Arkady Strugatsky: The Snail on The Slope

Then the elder spoke. "What are we standing here for, I ask you? Let's go, why stand here?" Everyone moved slowly forward, spreading out into a line, toward the deadlings. "Get them in the eyes," the elder kept shouting. "Try and splash them in the eyes. Best get the eyes, not much good if we can't get their eyes..."

The line sang out ominously. "Ooh-hoo-hoo, get out! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Nobody was inclined to get too close.

Buster, picking the dried mud from his beard, walked next to Kandid and shouted louder than the others; between shouts he argued with himself.

"No, no-o-o, we're wasting our time, wool on yer nose, they won't stay, they'll run in a minute... Deadlings are they? Rubbish, I'd say, they won't stay... Hoo-hoo-hoo! You lot!"

Coming within twenty paces of the deadlings, the men stopped. Buster hurled a clod of earth at the yellow one, but with surprising agility it stuck out its broad palm and deflected the clod to one side. Everybody started hooting and stamping their feet, some displayed the pots and made threatening motions toward the deadlings. Nobody wanted to waste the fluid and nobody wanted to drag all the way to the village for more. The deadlings were battered and wary, they could be got rid of this way.

So it turned out. Steam and smoke thickened under the deadlings' feet, they were faltering. "Well that's it" was said along the chain. "They've given ground, they'll turn in a minute..."

The deadlings imperceptibly altered, as if they were turning inside their own skins. Their eyes and mouth disappeared from view-they had turned their backs. In a second they were retreating, flickering among the trees. Where they had stood, a cloud of steam slowly settled.

The men, in an excited hubbub, moved back toward the furrow. It was suddenly realized that it was time to return to the village for the meeting. They set off.

"Go onto the square," repeated the elder to everyone. "Onto the square. The meeting will take place on the square, so everyone must go to the square."

Kandid was looking for Barnacle, but he was nowhere in the crowd for some reason. Barnacle had disappeared somewhere. Buster was talking nervily beside him.

"Remember, Dummy, when you jumped on that deadling? Yes, jumped on him, you did, wool on yer nose, took him by the head an' all, cuddling him like your Nava, wool on yer nose, and what a yell... Remember, Dummy, what a yell you gave out with? You got burned, and then came out in blisters, wet and painful as well... Why did you jump on him, Dummy? Somebody did that, jumpy-jumped on a deadling, took all the skin off his belly, now he doesn't jump anymore; tells children to jump, wool on yer nose... They say, Dummy, you jumped on his back so he'd carry you to the City, but you're no dame, why should he carry you away with him? Anyway there's no City at all, it's that old stump making up his words City, Accession... Who's seen this Accession? Ears gets drunk on beetles and goes out burbling, the old stump listens, then he wanders off everywhere, guzzling other people's food and repeating..."

"I'm going out to New Village in the morning," said Kandid. "I'll be back at night, I shan't be here during the day. You see Hopalong and remind him about the day after tomorrow. I've been reminding him and I'll do it again, still, you do it, otherwise he'll wander off . somewhere."

"I'll remind him," promised Buster. "I'll remind him if I have to break his other leg off."

The whole village had come out onto the square. Everybody was talking, shoving and scattering seeds on the bare earth so that stems might come up and provide soft seating. Children were mixed in underfoot; their parents were pulling them along by their ears or hair to avoid a mix-up. A column of poorly trained ants attempting to drag worker-fly larvae straight across the square were being driven off by the cursing elder. He was asking by whose orders there were ants here, it was a disgrace that's what. Ears and Kandid were suspected, but the matter was not conducive to proof.

Kandid found Barnacle and wanted to talk with him, but failed as the assembly was then declared open and as always the old man crawled forward to speak first. What he spoke about nobody could understand but everybody sat quietly listening and hissed at their scuffling children not to scuffle. Some-those seated most comfortably well away from the sunny spots-fell into a doze.

The old man went on at length about what was not "right" and in what senses this was to be understood. He called for a mass Accession, threatened victories in North and South, cursed the village and, separately, New Village, announced that new detachments of Maidens were everywhere and that neither in the village nor in the New Village was there calm or amalgamation, that all this was a consequence of people forgetting the word "shouldn't" and thinking everything was permitted. Dummy, for instance, was set on going to the City, though nobody had summoned him. The village bore no responsibility for that, seeing as he was foreign, but if it turned out by chance that he was a deadling after all, and such an opinion existed in the village, then nobody knew what would happen, especially as Nava, though of course she was an alien too, had had no children by Dummy, and this was not to be tolerated, yet the elder tolerated it...

Toward the middle of the oration, the elder dozed off as well, but hearing his own name, started and immediately gave a threatening bark: "Hey! No sleeping! You can sleep at home," he said, "that's what houses are for, sleeping in, nobody sleeps on the square, meetings are held on the square. Nobody has ever been allowed to sleep on the square, nobody is allowed and nobody will be." He glanced toward the old man.

The old man gave a satisfied nod. "And so we have our general 'not permitted.' " He smoothed his hair and announced: "A bride has been announced at New Village. And we have a groom, Loudmouth, whom you all know. Stand up. Loudmouth, and show yourself, no better not, you just sit there, everybody knows you anyway. Now we have the question: shall Loudmouth go to New Village or alternatively shall we bring the bride here to the village... No, no. Loudmouth, sit you down, we'll decide this without you ... those sitting next to him keep a good hold on him till the meeting is over. Who has any opinion, let him speak."

There turned out to be two opinions. One (Loud-mouth's neighbors for the most part) demanded Loudmouth's dismissal to New Village, let the rest live here. Others, calm and serious men, living well away from Loudmouth proposed the opposite, women were getting short, some had been stolen, therefore the bride should come to the village. Loudmouth was that all right, but suppose there would be children, let there be no doubt, that was for sure. The argument was long, and at first to the point. Then Hopalong unfortunately shouted out that it was wartime and everybody was forgetting that. Loudmouth was instantly forgotten. Ears started to explain that there was no war and never had been, there was and would be the Great Harrowing. Not Harrowing, objected someone in the crowd, it was Essential Swamping. The Harrowing was over long ago, the Swamping had been going on for years, Ears didn't know a thing, how could he, he was Ears wasn't he? The old man got up and rolling his eyes, croaked out hoarsely that there was no war, no Harrowing; there was no Swamping either, there had been, was, and would be the Personal Struggle in North and South. How was there no war, wool on yer nose, came from the crowd, when there was a whole lake full of drowned bodies past Funny Village? The meeting exploded. What about the drowned bodies? Where there was water you found bodies, past Funny Village wasn't like here, you couldn't go by Funny Village, they ate out of clay there, lived under clay, gave their wives to the robbers, now people talked about drowned bodies. It wasn't drowned bodies, no struggle and no war, it was Calm and Amalgamation in the interests of the Accession! Why then was Dummy going to the City? Dummy was going to the City, therefore the City existed, and if it existed where was your war? It must be Amalgamation! Anyway did it matter where Dummy went? Somebody went as well once, they gave it him right in the nose and he doesn't go anywhere anymore... Dummy was going to the City because there was no City, they knew Dummy, Dummy was a fool if ever there was one, and if there was no City, how could there be Amalgamation? There was no Amalgamation, there had been one time mind you, but that was ages ago ... and no Accession either! Who says there's no Accession? What do you mean? What's that? Loudmouth ... hold Loudmouth! They've let him go! Why couldn't they hold onto him?