsplitter, and
he cut the mysterious symbol of Koth above my head with his sword.
Then with his own hands he buckled on me the harness of a warrior—the
broad leather belt with the iron buckle, supporting my poniard and a
long straight sword with a broad silver guard. Then the warriors filed
past me, and each chief placed his palm against mine, and spoke his
name, and I repeated it, and he repeated the name they had given me:
Ironhand. That part was most wearisome for there were some four
thousand warriors, and four hundred of these were chiefs of various
rank. But it was part of the ritual of initiation, and when it was
over I was as much a Kothan as if I had been born into the tribe.
In the tower chamber, pacing like a caged tiger while Thab talked,
and later as a member of the tribe, I learned all that the people of
Koth knew of their strange planet.
They and their kind, they said, were the only true humans on
Almuric, though there was a mysterious race of beings dwelling far to
the south called Yagas. The Kothans called themselves Guras, which
applied to all cast in their mold, and meant no more than “man” does
on Earth. There were many tribes of Guras, each dwelling in its
separate city, each of which was a counterpart of Koth. No tribe
numbered more than four or five thousand fighting-men, with the
appropriate number of women and children.
No man of Koth had ever circled the globe, but they ranged far in
their hunts and raids, and legends had been handed down concerning
their world—which, naturally, they called by a name simply
corresponding to the word “Earth”; though after a while some of them
took up my habit of speaking of the planet as Almuric. Far to the
north there was a land of ice and snow, uninhabited by human beings,
though men spoke of weird cries shuddering by night from the ice
crags, and of shadows falling across the snow. A lesser distance to
the south rose a barrier no man had ever passed—a gigantic wall of
rock which legend said girdled the planet; it was called, therefore,
the Girdle. What lay beyond that Girdle, none knew. Some believed it
was the rim of the world, and beyond it lay only empty space. Others
maintained that another hemisphere lay beyond it. They believed, as
seemed to me most logical, that the Girdle separated the northern and
southern halves of the world, and that the southern hemisphere was
inhabited by men and animals, though the exponents of their theory
could give no proof, and were generally scoffed at as over-imaginative
romanticists.
At any rate, the cities of the Guras dotted the vast expanse that
lay between the Girdle and the land of ice. The northern hemisphere
possessed no great body of water. There were rivers, great plains, a
few scattered lakes, occasional stretches of dark, thick forests, long
ranges of barren hills, and a few mountains. The larger rivers ran
southward, to plunge into chasms in the Girdle.
The cities of the Guras were invariably built on the open plains,
and always far apart. Their architecture was the result of the
peculiar evolution of their builders—they were, basically, fortresses
of rocks heaped up for defense. They reflected the nature of their
builders, being rude, stalwart, massive, despising gaudy show and
ornamentation, and knowing nothing of the arts.
In many ways the Guras are like the men of Earth, in other ways
bafflingly different. Some of the lines on which they have evolved are
so alien to Earthly evolution that I find it difficult to explain
their ways and their development.
Specifically, Koth—and what is said of Koth can be said of every
other Gura city:—the men of Koth are, skilled in war, the hunt, and
weapon-making. The latter science is taught to each male child, but
now seldom used. It is seldom found necessary to manufacture new arms,
because of the durability of the material used. Weapons are handed
down from generation to generation, or captured from enemies.
Metal is used only for weapons, in building, and for clasps and
buckles on garments. No ornaments are worn, either by men or women,
and there are no such things as coins. There is no medium of exchange.
No trade between cities exists, and such “business” as goes on within
the city is a matter of barter. The only cloth worn is a kind of silk,
made from the fiber of a curious plant grown within the city walls.
Other plants furnish wine, fruit, and seasonings. Fresh meat, the
principal food of the Guras, is furnished by hunting, a pastime at
once a sport and an occupation.
The folk of Koth, then, are highly skilled in metalworking, in
silk-weaving, and in their peculiar form of agriculture. They have a
written language, a simple hieroglyphic form, scrawled on leaves like
papyrus, with a daggerlike pen dipped in the crimson juice of a
curious blossom, but few except the chiefs can read or write.
Literature they have none; they know nothing of painting, sculpturing,
or the “higher” learning. They have evolved to the point of culture
needful for the necessities of life, and they progress no further.
Seemingly defying laws we on Earth have come to regard as immutable,
they remain stationary, neither advancing nor retrogressing.
