Section 7

I went with him to see the adventure out. I
guessed the huts were some rough shelter where
he and some more of these Beast People lived.
I might perhaps find them friendly, find some
handle in their minds to take hold of. I did
not know how far they had forgotten their
human heritage.

My ape-like companion trotted along by my
side, with his hands hanging down and his jaw
thrust forward. I wondered what memory he
might have in him. "How long have you
been on this island?" said I.

" How long ? " he asked ; and after having
the question repeated, he held up three fingers.
100

The Hunting of the Man.

The creature was little better than an idiot.
I tried to make out what he meant by that, and
it seems I bored him. After another question
or two he suddenly left my side and went leap-
ing at some fruit that hung from a tree. He
pulled down a handful of prickly husks and
went on eating the contents. I noted this
with satisfaction, for here at least was a hint for
feeding. I tried him with some other questions,
but his chattering, prompt responses were as
often as not quite at cross purposes with my
question. Some few were appropriate, others
quite parrot-like.

I was so intent upon these peculiarities that I
scarcely noticed the path we followed. Pres-
ently we came to trees, all charred and brown,
and so to a bare place covered with a yellow-
white incrustation, across which a drifting
smoke, pungent in whiffs to nose and eyes,
went drifting. On our right, over a shoulder
of bare rock, I saw the level blue of the sea.
The path coiled' down abruptly into a narrow
ravine between two tumbled and knotty masses
of blackish scorise. Into this we plunged.

It was extremely dark, this passage, after the
101

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

blinding sunlight reflected from the sulphurous
ground. Its walls grew steep, and approached
each other. Blotches of green and crimson
drifted across my eyes. My conductor stopped
suddenly. "Home!" said he, and I stood
in a floor of a chasm that was at first absolutely
dark to me. I heard some strange noises, and
thrust the knuckles of my left hand into my
eyes. I became aware of a disagreeable odor,
like that of a monkey's cage ill-cleaned. Be-
yond, the rock opened again upon a gradual
slope of sunlit greenery, and on either hand
the light smote down through narrow ways
into the central gloom.

102

XII.

THE SAYERS OF THE LAW.

'"THEN something cold touched my hand. I
started violently, and saw close to me a
dim pinkish thing, looking more like a flayed
child than anything else in the world. The
creature had exactly the mild but repulsive
features of a sloth, the same low forehead and
slow gestures.

As the first shock of the change of light
passed, I saw about me more distinctly. The
little sloth-like creature was standing and staring
at me. My conductor had vanished. The
place was a narrow passage between high walls
of lava, a crack in the knotted rock, and on
either side interwoven heaps of sea-mat, palm-
fans, and reeds leaning against the rock formed
rough and impenetrably dark dens. The wind-
ing way up the ravine between these was
scarcely three yards wide, and was disfigured by
103

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

lumps of decaying fruit-pulp and other refu
which accounted for the disagreeable stench
the place.

The little pink sloth-creature was still blink-
ing at me when my Ape-man reappeared at the
aperture of the nearest of these dens, and beck-
oned me in. As he did so, a slouching monster
wriggled out of one of the places, further up
this strange street, and stood up in featureless
silhouette against the bright green beyond, star-
ing at me. I hesitated, having half a mind to
bolt the way I had come ; and then, determined
to go through with the adventure, I gripped my
nailed stick about the middle and crawled into the
little evil-smelling lean-to after my conductor.

It was a semi-circular space, shaped like the
half of a bee-hive ; and against the rocky wall
that formed the inner side of it was a pile of
variegated fruits, cocoa-nuts among others.
Some rough vessels of lava and wood stood
about the floor, and one on a rough stool.
There was no fire. In the darkest corner of
the hut sat a shapeless mass of darkness that
grunted "Hey!" as I came in, and my Ape-
man stood in the dim light of the doorway and
104

The Sayers of the Law.

held out a split cocoa-nut to me as I crawled
into the other corner and squatted down. I
took it, and began gnawing it, as serenely as
possible, in spite of a certain trepidation and the
nearly intolerable closeness of the den. The
little pink sloth-creature stood in the aperture of
the hut, and something else with a drab face and
bright eyes came staring over its shoulder.

" Hey ! " came out of the lump of mystery
opposite. "It is a man."

"It is a man, " gabbled my conductor,—
"a man, a man, a five-man, like me."

"Shut up!*' said the voice from the' dark,
and grunted. I gnawed my cocoa-nut amid
an impressive stillness.

I peered hard into the blackness, but could
distinguish nothing.

"It is a man," the voice repeated. "He
comes to live with us?"

It was a thick voice, with something in it —
a kind of whistling overtone — that struck me as
peculiar ; but the English accent was strangely
good.

The Ape-man looked at me as though he
expected something. I perceived the pause was
105

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

interrogative. "He comes to live with you,"
I said.

