Atta (1953) by Francis Rufus Bellamy

by Atta (pdf)

  I could induce him to spend part of our evenings in anything so desultory as mere conversation. This aloofness altered remarkably as we grew to know each other better, and eventually out of our experiences there sprang

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  up a mutual respect and affection not to be .denied—a

  companionship of the mind little short of delightful. But,

  even so, he could never quite overcome the effects of that

  childhood training which is the common experience of

  his race; and different as he was from other Formicans, I

  do not think that he himself realized in the beginning

  what it was that drew us so closely together. He simply

  accepted me gradually and played his part in our joint

  life with a silent devotion that has since often touched

  me to tears.

  One result was that, although I often described my

  past life in detail, he himself said very little about his

  own experiences. Outside of providing for our immediate

  necessities he seemed to have almost no interest in past

  or future, beyond a vague compulsion to fulfill his duty

  by returning to the society from which he had come.

  This difference led to many strange discussions between

  us. For to say that the opposite was true of me is to

  understate the situation sadly. As the days drew on, hardly an hour passed in which I did not ask myself what could be the outcome of this strange life into which I

  had come; what could be its explanation and what its

  final goal. To say that I had hope is to beg the question.

  I could conceive of no reasonable solution of my presence, and therefore I dared not expect any development radical enough to restore me to my home, my sweetheart, and all that I had been so suddenly deprived of.

  Indeed, for the greater part of the time I went about

  my tasks as if I too were a Formican, refusing to think

  too much of my situation lest the conviction be forced

  home upon me that beyond all doubt I was destined to

  pass the remainder of my life in this ungodly country,

  among the mechanical creatures whom Atta described as

  his countrymen.

  This hopelessness was one reason why on rainy days

  I sought refuge in games of all kinds—and why I first

  taught Atta mumble-de-peg and then made a rude checkerboard and taught him the simple game of checkers.

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  This he enjoyed so much that I followed it with chess,

  spending many an hour carving the pieces and explaining

  to Atta the manner in which they moved. Then we set

  about playing that noble game, and we had many an

  exciting afternoon competing with each other until twilight. After a while I even contrived a rude flute to lessen the boredom of our evenings, and this amusement did

  much to enliven our loneliness. Take it all in all, we did

  not fare so badly in our search for entertainment.

  In the meantime the only point upon which Atta

  thought a great deal, and which seemed to make a serious impression upon him, was my slowness of movement so far as covering great distances was concerned. From

  his standpoint this was extremely serious and might

  prove to be vital when the time came for us to make our

  dash for civilization. For not only did it take me a great

  time to cover distances which we should have traversed

  very quickly had I been able to keep up with him, but in

  encounters with other Formicans it had already proved

  and would continue to prove a serious and perhaps fatal

  disadvantage.

  What a singular commentary it is on Atta’s habits of

  mind that, with all the worrying he did on this score, the

  solution should never have presented itself to him! As for

  me, I think the idea finally came to fruition as I gazed

  one morning at our three aphids just before I sat

  down to milk them and observed their large eyes intent

  on the new branches on which they were feeding.

  Why, of course! What I needed was a horse! Surely if

  , this strange country had these counterparts for our domestic cows—grotesque as they appeared if compared with actual cows—why could I not succeed in finding

  some animal capable of being trained to act as a beast

  of burden to carry me on our final expedition?

  At first thought nothing seemed more likely than that

  I should thus find a way out of our difficulty. My hopes

  received a sudden dashing, however, when I broached

  the subject to Atta. Not only was the idea new to him,

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  it appeared—he never having seen any animal thus used

  —but he plainly considered as perfectly preposterous the

  notion that any animal should exist which could be thus'

  trained. He admitted that there were plenty of animals

  that could outjump and outrun the Formicans, many of

  them living in the jungle immediately around us. But

  their sole value, so far as he was concerned, lay in the

  advantage to be gained by killing them.

  When I pointed out to him the manifest advantages of

  taking them alive, he saw the point at once, slaves being

  in common use among nearly all the races of Formicans.

  Indeed, he professed a great admiration for the intellect

  that had been capable of thinking of such a thing. But he

  was strongly of the opinion that, though there were

  any number and many different kinds of these wild

  creatures of the requisite size for horseback use, none

  would be found that could by any means be domesticated

  and trained to obey my will.

  For some time this judgment of Atta’s discouraged me.

