Her look was clear and truthful and she did not advance this astonishing statement as if it was astonishing, but quite as a matter of fact.
“But — the people — the children,” he protested, not believing her in the least, but not wishing to say so.
“Oh yes,” she smiled. “I do not wonder you are puzzled. We are mothers — all of us — but there are no fathers. We thought you would ask about that long ago — why have you not?” Her look was as frankly kind as always, her tone quite simple.
Terry explained that we had not felt sufficiently used to the language, making rather a mess of it, I thought, but Jeff was franker.
“Will you excuse us all,” he said, “if we admit that we find it hard to believe? There is no such — possibility — in the rest of the world.”
“Have you no kind of life where it is possible?” asked Zava.
“Why, yes — some low forms, of course.”
“How low — or how high, rather?”
“Well — there are some rather high forms of insect life in which it occurs. Parthenogenesis, we call it — that means virgin birth.”
She could not follow him.
“BIRTH, we know, of course; but what is VIRGIN?”
Terry looked uncomfortable, but Jeff met the question quite calmly. “Among mating animals, the term VIRGIN is applied to the female who has not mated,” he answered.
“Oh, I see. And does it apply to the male also? Or is there a different term for him?”
He passed this over rather hurriedly, saying that the same term would apply, but was seldom used.
“No?” she said. “But one cannot mate without the other surely. Is not each then — virgin — before mating? And, tell me, have you any forms of life in which there is birth from a father only?”
“I know of none,” he answered, and I inquired seriously.
“You ask us to believe that for two thousand years there have been only women here, and only girl babies born?”
“Exactly,” answered Somel, nodding gravely. “Of course we know that among other animals it is not so, that there are fathers as well as mothers; and we see that you are fathers, that you come from a people who are of both kinds. We have been waiting, you see, for you to be able to speak freely with us, and teach us about your country and the rest of the world. You know so much, you see, and we know only our own land.”
In the course of our previous studies we had been at some pains to tell them about the big world outside, to draw sketches, maps, to make a globe, even, out of a spherical fruit, and show the size and relation of the countries, and to tell of the numbers of their people. All this had been scant and in outline, but they quite understood.
I find I succeed very poorly in conveying the impression I would like to of these women. So far from being ignorant, they were deeply wise — that we realized more and more; and for clear reasoning, for real brain scope and power they were A No. 1, but there were a lot of things they did not know.
They had the evenest tempers, the most perfect patience and good nature — one of the things most impressive about them all was the absence of irritability. So far we had only this group to study, but afterward I found it a common trait.
We had gradually come to feel that we were in the hands of friends, and very capable ones at that — but we couldn’t form any opinion yet of the general level of these women.
“We want you to teach us all you can,” Somel went on, her firm shapely hands clasped on the table before her, her clear quiet eyes meeting ours frankly. “And we want to teach you what we have that is novel and useful. You can well imagine that it is a wonderful event to us, to have men among us — after two thousand years. And we want to know about your women.”
What she said about our importance gave instant pleasure to Terry. I could see by the way he lifted his head that it pleased him. But when she spoke of our women — someway I had a queer little indescribable feeling, not like any feeling I ever had before when “women” were mentioned.
“Will you tell us how it came about?” Jeff pursued. “You said ‘for two thousand years’ — did you have men here before that?”
“Yes,” answered Zava.
They were all quiet for a little.
“You should have our full history to read — do not be alarmed — it has been made clear and short. It took us a long time to learn how to write history. Oh, how I should love to read yours!”
She turned with flashing eager eyes, looking from one to the other of us.
“It would be so wonderful — would it not? To compare the history of two thousand years, to see what the differences are — between us, who are only mothers, and you, who are mothers and fathers, too. Of course we see, with our birds, that the father is as useful as the mother, almost. But among insects we find him of less importance, sometimes very little. Is it not so with you?”
“Oh, yes, birds and bugs,” Terry said, “but not among animals — have you NO animals?”
“We have cats,” she said. “The father is not very useful.”
“Have you no cattle — sheep — horses?” I drew some rough outlines of these beasts and showed them to her.
“We had, in the very old days, these,” said Somel, and sketched with swift sure touches a sort of sheep or llama, “and these” — dogs, of two or three kinds, “that that” — pointing to my absurd but recognizable horse.
“What became of them?” asked Jeff.
“We do not want them anymore. They took up too much room — we need all our land to feed our people. It is such a little country, you know.”
“Whatever do you do without milk?” Terry demanded incredulously.
“MILK? We have milk in abundance — our own.”
“But — but — I mean for cooking — for grown people,” Terry blundered, while they looked amazed and a shade displeased.
Jeff came to the rescue. “We keep cattle for their milk, as well as for their meat,” he explained. “Cow’s milk is a staple article of diet. There is a great milk industry — to collect and distribute it.”
