"That is," said another, "until your shame has been covered."
"Shame?" asked the girl.
"Your beauty, your prettiness," explained another.
Not all the Sames, those who have the unimportant and negligible property offemaleness, are as — healthy appearing as you," said another.
"Thus you might make them feel that they were not the same as you, or that youwere not the same as they," said another.
"They would not like that," said another.
"It is shameful not to make people feel they are the same, said another.
"Because everyone is the same, really," said another, "of course."
"Of course," said another.
"Too," said Pumpkin, "it can trouble the Sames who have the unimportant andnegligible property of maleness. It may make them have certain kinds offeelings."
"Not me," said one of the Waniyanpi.
"Nor I," said another. "I never have such feelings."
"But not all of us," said Pumpkin, "are as strong and good as Carrot andCabbage."
"I myself," said another, "can look on such things and not have the leastfeeling."
A chorus of admiration thrilled the Waniyanpi.
"Nor as Beans," said Pumpkin. "But for some of us your healthy appearance can beextremely disturbing."
"It makes me sick," said another.
"It makes me ill, too, to look upon it," said another. "I threw up when first Isaw it."
"Good," said another fellow.
"It disturbs me," said another fellow. "I admit that it is "An honest confession," said Pumpkin. "You are to be congratulated on yourcandor and veracity. The next task is to seek improvement."
"Yes," said the fellow who had spoken, contritely. "Perhaps if I were permittedto look upon it more often I might manage to steel myself against it."
"Plunge rather into arduous, time-consuming, mind-occupying labors," saidPumpkin.
"And bathe often in cold streams," advised another.
The fellow looked down. I did not blame him. I myself did not relish bathing incold streams. I preferred warm baths, being attended by a beautiful femaleslave. After all, should a free man be expected to apply his own oils, scrapethe dirt from his own skin with the strigil and towel himself?
"You see," said Pumpkin to the captured girl, "your appearance, even if it werenot so healthy looking. perhaps, can cause some of us to think certain thoughtsand have certain feelings. It can even bring about movements in our bodies. Thismakes it harder to be Sames. And it is shameful not to be Sames."
"For we are Sames," said another. "Everyone knows that."
"And thus it is," said Pumpkin, "that your appearance can cause shame, and as itcauses shame, it must be shameful."
"Too," said another, "it can distract from truly important things.
"Such as being Sames," said another.
"Yes," said Pumpkin.
The girl shuddered, convinced perhaps that she was in the presence of lunatics.
Madness is an interesting concept. As some define it, it is a function of thesocial conventions obtaining at a given time. In the country of the mad, thuslyonly the sane will be accounted insane. Acquiescence to con temporaryaxiological conventions, of course is not the only possible conceptual approachto such matters. Another approach might be to envision a world compatible withreality and congenial to human nature, a world in which science even socialscience, might be free, a world in which truth would not be against the law, aworld designed not for the crippling, distortion and torture of humanity but forits fulfillment" But do not fear," said Pumpkin to the girl, "for, soon when we reach thecompound, you will be decently clothed."
"Like you?" she asked. She regarded the long, gray, coarse, clumsy dresses onthe Waniyanpi with distaste.
"These garments help us to suppress our desires and keel us humble," said one ofthe Waniyanpi.
"We are reminded by them that we are all Sames," said another.
"That we all, when all is said and done," said another, "an naught butWaniyanpi."
This seemed to make sense to me. The human being has tendency to be consistent,no matter from what eccentric premises he may begin. He will normally behave ina way accordingly, that befits his clothing. This is perhaps the deeper sense ofthe English expression that clothing makes the man.
"Better to be stripped and have a string of hide tied on one's neck!" said thegirl, angrily.
"What is done to those in your compound who are not the same?" I asked.
"We attempt to convert them," said one of the men.
"We plead with them. We reason with them " said another.
"And what if you cannot convince them of the glories of sameness?" I asked.
"We then drive them out, into the Barrens, to die," said another.
"It grieves us to do so," said another.
"But it must be done," said another.
"The contagion of their heresy must not be permitted to Infect others," saidanother.
"The good of the whole must take precedence over the good of the parts," saidanother.
"You kill them?". I asked.
"No!" cried one.
"We cannot kill!" said another.
"It is against the Teaching," said another.
"But you banish them, on the supposition that they will perish in the Barrens,"
I said.
"Thusly, it is the Barrens which kills them, not us," said another.
"We are thus innocent," said another.
"Such banishment is acceptable to the Teaching?" I asked.
"Of course," said another. "How else is the compound to be ridded of them?"
"You must understand," said another, "it does not please us to do that sort ofthing."
"It is done only after every other alternative has been exhausted," saidanother.
"Difference strikes at the root of sameness," said another. "Sameness isessential to civilization itself. Difference, thus, threatens society andcivilization itself."
"It must thus be eradicated," said another.
"There is, thus, only one value, one virtue?" I asked.
"Yes," said another.
"One is one," said another, profoundly, "self-identical and the same."
"Sixteen is sixteen, too," I said.
"But sixteen is only sixteen times one, and thus all reduces to one, which isone," said another.
"What about one-half and one-half?" I asked.
"They add up to one," said another.
"What about one-third and one-third, then?" I asked.
"Each of those is but one number," said another, "and, thus, each is one, andone is one."
"What of the diversity you see about you," I asked, "say, of kaiila and sleen?"
"One kaiila and one sleen are both one, which is one," said another fellow.
"What about zero and one?" I asked.
"Zero is one number and one is one number, and thus each is one, and one isone," said another.
"What about nothing and one?" I asked.
"One is one, and nothing is nothing," said another, "so one is left with one,which is one."
"But you would have at least one nothing, wouldn't you? I asked.
"Nothing is either nothing or one," said another. "If it is nothing, then it isnothing. If it is one, then it is one, and on is one," said another.
"Thus, all is the same," said another.
"You are spouting total gibberish," I said. "Are you aware of that?"
"To the unenlightened profundity often appears gibberish, said another.
"Indeed," said another, "and to some who have lost the enlightenment it canalso appear gibberish."
"The more absurd something seems, the more likely it is to be true," saidanother.