  Nevertheless I could not help thinking that my lasso

  gave me an easy method of capturing any particular

  species of animal that I might hunt, and my former experience in breaking colts on the farm, coupled with my aptitude for managing animals of all kinds, ought to

  make securing a proper mount only a matter of time. In

  this I was correct, as the sequel will show.

  My first efforts afforded much amusement to Atta, little

  prone as he was to see the ridiculous side of things. (Indeed, I think I have never seen so uniformly sober and serious a person as my companion was in those days.)

  True, my earlier choices did turn out with unvarying ill

  fortune, principally, I think, because I was then a stranger to the fauna of the region and usually captured what first came to my hand, in slight hopes of having struck

  upon the right kind of animal. But I was unwearying in

  my efforts, and after several unlucky experiences, in one

  or two of which I barely escaped with my life, I grew

  wiser and formed a definite idea of the sort of creature

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  that would be the most likely to respond to my efforts

  without endeavoring to end my existence. For there were

  in that jungle too many creatures that I gravely doubt if

  anyone could have trained, and that kept their fierceness

  and savage temper to tire end.

  I smile now when I think of my obtuseness—a blindness the more strange in a man born and bred to the country and skilled in rearing and training animals. Yet

  many days passed before the solution came to me.

  It came one afternoon at the close of a partic
ularly

  arduous three-hour tussle with a vicious captive who

  looked for all the world like an overgrown green beetle.

  His six legs had attracted me at first because they promised unusual speed and easy riding qualities; he sped about with none of the jars and jouncings incidental to

  horseback riding. But I had finally become discouraged

  by his unvarying obstinacy and ill temper and had sat

  down to rest on a post in our paddock, a fair-sized enclosure in back of the bouse. If only I could have had him from colthood, I reflected—

  With the thought, the solution presented itself to me

  instantly. Why, of coursel A young one! A young one

  might be easily tamed and raised to consider carrying

  me as its natural life and purpose.

  As I viewed again all my efforts and discomfitures,

  when all the time such a simple solution waited around

  the comer, of a sudden the humor of my addleheaded-

  ness overcame me and I burst into shrieks of laughter

  so uncontrollable that at last they reduced me to tears.

  In the midst of it all Atta appeared in great alarm, the

  unusual sounds having led him to fear that the worst had

  happened to me—a calamity that he was quite ready to

  believe in, after some of my performances in the pad-

  dock. But when I explained my idea to him he was much

  struck with the excellence of the suggestion and agreed

  with me at once. Indeed, I think it was from that moment, and a consequence of that idea, that he gradually came to defer to me and lost all uncertainty over what

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  might happen to me if we should ever reach civilization

  again.

  In any event I had hit upon a practical method at last,

  and I put it into practice without delay; so that within a

  few days I had a number of young Fabrans, as Atta called

  them, eating from my hand in the paddock. From these

  I soon selected a most promising candidate whom I

  named Trotta. On her I concentrated for many days, and

  with excellent results; until she was strong enough and

  intelligent enough to carry me around the paddock. After

  that it was not long before I felt safe in taking her for

  short rides around the immediate countryside. And I

  spent a number of afternoons enjoying this experience.

  As a matter of fact, it was the security against pursuit

  that Trotta afforded me on these short rides that led directly to the fatal circumstance I have hinted at; for without her I should never have set out alone on any distant expedition. At the moment, however, the pictures conjured up by Atta’s rather graphic descriptions of powerful Formicans skilled in the use of acid throwers and poison

  darts—had for a long while set me to thinking very seriously on the subject of genuine armor. As a result one fact had became clear. If I should become involved with

  such adversaries, to say nothing of trained armed soldiers, even a steed like Trotta would avail me but little; it was more than likely that her rider would be borne

  off from the engagement a corpse. What I needed, then,

  was armor, was it not? Real armor, of course, such as

  would readily occur to anyone’s mind, was plainly out

  of the question; but was there not the possibility that, if

  I looked far enough, some material could be found—perhaps like the scales of the monster I had killed on the plateau—that could be woven together into some sort of

  protective covering?

  If was this problem that sent me out eventually on

  this particular trip, resolved for once to penetrate the

  jungle alone for as far as I could go and return in a day.

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  It was my hope that I might discover some material as

  unusual as my lance or rope; and it was on this subject

  that my thoughts were fastened as I set out in the bright

  sunlight and rode easily along with my lance set in its

  stirrup and my eyes on the rough aisles of the great

  jungle. For Atta was content by that time to allow me

  to go alone wherever I wished, Trotta having long since

  proved her speed and general trustworthiness.