Still they looked puzzled. I pointed to my outline of a cow. “The farmer milks the cow,” I said, and sketched a milk pail, the stool, and in pantomime showed the man milking. “Then it is carried to the city and distributed by milkmen — everybody has it at the door in the morning.”
“Has the cow no child?” asked Somel earnestly.
“Oh, yes, of course, a calf, that is.”
“Is there milk for the calf and you, too?”
It took some time to make clear to those three sweet-faced women the process which robs the cow of her calf, and the calf of its true food; and the talk led us into a further discussion of the meat business. They heard it out, looking very white, and presently begged to be excused.
CHAPTER 5. A Unique History
It is no use for me to try to piece out this account with adventures. If the people who read it are not interested in these amazing women and their history, they will not be interested at all.
As for us — three young men to a whole landful of women — what could we do? We did get away, as described, and were peacefully brought back again without, as Terry complained, even the satisfaction of hitting anybody.
There were no adventures because there was nothing to fight. There were no wild beasts in the country and very few tame ones. Of these I might as well stop to describe the one common pet of the country. Cats, of course. But such cats!
What do you suppose these Lady Burbanks had done with their cats? By the most prolonged and careful selection and exclusion they had developed a race of cats that did not sing! That’s a fact. The most those poor dumb brutes could do was to make a kind of squeak when they were hungry or wanted the door open, and, of course, to purr, and make the various mother-noises to their kittens.
Moreover, they had ceased to kill birds. They were rigorously bred to destroy mice and moles and all such enemies of the food supply; but the birds were numerous and safe.
While we were discussing birds, Terry asked them if they used feathers for their hats, and they seemed amused at the idea. He made a few sketches of our women’s hats, with plumes and quills and those various tickling things that stick out so far; and they were eagerly interested, as at everything about our women.
As for them, they said they only wore hats for shade when working in the sun; and those were big light straw hats, something like those used in China and Japan. In cold weather they wore caps or hoods.
“But for decorative purposes — don’t you think they would be becoming?” pursued Terry, making as pretty a picture as he could of a lady with a plumed hat.
They by no means agreed to that, asking quite simply if the men wore the same kind. We hastened to assure her that they did not — drew for them our kind of headgear.
“And do no men wear feathers in their hats?”
“Only Indians,” Jeff explained. “Savages, you know.” And he sketched a war bonnet to show them.
“And soldiers,” I added, drawing a military hat with plumes.
They never expressed horror or disapproval, nor indeed much surprise — just a keen interest. And the notes they made! — miles of them!
But to return to our pussycats. We were a good deal impressed by this achievement in breeding, and when they questioned us — I can tell you we were well pumped for information — we told of what had been done for dogs and horses and cattle, but that there was no effort applied to cats, except for show purposes.
I wish I could represent the kind, quiet, steady, ingenious way they questioned us. It was not just curiosity — they weren’t a bit more curious about us than we were about them, if as much. But they were bent on understanding our kind of civilization, and their lines of interrogation would gradually surround us and drive us in till we found ourselves up against some admissions we did not want to make.
“Are all these breeds of dogs you have made useful?” they asked.
“Oh — useful! Why, the hunting dogs and watchdogs and sheepdogs are useful — and sleddogs of course! — and ratters, I suppose, but we don’t keep dogs for their USEFULNESS. The dog is ‘the friend of man,’ we say — we love them.”
That they understood. “We love our cats that way. They surely are our friends, and helpers, too. You can see how intelligent and affectionate they are.”
It was a fact. I’d never seen such cats, except in a few rare instances. Big, handsome silky things, friendly with everyone and devotedly attached to their special owners.
“You must have a heartbreaking time drowning kittens,” we suggested. But they said, “Oh, no! You see we care for them as you do for your valuable cattle. The fathers are few compared to the mothers, just a few very fine ones in each town; they live quite happily in walled gardens and the houses of their friends. But they only have a mating season once a year.”
“Rather hard on Thomas, isn’t it?” suggested Terry.
“Oh, no — truly! You see, it is many centuries that we have been breeding the kind of cats we wanted. They are healthy and happy and friendly, as you see. How do you manage with your dogs? Do you keep them in pairs, or segregate the fathers, or what?”
Then we explained that — well, that it wasn’t a question of fathers exactly; that nobody wanted a — a mother dog; that, well, that practically all our dogs were males — there was only a very small percentage of females allowed to live.
Then Zava, observing Terry with her grave sweet smile, quoted back at him: “Rather hard on Thomas, isn’t it? Do they enjoy it — living without mates? Are your dogs as uniformly healthy and sweet-tempered as our cats?”
Jeff laughed, eyeing Terry mischievously. As a matter of fact we began to feel Jeff something of a traitor — he so often flopped over and took their side of things; also his medical knowledge gave him a different point of view somehow.
“I’m sorry to admit,” he told them, “that the dog, with us, is the most diseased of any animal — next to man. And as to temper — there are always some dogs who bite people — especially children.”
