A Visit to Sauri

by A. Hyatt Verrill

  "In this first group were hordes of the two-legged creatures, males, females and young, but no two exactly alike, for not only do the Suarians vary individually, but, as I found later, there are many races of them, varying in color, in size and in every respect, even as to intelligence and culture—all working at cross-purposes and even fighting with one another. But in this first place I visited all were of one color or nearly so and of one race, although their artificial skins varied in color and form.

  "Also, to my amazement, I discovered that the four-legged beasts were not artificially covered, but that the shaggy coverings actually grew upon them, yet they were inferior creatures and mere slaves of the two-legged beings. More surprising still, I found that these were not the only slaves. There were giant creatures with horns upon their heads; there were smaller beings with immensely large ears and big heads that served the two-legged creatures as beasts of burden; there were still smaller four-legged Suarians that possessed sharp teeth and that appeared savage and uttered sharp barking sounds when strangers approached, but were docile with those they knew; and there were many other four-legged things as well as hosts of birds larger than the Pilcus. All of these I learned were kept in captivity by the two-legged beings and were forced to labor for them, which was most strange, for many were superior in intelligence and in senses to their stupid and backward masters. Although you may not believe it, yet it is a fact that the two-legged inhabitants of Suari—men and women as they are called—arc so deficient in sense development that they cannot see scent nor sound; they cannot hear light nor scent, and they cannot smell sound nor light. Their eyes, of which they have but two, are used only for seeing that which is the result of light waves. Their ears, which are mere holes in their heads, are useful only in detecting sound vibrations, and their noses which also are holes in their heads, can only detect odors. Moreover, being thus deficient and unable to use their three sense organs in unison or to substantiate one another, the Suarians are lamentably deficient in sight, hearing and scent. Many of their captive creatures are far superior to them in these respects, and it is a most amazing fact that the so-called superior beings actually keep the so-called inferior creatures (especially those with the sharp teeth and barking sounds) because the latter possess keener sight, hearing and scent than their masters and hence serve as additional ears, noses and eyes and warn their masters of many events and perils of which otherwise they would be ignorant.

  "Of course, being materialized in the form of a Suarian, I was to a great extent like them, but in my mind and my senses I had not changed, and though the alteration in the structure of my eyes, ears and nose rendered me less sensitive than normally and though lacking my horns I could not receive thought messages—still I could detect many things that the Suarians could not. For example, I was aware that the various four-legged creatures were conversing among themselves, and while I could not understand their languages, it proved how degenerate and undeveloped were the two-legged people, for in all my travels I found none who could hear the voices of the four-legged creatures when they conversed in normal tones.

  "When I first reached the abiding place of the three beings I had met on the plain, I found many of the females performing mysterious rites over fires. At first I thought that sacrifices were being offered, so you may judge of my astonishment when I discovered that they actually were preparing food! To these benighted backward and stupid beings sustenance is the main object in their life. All their efforts are bent towards providing food. They labor and strive and live with the one end of keeping life in their bodies by means of food. And imagine, if you can, what their food is! We have long ago decided that the Suarians must still adhere to the prehistoric, archaic method of cultivating the soil and raising crops for sustenance. This I found was the case, but they go even farther back. They actually kill their captive beasts and birds and devour them! And the poor, deluded, ignorant creatures have never learned that all they obtain in the way of food by such roundabout means may be secured with little effort and no waste from the air, water and earth direct.

  "Imagine, laboring to prepare the soil, sowing seeds, raising vegetation and devouring the resulting plants in order to supply their bodies with the elements that are derived from the air, earth and water by the plants! And imagine, if you can, the still more roundabout, clumsy and wasteful method of rearing such plants, feeding them to beasts and then killing the beasts in order to extract the few atoms of sustenance needed, and which have been gathered by means of the plants and transferred to the flesh of the beasts! And the beasts' carcasses, the waste material of the crops, are used to supply the elements for more plants and more beasts to provide more sustenance for these Suarians in a vicious, never-ending circle. You would be absolutely astounded were I to describe what and how these beings eat. So great is the waste material in all they call food that one family is forced to devour daily material whose bulk would equal the amount of concentrated foods required to feed our entire population! Though they boastfully declare themselves intelligent, highly civilized beings, even scientists, yet never have they learned that all elements of life, force, energy are distributed about them and may be extracted directly and with little effort from their surroundings, without being put through the clumsy extraction process of plants, flesh and fowl. Though their more learned members realize that all energy and power is derived from the sun, yet never have they learned how to employ the energy and power of the sun directly. Instead, they follow the same roundabout methods as in producing food products.

  They burn materials, release the stored energy, waste the greater part of it by the employment of crude mechanisms, capture and control a small percentage of the energy they have released, and by a complicated, involved method make use of this small remaining portion of the energy for their purposes.

