Farmer, Philip Jose Riverworld 1 To your Scattered Bodies

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

proper digging tools is solved. Furthermore, if we're wrong about the grails being a source of
food, we may be emulating Kazz before long!'
`Never!' Alice said. `I'd die first!'
'That is exactly what you would do,' Burton replied, coolly. `I suggest we retire and leave him to
his meal. It doesn't do anything for my own appetite, and I find his table manners as abominable
as those of a Yankee frontiersman's. Or a country prelate's,' he added for Alice's benefit.
They walked out of sight of Kazz and behind one of the great gnarled trees. Alice said, `I don't
want him around He's an animal, an abomination! Why, I wouldn't feel safe for a second with him
around!'
`You asked me for protection,' Burton said. `I'll give it to you as long as you are a member of
this party. But you'll also have to accept my decisions. One of which is that the apeman remains
with us. We need his strength and his skills, which seem to be very appropriate for this type of
country. We've become primitives; therefore, we can learn from a primitive. He stays.'
Alice looked at the others with silent appeal. Monat twitched his eyebrows. Frigate shrugged his
file:///F|/rah/Philip%20Jose%20Farmer/Farmer,...d%201%20To%20Your%20Scattered%20Bodies%20.txt (20 of 104) [1/19/03 7:18:02 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Philip%20Jose%20Farmer/Farmer,%20Philip%20Jose%20-%20Riverworld%201%20To%20Your%20Scattered%20Bodies%20.txt
shoulders and said, `Mrs. Hargreaves, if you can possibly do it, forget your mores, your
conventions. We're not in a proper, upper-class Victorian heaven. Or, indeed, in any sort of
heaven ever dreamed of. You can't think and behave as you did on Earth. For one thing, you come
from a society where women covered themselves from neck to foot in heavy garments, and the sight
of a woman's knee was a stirring sexual event. Yet, you seem to suffer no embarrassment because
you're nude. You are as poised and dignified as if you wore a nun's habit'
Alice said, `I don't like it. But why should I be embarrassed? Where all are nude, none are nude.
It's the thing to do, in fact, the only thing that can be done. If some angel were to give me a
complete outfit, I wouldn't wear it. I'd be out of style. And my figure is good. If it weren't I
might be suffering more.'
The two men laughed, and Frigate said, `You're fabulous, Alice. Absolutely. I may call you Alice?
Mrs. Hargreaves seems so formal when you're nude.' She did not reply but walked away and
disappeared behind a large tree.
Burton said, `Something will have to be done about sanitation in the near future. Which means that
somebody will have to decide the health policies and have the power to make regulations and
enforce them. How does one form legislative, judicial, and executive bodies from the present state
of anarchy?'
`To get to more immediate problems,' Frigate said, `what do we do about the dead man?' He was only
a little less pale than a moment ago when Kazz had made his incisions with his chert knife.
Burton said, `I'm sure that human skin, properly tanned, or human gut, properly treated, will be
far superior to grass for making ropes or bindings. I intend to cut off some strips. Do you want
to help me?' Only the wind rustling the leaves and the tops of the grass broke the silence. The
sun beat down and brought out sweat, which dried rapidly in the wind. No bird cried, no insect
buzzed. And then the shrill voice of the little girl shattered the quiet Alice's voice answered
her, and the little girl ran to her behind the tree.
`I'll try,' the American said. `But I don't know. I've gone through more than enough for one day.'
'You 'do as you please then, Burton said. `But anybody who helps me gets first call on the use of
the skin. You may wish you could have some in order to bind an axehead to a haft.'
Frigate gulped audibly and then said, `I'll come.'
Kazz was still squatting in the grass by the body, holding the bloody liver with one hand and the
bloody stone knife with the other. Seeing Burton, he grinned with stained lips and cut off a
pieces of liver. Burton shook his head. The others, Galeazzi, Brontich, Maria Tucci, Filipo Rocco,
Rosa Nalini, Caterina Carpone, Fiorenza Fiorri, Babich, and Gloats, had retreated from the grisly
scene. They were on the other side of a thick pine and talking subduedly in Italian.
Burton squatted down by the body and applied the paint of Eke knife beginning just above the right
knee and continuing to the collarbone. Frigate stood by him and stared. He became even more pale,
and his trembling increased. But he stood firm until two long strips had been lifted from the
body.
`Care to try your hand at it?' Burton said. He rolled the body over on its side so that other,
even longer, strips could be taken. Frigate took the bloody-tipped knife and set to work, his
teeth gritted.
'Not so deep,' Burton said and, a moment later, `Now you're not cutting deeply enough. Here, give
me the knife: Watch!
'I had a neighbor who used to hang up his rabbits behind his garage and cut their throats right
after breaking their necks,' Frigate said. `I watched once. That was enough.'
`You can't afford to be fastidious or weak-stomached,' Burton said. `You're living in the most
primitive of conditions. You have to be a primitive to survive, like it or not'
Brontich, the tall skinny Slovene who had once been an innkeeper ten up to them. He said, `We just
file:///F|/rah/Philip%20Jose%20Farmer/Farmer,...d%201%20To%20Your%20Scattered%20Bodies%20.txt (21 of 104) [1/19/03 7:18:02 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Philip%20Jose%20Farmer/Farmer,%20Philip%20Jose%20-%20Riverworld%201%20To%20Your%20Scattered%20Bodies%20.txt
found another of big m-shaped stones. About forty yards from here. It was hidden behind some trees
down in a hollow.' Burma's first delight in hectoring Frigate had passed. He was beginning to feel
story for the fellow. He said, `Look, Peter, why don't you go investigate the stone? If there is [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

pobieranie @ do ÂściÂągnięcia @ ebook @ download @ pdf