The Worshippers | Page 6

not stick; he had no way of knowing just how
improbable his luck had been.
They themselves were, as he had thought, simple beings. They had a
written history of some twelve thousand of their years, which he
estimated to be about nine thousand of his. Their technical
accomplishments, he had to grant, equalled Earth's and in some cases
surpassed them. Their social organization was either so complex that it
escaped him altogether, or unbelievably simple. They did not, so far as
he could discover, have any political divisions. They did not make war.

They were egg-layers, and they controlled their population simply by
means of hatching only as many eggs as were needed to replace their
natural losses.
* * * * *
Just when it first struck Weaver that he was their appointed ruler it
would be hard to say. It began, perhaps, that afternoon in the aircar; or
a few days later when he made his first timid request--for a house of his
own. The request was eagerly granted, and he was asked how he would
like the house constructed. Half timidly, he drew sketches of his own
suburban home in Schenectady; and they built it, swarms of them
working together, down to the hardwood floors and the pneumatic
furniture and the picture mouldings and the lampshades.
Or perhaps the idea crystallized when he asked to see some of their
native dances, and within an hour the dancers assembled on his
lawn--five hundred of them--and performed until sundown.
At, any rate, nothing could have been more clearly correct once he had
grasped the idea. He was a Man, alone in a world of outlandish
creatures. It was natural that he should lead; indeed, it was his duty.
They were poor things, but they were malleable in his hands. It was a
great adventure. Who knew how far he might not bring them?
Weaver embarked on a tour of the planet, taking with him two of the
bug things as guides and a third as pilot and personal servant. Their
names in their own tongue he had not bothered to ask; he had
christened them Mark, Luke and John. All three now wrote and read
English with fair proficiency; thus Weaver was well served.
The trip was entirely enjoyable. He was met everywhere by the same
throngs, the same delight and enthusiasm as before; and between
villages--there seemed to be nothing on the planet that could be called a
city--the rolling green countryside, dotted with bosquets of yellow- and
orange-flowered trees, was most soothing to the eye. Weaver noted the
varieties of strangely shaped and colored plants, and the swarms of
bright flying things, and began an abortive collection. He had to give it

up, for the present: there were too many things to study. He looked
forward to a few books to be compiled later, when he had time, for the
guidance of Earthmen at some future date: The Flora of Terranova, The
Fauna of Terranova....
All that was for the distant future. Now he was chiefly concerned with
the Terranovans themselves--how they lived, what they thought, what
sort of primitive religion they had, and so on. He asked endless
questions of his guides, and through them, of the villagers they met;
and the more he learned, the more agitated he became.
* * * * *
"But this is monstrous," he wrote indignantly to Mark and Luke. They
had just visited a house inhabited by seventeen males and twelve
females--Weaver was now beginning to be able to distinguish the
sexes--and he had inquired what their relations were. Mark had
informed him calmly that they were husbands and wives; and when
Weaver pointed out that the balance was uneven, had written, "No, not
one to one. All to all. All husband and wife of each other."
Mark held Weaver's indignant message up to his eyes with one
many-jointed claw, while his other three forelimbs gestured uncertainly.
Finally he seized the note-pad and wrote, "Do not understand
monstrous, please forgive. They do for more change, so not to make
each other have tiredness."
Weaver frowned and wrote, "Does not your religion forbid this?"
Mark consulted in his own piping tongue with the other two. Finally he
surrendered the note-pad to Luke, who wrote: "Do not understand
religion to forbid, please excuse. With us many religion, some say
spirits in flower, some say in wind and sun, some say in ground. Not
say to do this, not to do that. With us all people the same, no one tell
other what to do."
Weaver added another mental note to his already lengthy list: "Build
churches."

He wrote: "Tell them this must stop."
Mark turned without hesitation to the silently attentive group, and
translated. He turned back to Weaver and wrote, "They ask