"It is a man. He must learn the Law."

I began to distinguish now a deeper blackness
in the black, a vague outline of a hunched-up
figure. Then I noticed the opening of the place
was darkened by two more black heads. My
hand tightened on my stick.

The thing in the dark repeated in a louder
tone, "Say the words." I had missed its last
remark. "Not to go on all-fours; that is the
Law," it repeated in a kind of sing-song.

I was puzzled.

"Say the words," said the Ape-man,
repeating, and the figures in the doorway
echoed this, with a threat in the tone of their
voices.

I realised that I had to repeat this idiotic
formula ; and then began the insanest ceremony.
The voice in the dark began intoning a mad
litany, line by line, and I and the rest to repeat
it. As they did so, they swayed from side to
side in the oddest way, and beat their hands
upon their knees ; and I followed their example.
I could have imagined I was already dead and
1 06

The Sayers of the Law.

in another world. That dark hut, these gro-
tesque dim figures, just flecked here and there
by a glimmer of light, and all of them swaying
in unison and chanting,

" Not to go on all-fours j that is the Law.
Are we not Men ?

" Not to suck up Drink j that is the Law.
Are we not Men ?

" Not to eat Fish or Flesh $ that is the Law.
Are we not Men ?

"Not to claw the Bark of Trees j that is the
Law. Are we not Men ?

" Not to chase other Men j that is the Law.
Are we not Men ? "

And so from the prohibition of these acts of
folly, on to the prohibition of what I thought
then were the maddest, most impossible, and
most indecent things one could well imagine.
A kind of rhythmic fervour fell on all of us ; we
gabbled and swayed faster and faster, repeating
this amazing Law. Superficially the contagion
of these brutes was upon me, but deep down
within me the laughter and disgust struggled
together. We ran through a long list of pro-
107

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

hibitions, and then the chant swung round to a
new formula.

" His is the House of Pain.
" His is the Hand that makes.
*< His is the Hand that wounds.
" His is the Hand that heals."

And so on for another long series, mostly
quite incomprehensible gibberish to me about
Him, whoever he might be. I could hai
fancied it was a dream, but never before have
heard chanting in a dream.

" His is the lightning flash," we sang. " His
is the deep, salt sea."

A horrible fancy came into my head that
Moreau, after animalising these men, had in-
fected their dwarfed brains with a kind of deifi-
cation of himself. However, I was too keenly
aware of white teeth and strong claws about me
to stop my chanting on that account.

" His are the stars in the sky."

At last that song ended. I saw the Ape-
man* s face shining with perspiration 5 and my
eyes being now accustomed to the darkness, I
108

The Sayers of the Law.

saw more distinctly the figure in the corner
from which the voice came. It was the size of
a man, but it seemed covered with a dull grey
hair almost like a Skye-terrier. What was it ?
What were they all ? Imagine yourself sur-
rounded by all the most horrible cripples and
maniacs it is possible to conceive, and you may
understand a little of my feelings with these
grotesque caricatures of humanity about me.

"He is a five-man, a five-man, a five-man
— like me/' said the Ape-man.

I held out my hands. The grey creature in
the corner leant forward.

" Not to run on all-fours ; that is the Law.
Are we not Men ?" he said.

He put out a strangely distorted talon and
gripped my fingers. The thing was almost like
the hoof of a deer produced into claws. I
could have yelled with surprise and pain. His
face came forward and peered at my nails, came
forward into the light of the opening of the hut ;
and I saw with a quivering disgust that it was
like the face of neither man nor beast, but a
mere shock of grey hair, with three shadowy
over-archings to mark the eyes and mouth.
109

The Island of Doctor Morcau.

" He has little nails," said this grisly creatu
in his hairy beard. " It is well."

He threw my hand down, and instinctively
I gripped my stick.

"Eat roots and herbs; it is His will," said
the Ape-man.

"I am the Sayer of the Law," said the gr
figure. "Here come all that be new to learn
the Law. I sit in the darkness and say the
Law."

"It is even so,'* said one of the beasts in the
doorway.

" Evil are the punishments of those who
break the Law. None escape."

" None escape," said the Beast Folk, glan-
cing furtively at one another.

" None, none," said the Ape-man, —
" none escape. See ! I did a little thing, a
wrong thing, once. I jabbered, jabbered,
stopped talking. None could understand. I
am burnt, branded in the hand. He is great.
He is good!"

" None escape," said the grey creature in
the corner.

no

The Sayers of the Law.

"None escape," said the Beast People,
looking askance at one another.

" For every one the want that is bad,'* said
the grey Sayer of the Law. "What you will
want we do not know ; we shall know. Some
want to follow things that move, to watch and
slink and wait and spring ; to kill and bite, bite
deep and rich, sucking the blood. It is bad.
' Not to chase other Men ; that is the Law.
Are we not Men ? Not to eat Flesh or Fish ;
that is the Law. Are we not Men ?' "

" None escape," said a dappled brute stand-
ing in the doorway.