  "I was simply appalled at the terrific, criminal waste everywhere. Fortunate indeed are the Suarians in possessing a large planet still young and rich in its natural resources and elements. Yet even so the waste is so stupendous that, within a short time, the Suarians will have exhausted the life essentials of their planet and will perish miserably from their own lack of foresight, if they do not advance and improve intellectually to the point reached by our forefathers countless ages ago. But all these things I learned little by little as I moved about, for in that first nest of the beings I learned very little. In fact I soon discovered that the beings I had by chance first encountered were a very inferior and backward lot, for unlike ourselves, all of whom are given the same intelligence, the same senses, the identical bodily powers, the denizens of Suari are of innumerable grades of intelligence, of bodily development and of sense acuteness. Partially these variations are due to race, partly they are due to climate, partly to surroundings, but very largely to the fact that the Suarians, no matter of what race, learn only by example, by being taught by others. They have no instinctive knowledge and the offspring of the most intelligent and advanced, if reared apart or amid the inferior members of the population, reach maturity as stupid and backward as the offspring of those about them. On the other hand, the young of inferior and unintelligent beings, if reared and taught by those of the superior classes, may and often do, excel their mentors in attainments.

  “There has been some effort made to bring about a general and universal improvement of the population by a system of education, but it has amounted to very little as far as I could judge by even careful study and observation.

  "Mingled with the other strange and paradoxical features of these beings is a curious feeling of independence, a desire for personal liberty that, considering the conditions that exist, is most amusing. Though robbed completely of all real freedom, completely subservient to rulers, leaders, law makers and countless cunning members of their race; content to he ordered about, to be forced to sacrifice their lives and to destroy others at the demands of those they have never seen and do not know and with whose quarrels they have no concern, yet they rise and refuse to listen to
any innovation that is for the good of their race, such as the regulation and rearing of their progeny by duly appointed authorities, the regulation of their food in quality and quantity, the destruction of the unfit— the imbeciles and cripples— and the thousand and one ideas that we of Sonko-Huara have long ago adopted and which, as proved by experience, appear to be the most admirable and beneficial rulings for the community as a whole.

  "But I am getting too far ahead of my experiences. All these matters I learned long after I left the beings I first met and after I had found and mingled with the white Suarians who claim— and perhaps rightfully— to be the most intelligent and progressive of the inhabitants of the planet which they call the 'earth' or the 'world' and who call Sonko-Huara by the name of 'Mars'.

  CHAPTER III

  The Monsters of Suari

  "One of the earliest discoveries I made was that all Suarians—or as they call themselves, 'human beings' were not of the same race and that no language was universal to all. This came about through the arrival of a remarkable being in the community where I had first arrived. He came across the plain on a gigantic, four-legged creature with two bodies and heads, the most terrifying monster it is possible to imagine. One body was rough, hairy, immense, with a heavy neck fringed with long hair, and bearing a great bony head with pointed ears, staring eyes, snorting nostrils and great yellow teeth. The other body resembled that of the two-legged beings but sprouted from the larger body's back. It bore two arms and a small round head with features somewhat like those of the men I had seen, but covered with dark fur, and with the skin, where it showed, a peculiar pink. The monster came rushing onwards and to my amazement the beings of the place showed no fear nor did they endeavor to flee from the fury and destruction of the oncoming creature.

  "Had I not been of Sonko-Huara I should have sought safety in flight, though so swift was the pace of the thing that it would have been hopeless. Even as it was I felt dread, yet I stood my ground, and was still more amazed to observe that the four-legged things, even those smaller ones with the sharp teeth and yelping voices, did not dash away in terror. On the contrary they ran snapping at the monster who made no attempt to destroy them. The next moment it was close at hand. It came to a halt and I stared, unable to credit my senses, for before my wondering eyes the monster separated into two portions. The smaller body with its head broke away from the other! It sprang to the ground, and to my utter amazement I discovered that it was a separate being, a creature with two legs, in form precisely like myself and the others, while the other portion was a distinct creature, a four-legged being unlike anything I had seen. The two-legged being spoke in an unknown tongue and at his bidding the beings about fled to obey him. They seized his four-legged companion, who seemed strangely docile for such a monster, and took him off; they led the two-legged being to a cubicle, and, they hurried to bring him food and drink. Here indeed, was a strange happening. He seemed scarcely different from the others, he wore similar coverings upon his head and body and feet, and he appeared no more intelligent than those who treated him like a superior being.

  "Why, I wondered, was he so regarded? I questioned one of the beings, who by now had come to regard me as one of themselves, and he looked at me with amazement. The being who had arrived upon the monster was a superior being, I was told, for he was white. Anxious to learn more of such a strange creature, I endeavored to converse with the 'white’ but to my surprise he made no reply and seemed not to understand my words. I felt I had been deceived, for he appeared most unintelligent and made loud coarse sounds through the fur over his mouth. But the others told me that the whites spoke another language, that, in order to converse with them, it was necessary to acquire that language. How strange, how different from Sonko-Huara where all speak the same tongue, where those attuned may converse by wordless thoughts!