That was pure malice. You see, children were the — the RAISON D’ETRE in this country. All our interlocutors sat up straight at once. They were still gentle, still restrained, but there was a note of deep amazement in their voices.
“Do we understand that you keep an animal — an unmated male animal — that bites children? About how many are there of them, please?”
“Thousands — in a large city,” said Jeff, “and nearly every family has one in the country.”
Terry broke in at this. “You must not imagine they are all dangerous — it’s not one in a hundred that ever bites anybody. Why, they are the best friends of the children — a boy doesn’t have half a chance that hasn’t a dog to play with!”
“And the girls?” asked Somel.
“Oh — girls — why they like them too,” he said, but his voice flatted a little. They always noticed little things like that, we found later.
Little by little they wrung from us the fact that the friend of man, in the city, was a prisoner; was taken out for his meager exercise on a leash; was liable not only to many diseases but to the one destroying horror of rabies; and, in many cases, for the safety of the citizens, had to go muzzled. Jeff maliciously added vivid instances he had known or read of injury and death from mad dogs.
They did not scold or fuss about it. Calm as judges, those women were. But they made notes; Moadine read them to us.
“Please tell me if I have the facts correct,” she said. “In your country — and in others too?”
“Yes,” we admitted, “in most civilized countries.”
“In most civilized countries a kind of animal is kept which is no longer useful—”
“They are a protection,” Terry insisted. “They bark if burglars try to get in.”
Then she made notes of “burglars” and went on: “because of the love which people bear to this animal.”
Zava interrupted here. “Is it the men or the women who love this animal so much?”
“Both!” insisted Terry.
“Equally?” she inquired.
And Jeff said, “Nonsense, Terry — you know men like dogs better than women do — as a whole.”
“Because they love it so much — especially men. This animal is kept shut up, or chained.”
“Why?” suddenly asked Somel. “We keep our father cats shut up because we do not want too much fathering; but they are not chained — they have large grounds to run in.”
“A valuable dog would be stolen if he was let loose,” I said. “We put collars on them, with the owner’s name, in case they do stray. Besides, they get into fights — a valuable dog might easily be killed by a bigger one.”
“I see,” she said. “They fight when they meet — is that common?” We admitted that it was.
“They are kept shut up, or chained.” She paused again, and asked, “Is not a dog fond of running? Are they not built for speed?” That we admitted, too, and Jeff, still malicious, enlightened them further.
“I’ve always thought it was a pathetic sight, both ways — to see a man or a woman taking a dog to walk — at the end of a string.”
“Have you bred them to be as neat in their habits as cats are?” was the next question. And when Jeff told them of the effect of dogs on sidewalk merchandise and the streets generally, they found it hard to believe.
You see, their country was as neat as a Dutch kitchen, and as to sanitation — but I might as well start in now with as much as I can remember of the history of this amazing country before further description.
And I’ll summarize here a bit as to our opportunities for learning it. I will not try to repeat the careful, detailed account I lost; I’ll just say that we were kept in that fortress a good six months all told, and after that, three in a pleasant enough city where — to Terry’s infinite disgust — there were only “Colonels” and little children — no young women whatever. Then we were under surveilla
nce for three more — always with a tutor or a guard or both. But those months were pleasant because we were really getting acquainted with the girls. That was a chapter! — or will be — I will try to do justice to it.
We learned their language pretty thoroughly — had to; and they learned ours much more quickly and used it to hasten our own studies.
Jeff, who was never without reading matter of some sort, had two little books with him, a novel and a little anthology of verse; and I had one of those pocket encyclopedias — a fat little thing, bursting with facts. These were used in our education — and theirs. Then as soon as we were up to it, they furnished us with plenty of their own books, and I went in for the history part — I wanted to understand the genesis of this miracle of theirs.
And this is what happened, according to their records.
As to geography — at about the time of the Christian era this land had a free passage to the sea. I’m not saying where, for good reasons. But there was a fairly easy pass through that wall of mountains behind us, and there is no doubt in my mind that these people were of Aryan stock, and were once in contact with the best civilization of the old world. They were “white,” but somewhat darker than our northern races because of their constant exposure to sun and air.
The country was far larger then, including much land beyond the pass, and a strip of coast. They had ships, commerce, an army, a king — for at that time they were what they so calmly called us — a bi-sexual race.
What happened to them first was merely a succession of historic misfortunes such as have befallen other nations often enough. They were decimated by war, driven up from their coastline till finally the reduced population, with many of the men killed in battle, occupied this hinterland, and defended it for years, in the mountain passes. Where it was open to any possible attack from below they strengthened the natural defenses so that it became unscalably secure, as we found it.
They were a polygamous people, and a slave-holding people, like all of their time; and during the generation or two of this struggle to defend their mountain home they built the fortresses, such as the one we were held in, and other of their oldest buildings, some still in use. Nothing but earthquakes could destroy such architecture — huge solid blocks, holding by their own weight. They must have had efficient workmen and enough of them in those days.
Complete Works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman Page 107