"For every one the want is bad," said the
grey Sayer of the Law. "Some want to go
tearing with teeth and hands into the roots of
things, snuffing into the earth. It is bad."

" None escape," said the men in the door.

"Some go clawing trees; some go scratch-
ing at the graves of the dead ; some go fighting
with foreheads or feet or claws; some bite
suddenly, none giving occasion ; some love
uncleanness."

" None escape," said the Ape-man, scratch-
ing his calf.

in

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

" None escape," said the little pink sic
creature.

" Punishment is sharp and sure. Therefore
learn the Law. Say the words."

And incontinently he began again the strange
litany of the Law, and again I and all these
creatures began singing and swaying. My head
reeled with this jabbering and the close stench
of the place ; but I kept on, trusting to find
presently some chance of a new development.

" Not to go on all-fours ; that is the Law.
Are we not Men ? "

We were making such a noise that I noticed
nothing of a tumult outside, until some one,
who I think was one of the two Swine Men I
had seen, thrust his head over the little pink
sloth-creature and shouted something excitedly,
something that I did not catch. Incontinently
those at the opening of the hut vanished ; my
Ape-man rushed out ; the thing that had sat in
the dark followed him (I only observed that it
was big and clumsy, and covered with silvery
hair), and I was left alone. Then before I
reached the aperture I heard the yelp of a
staghound.

112

The Sayers of the Law.

In another moment I was standing outside the
hovel, my chair-rail in my hand, every muscle
of me quivering. Before me were the clumsy
backs of perhaps a score of these Beast People,
their misshapen heads half hidden by their
shoulder-blades. They were gesticulating ex-
citedly. Other half-animal faces glared inter-
rogation out of the hovels. Looking in the
direction in which they faced, I saw coming
through the haze under the trees beyond the
end of the passage of dens the dark figure and
awful white face of Moreau. He was holding
the leaping staghound back, and close behind
him came Montgomery revolver in hand.

For a moment I stood horror-struck. I
turned and saw the passage behind me
blocked by another heavy brute, with a huge
grey face and twinkling little eyes, advancing
towards me. I looked round and saw to the
right of me and a half-dozen yards in front of
me a narrow gap in the wall of rock through
which a ray of light slanted into the shadows.

" Stop ! " cried Moreau as I strode towards
this, and then, " Hold him ! "

At that, first one face turned towards me and
8 113

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

then others. Their bestial minds were haj
slow. I dashed my shoulder into a clumsy
monster who was turning to see what Moreau
meant, and flung him forward into another. I
felt his hands fly round, clutching at me and
missing me. The little pink sloth-creature
dashed at me, and I gashed down its ugly face
with the nail in my stick, and in another min-
ute was scrambling up a steep side pathway, a
kind of sloping chimney, out of the ravine. I
heard a howl behind me, and cries of " Catch
him!" "Hold him!" and the grey-faced
creature appeared behind me and jammed his
huge bulk into the cleft. "Go on! go on!"
they howled. I clambered up the narrow cleft
in the rock and came out upon the sulphur on
the westward side of the village of the Beast
Men.

That gap was altogether fortunate for me, for
the narrow chimney, slanting obliquely upward,
must have impeded the nearer pursuers. I ran
over the white space and down a steep slope,
through a scattered growth of trees, and came to
a low-lying stretch of tall reeds, through which
I pushed into a dark, thick undergrowth that
114

The Sayers of the Law.

was black and succulent under foot. As I
plunged into the reeds, my foremost pursuers
emerged from the gap. I broke my way
through this undergrowth for some minutes.
The air behind me and about me was soon full
of threatening cries. I heard the tumult of my
pursuers in the gap up the slope, then the crash-
ing of the reeds, and every now and then the
crackling crash of a branch. Some of the crea-
tures roared like excited beasts of prey. The
staghound yelped to the left. I heard Moreau
and Montgomery shouting in the same direction.
I turned sharply to the right. It seemed to me
even then that I heard Montgomery shouting
for me to run for my life.

Presently the ground gave rich and oozy
under my feet ; but I was desperate and went
headlong into it, struggled through knee-deep,
and so came to a winding path among tall canes.
The noise of my pursuers passed away to my
left. In one place three strange, pink, hopping
animals, about the size of cats, bolted before my
footsteps. This pathway ran up hill, across
another open space covered with white incrusta-
tion, and plunged into a canebrake again. Then
"5

iau.

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

suddenly it turned parallel with the edge of a
steep-walled gap, which came without warning,
like the ha-ha of an English park, — turned with
an unexpected abruptness. I was still running
with all my might, and I never saw this drop
until I was flying headlong through the air.