  "That was my first meeting with a white Suarian. Learning there were many of the race not far distant, that they were even more numerous than those beings of brown skin, and being told they were superior and ruled the whole of Suari, I devoted myself to acquiring a knowledge of their tongue from one of my friends. With my senses and mind so far above those of the Suarians, I found this an easy task and very soon knew all the being could teach me. By this time, however, the first white Suarian had departed, having again joined himself with his four-legged creature. I learned in which direction I must travel to reach the spot where the whites dwelt and I set forth.

  "In my Sonko-Huaran form, with my many legs and limbs and my powerful body I would have found the journey trifling, but I possessed the puny form of the Suarians and the two feet, all that belonged to it, soon grew weary. To rest them I seated myself, and presently, in the distance, I beheld a cloud of dust. It approached nearer and I saw it was caused by a terrible, frightful, gigantic monster, beside which the creature of the white Suarian was nothing. It emitted terrifying roars and growls, it possessed immense, glaring, fiery eyes, and it breathed fire and smoke.

  "It approached with amazing speed, and hopelessly I gazed about seeking some escape from its wrath. But I was too weary to run and the horrible, screaming thing was almost upon me. How can I describe the thoughts that flashed through my brain? How little had I dreamed that there would be so many forms, such terrifying creatures upon Suari! No wonder the beings I had met had remained primitive, archaic, had not developed any intelligence, when such monsters as that rushing on me were about!

  "Had I had time I would have adjusted my instruments, would have caused my body to disintegrate and appear elsewhere. But I had no time. And yet, so swift are thoughts, that I found myself marveling that I had not thought to make use of my device in order to reach the place of the white Suarians, instead of wearily walking there. But it was too late, the devastating monster was upon me. I shook with terror, I, a Sonko-Huaran, but you must recall that I was, bodily, a Suarian. I felt my end had come, as with a screech and a roar the giant beast came to a halt close to where I stood. Even at a standstill it was terrifying. Yet I scarcely glanced at it, for my eyes were fixed upon something else I had not before seen. Upon the monster's back was one of the white Suarians!

  "Evidently he was the monster's master. He held it under his control, just as the other white had controlled his monster. I breathed more freely, remembering the other. If the white being were friendly, he would not allow his ravenous creature to destroy me and all might be well. And I noticed now that the monster itself appeared quite docile, quite peaceful, staring fixedly ahead with its four round eyes, breathing heavily but remaining motionless. No wonder, I thought, the brown beings regard these whites as superior, if they can thus master such horrifying monsters. And as the white appeared friendly I gathered courage. Presently he spoke, using the tongue I had learned, and asking me whither I was going and if I was not weary. I replied that I was going to where I might find the whites and that my feet were weary; also that I had been terrified at his monster.

  "For a moment he appeared puzzled, as if not understanding my newly acquired words. Then he gave vent to those loud bellowing noises, the Suarians employ to denote mirth. At last he ceased. He made some remark of which I knew not the import, something about a 'queer fish.' Then he asked whence I came, and when I told him Sonko-Huara, he declared he had never heard of the place. Then he startled and amazed me by asking if I would care to 'hop in,' meaning, I found, would I care to mount the monster, I drew back, asking if the creature might not resent my presence, at which he made more bellowing sounds and his skin turned curiously red.

  "He assured me, however, that the monster was harmless and 'tame’ and with misgivings, but desiring to prove a Sonko-Huaran knows no fear, I mounted the creature's back. Judge of my utter bewilderment when, as I did so, I discovered that the thing was no living creature but a machine!

  "The next instant it was in motion; we were rushing across the plain and though the motion was rough and unpleasant compared to that of our projectors, yet I enjoyed its novelty. Undoubtedly, I was
convinced, the whites were far superior to the browns, and I wondered if the monstrous creature on which the first white had appeared had also been a machine. But I learned it was not, when, in our mad rush, I saw others of the same sort with whites upon them. But also I saw others upon which were browns, and once we met a machine like that in which we were and in which, to my astonishment, was a brown-skinned being. I was hopelessly confused. As far as I could see the whites and browns seemed equal in intelligence.

  "Soon we reached the place of the whites. Here were many of the cubicles, such as I had seen and in which lived browns. Between these we rushed on and presently came to more numerous and larger cubicles, some of immense size, and with whites everywhere. The machine stopped and I descended to the ground, as did the white being. I thanked him fittingly, and left him, but soon I regretted I had done so, for I found myself at a total loss as to how to proceed. Everything seemed confusion. Everyone was rushing about, everywhere were the great machines, such as the one in which I had come. Also I felt the need of nourishment, but I knew not where to seek sustenance. During my life with the browns I had learned to eat as they did, and presently, seeing a brown female seated beside such food, I drew near and asked for sustenance. She demanded that I should pay for it. At the time I knew not her meaning and was about to move on, when I noticed a brown being stop beside the female and give into her hand some pieces of bright metal, whereupon she gave him food.