Like most barbaric people, they have a form of rude poetry, dealing
almost exclusively with battle, mayhem and rapine. They have no bards
or minstrels, but every man of the tribe knows the popular ballads of
his clan, and after a few jacks of ale is prone to bellow them forth
in a voice fit to burst one’s eardrums.
These songs are never written down, and there is no written history.
As a result, events of antiquity are hazy, and mixed with improbable
legends.
No one knows how old is the city of Koth. Its gigantic stones are
impervious to the elements, and might have stood there ten years or
ten thousand years. I am of the opinion that the city is at least
fifteen thousand years old. The Guras are an ancient race, in spite of
their exuberant barbarism which gives them the atmosphere of a new
young people. Of the evolution of the race from whatever beast was
their common ancestor, of their racial splittings off and tribal
drifts, of their development to their present condition, nothing
whatever is known. The Guras themselves have no idea of evolution.
They suppose that, like eternity, their race is without beginning and
without end, that they have always been exactly as they are now. They
have no legends to explain their creation.
I have devoted most of my remarks to the men of Koth. The women of
Koth are no less worthy of detailed comment. I found the difference in
the appearance of the sexes not so inexplicable after all. It is
simply the result of natural evolution, and its roots lie in a fierce
tenderness on the part of the Gura males for their women. It was to
protect their women that they first, I am certain, built those brutish
heaps of stone and dwelt among them; for the innate nature of the
Gura male is definitely nomadic.
The woman, carefully guarded and shielded both from danger and from
the hard work that is the natural portion of the women of Earthly
barbarians, evolved by natural process into the type I have described.
The men, on the other hand, lead incredibly active and strenuous
lives. Their existence has been a savage battle for survival, ever
since the first ape stood upright on Almuric. And they have evolved
into a special type to fit their needs. Their peculiar appearance is
not a result of degeneration or underdevelopment. They are, indeed, a
highly specialized type, finely adapted to the wild life they follow.
As the men assume all risks and responsibility, they naturally
assume all authority. The Gura woman has no say whatever in the
government of the city and tribe, and her mate’s authority over her is
absolute, with the exception that she has the right to appeal to the
council and chief in case of oppression. Her scope is narrow; few
women ever set foot outside the city in which they are born, unless
they are carried off in a raid.
Yet her lot is not so unhappy as it might seem. I have said that one
of the characteristics of the Gura male is a savage tenderness for his
women. Mistreatment of a woman is very rare, not tolerated by the
tribe.
Monogamy is the rule. The Guras are not given to hand-kissing and
pretty compliments, and the other superficial adjuncts of chivalry,
but there is justice and a rough kindness in their dealing with women,
somewhat similar to the attitude of the American frontiersman.
The duties of the Gura women are few, concerned mainly with
child-bearing and child-rearing. They do no work heavier than the
manufacturing of silk from the silk plants. They are musically
inclined, and play on a small, stringed affair, resembling a lute, and
they sing. They are quicker-witted, and of much more sensitive mind
than the men. They are witty, merry, affectionate, playful and docile.
They have their own amusements, and time does not seem to drag for
them. The average woman could not be persuaded to set foot outside the
city walls. They well know the perils that hem the cities in, and they
are content in the protection of their ferocious mates and masters.
The men are, as I have said, in many ways like barbaric peoples on
Earth. In some respects they resemble, I imagine, the ancient Vikings.
They are honest, scorning theft and deceit. They delight in war and
the hunt, but are not wantonly cruel, except when maddened by rage or
bloodlust. Then they can be screaming fiends. They are blunt in
speech, rough in their manners, easily angered, but as easily
pacified, except when confronted by an hereditary enemy. They have a
definite, though crude, sense of humor, a ferocious love for tribe and
city, and a passion for personal freedom.
Their weapons consist of swords, daggers, spears, and a firearm
something like a carbine—a single-shot, breech-loading weapon of no
great range. The combustible material is not powder, as we know it.
Its counterpart is not found on Earth. It possesses both percussion
and explosive qualities. The bullet is of a substance much like lead.
These weapons were used mainly in war with men; for hunting, bows and
arrows were most often used.
Hunting parties are always going forth, so that the full force of
warriors is seldom in the city at once. Hunters are often gone for
weeks or months. But there are always a thousand fighting men in the
city to repel possible attack, though it is not often that the Guras
lay siege to a hostile city. Those cities are difficult to storm, and
it is impossible to starve out the inhabitants, since they produce
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