  Hour after hour passed swiftly while I rode leisurely

  in the general direction of the south side of the great

  valley, and nothing of interest appeared. Occasionally I

  saw distant Formicans—once, a large party—but I kept

  severely to my own business, and if they felt any desire

  to pursue me I am ignorant of it, for I soon distanced

  them on Trotta. This mobility was one of the reasons

  why I had determined to do my exploring alone. With

  Atta along, several of our attempted journeys together

  had turned all too soon into pitched batdes with wandering couples of hostile Formicans; Atta seemed to have such a fatal interest in fights that at the first sight of an

  enemy he forgot our original object. Also, he could not

  admit the possibility that other inhabitants of the surrounding country had cast the coarse steel of which my lance was obviously made, and this not only shut off any

  discussion of its origin, but also produced in him an impatience that extended to any real effort to find its makers, precluding any real interest in exploration for its own sake.

  I rode along, then, unware of the dreadful discovery I

  was to make and perversely glad to be alone in the soft

  fall sunshine. When the sun was high, I drew forth my

  small allowance of mushrooms and aphis nectar and ate

  and drank almost happily. I did not dare take the risk

  of dismounting and exposing myself to the possible dangers of the jungle, and since Trotta was used to only one meal a day at nightfall, this arrangement was satisfactory

  to her also. In addition I must confess that I enjoyed

  riding her; she enjoyed the easy rein I gave her; and the

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  first hours of that journey still remain in my memory as

  touched with perfection.

  I was astonished, too, as I rode along to see the marvelous variety of creatures that we startled from the green forest, varying from clumsy red-colored beasts with weird

  heads and faces to shining reptiles that I can only call

  monsters, so horrible were their long tentacles, hard-

  bodies, and hairy legs, all on the most terrific scale

  imaginable.

  Nowhere, however, did there seem to be any change

  in the character of the country. Always the same interlacing green jungle trees and impenetrable thickets, with here and there a canebrake of tangled tropical monstrosities! Underfoot the ground varied from a rough rubble to huge blocks of rock and mighty clods of earth which I

  had to force Trotta to take at the jump, trusting to fortune

  that she would land safely on the other side. But my odd

  steed had the climbing qualities of a mountain goat combined with the surefootedness of the burro, and we met with no mishaps.

  It must have been about two in the afternoon when

  through the jungle I saw the glitter of something bright

  and a moment later tire flash of the sun on some wide

  silvery expanse. Water was my first thought, I remember, and I experienced a distinct thrill as I wondered whether it would prove to be fresh or salt, ocean or lake,

  stream or river. I was glad now that I had pushed my

  journey to its uttermost length. Indeed, for the last few

  minutes I had been examining the position
of the sun in

  the heavens and debating with myself the advisability

  of starting on the return journey. For the evenings were

  beginning to shorten; a fact, by the way, that I still noticed with interest.

  The next moment I rode out beside a huge glacial

  rock and came full upon what I had taken for a sheet

  of water. Before me, lying partly folded against the rock,

  lay a huge sheet of some bright material about the size

  of the mainsail on a thirty-foot sloop, but shining and

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  flashing in the sun as if made of brightest silver. For a

  second I could not believe my eyes. Was this another

  marvel that would burst into spray at my touch or disappear like mist at my breath?

  Cautiously I dismounted—for Trotta refused to approach any nearer—and walked toward it, leading her and carrying my ax ready for instant use. The rumpled

  sail or whatever it was was humped up slightly in the

  middle as if some beast might be concealed beneath it;

  and in the state of mind of those days I should not have

  been in the least surprised to see a giant suddenly sit up

  and cast it aside. But nothing of the kind occurred, and

  I stood for some moments staring. Then, moved by a

  sudden impulse, I stooped and struck the stuff a sharp

  blow with my ax. It was like striking into delicate, pliable

  tin or wet tough canvas. The blade merely dented it

  without cutting through, though the dent made was deep,

  showing that the material was not stiff.

  In the deep silence that followed, the sounds of the

  jungle came to me like so many distant voices, but nothing stirred beneath the silvery sheet. There was evidently nothing living beneath it. Again I stooped, and this time

  felt of the stuff with my bare hand. Then with a beating heart and a little cry of triumph I started upright Armor! This stuff was like armor! Providence had been

  leading me toward it all day without my knowledge. For

  surely such a material as this could be made to serve

  every purpose of sheet mail, clumsy and rude as my

  efforts with it must be. It was pliable enough to be made

  to serve as a rough unpierceable cloak if nothing else,