"james_alan_gardner_-_three_hearings_on_the_existence_of_snakes_in_the_human_bloodstream" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner James Alan)

matter of selective breeding, ma'am. The Papists are not different from us
because the Virgin put her mark on them; they are different because they
selected to make themselves different. To emphasize the difference. And the
Redeemed have no snakes in their blood for the same reason -- simply a side
effect of our ancestors' marital prejudice."
"Mr. Darwin!" Anne said, aghast. "Such claims! No wonder you have
angered the Papists as much as your own countrymen. To suggest that God's
sacred sign is a mere barnyard accident...." The Queen caught her breath.
"Sir, where is your decency?"
"I have something better than decency," he answered in a calm voice. "I
have proof."
"Proof? How could you prove such a thing?"
"Some years ago, ma'am," he said, "I took passage on a ship sailing the
South Seas; and during that voyage, I saw things that completely opened my
eyes."
"More pigeons, Mr. Darwin?"
He waved his hand dismissively. "The birds of the Pacific Islands are
hardly fit study for a scientist. What I observed were the efforts of
missionaries, ma'am; both Papists and the Redeemed, preaching to the natives
who lived in those isles. Have you heard of such missions?"
"We sponsor several of those missions personally, Mr. Darwin."
"And the results, ma'am?"
"Mixed," Anne confessed. "Some tribes are open to Redemption, while
others..." she shrugged. "The Papists do no better."
"Just so. Your Majesty. As an example, I visited one island where the
Papists had been established for thirty years, yet the local priest claimed
to have made no true converts. Mark that word, true. Many of the natives
espoused Papist beliefs, took part in Papist worship, and so on... but the
priest could find no snakes in their blood, so he told himself they had not
truly embraced Mother Church."
"You would argue with the priest's conclusion?"
"Certainly," Darwin replied. "In my eyes, the island tribe was simply a
closed population that for reasons of chance never developed serpentine
analogues in their blood. If you interbreed only white pigeons, you will
never develop a black."
Anne said, "But--" then stopped stone-still, as the words of a recent
mission report rose in her mind. We are continually frustrated in our work
on this island; although the people bow before God's altar, their blood
continues to show the serpent-stain of the Unclean...
"Mr. Darwin," Anne murmured, "could there possibly be islands where all
the people had snakes in their blood, regardless of their beliefs?"
"There are indeed, ma'am," Darwin nodded. "Almost all the island
populations are isolated and homogeneous. I found some tribes with snakes,
some without -- no matter which missionaries ministered there. When the
Papists land among a people who already have analogues in their bloodstream,
they soon declare that they have converted the tribe and hold great
celebrations. However, when they land among a people whose blood is clear...
well, they can preach all they want, but they won't change the effects of
generations of breeding. Usually, they just give up and move on to another
island where the people are more receptive... which is to say, where they