"Zach Hughes - The Book of Rack the Healer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Zach)

establishments. Yet though there was nothing in all the continent to keep
the picture in the language, it persisted. The word, the picture, city was
Old One language. It had meaning. The name of the lost city on the huge
river had no meaning, gave no image. It was an abstract thing, difficult to
grasp. Was the name another Old One word—a word whose meaning had
been lost?

In his learning, the teachers had brushed past the Old Ones. Ancient
man was primitive, living on the fat of the young planet. He was ignorant
of the process of combining the products of the Juicers and the Webbers
to form the Material, thus uncivilized. Ancient man had no recorded
history, for there were no Keepers. Ancient man lacked the mobility of the
Power Givers and was thus confined to distances he could cover on his
feet. In short, ancient man was a weak link in the evolutionary chain and
his achievements could not have been great. Ancient man, said the
teachers, was probably less intelligent than a Webber, but perhaps more
intelligent than the front mind of a Keeper, who was unable to experience
anything save basic sensations. To think that ancient man had built was
folly. To attribute the origin of the hard materials to ancient man was
incredible, for without tools of the Material, how could ancient man work
the hard materials into any form? No. The hard materials, used by some
mystics in the Healer ranks to form a mystery about ancient man, were of
natural origin. Perhaps, since they were of such scarcity, they had fallen
from the sky, for Far Seer probes indicated the presence of small bodies of
solid material in the space system other than the satellite, the sun and the
sister planets, and the far suns that even to the most sensitive Far Seer
appeared as tiny motes in a vast area.

"Be content," said the teachers, "with the wisdom of the race, for we are
old. Be proud of our achievements, for we have conquered a hostile world
with only the weapons given us by nature, our minds. Contemplate the
wonder of the invention of the Material by Dawn Eye the Far Seer. For is it
not astounding that he could envision the domestication of the vicious
Webber? Is it not wonderful that he could milk the fiery Juicer and,
working at the risk of death, pain, and disfigurement, combine the liquid
fire of the Juicer with the film of the Webber to create a substance that
protects us from the hostile elements? Wonder at the course of evolution,
that produced four distinct human forms who live in peace together and
work mind in mind to ensure the survival of life. None could live alone. Be
proud of your ability to heal, to spend extended periods in the vapors and
the corrosive sea. Without them, without your ability to gather the slime
source, what would be our nourishment? Be thankful for the Keepers, who
store our knowledge and make us civilized. Praise the Power Givers who
turn the vats that brew the broth, separating the deadly substances from
the life-giving ones."

Modestly the teachers did not praise themselves, the Far Seers, the
accumulators of knowledge, the overseers of society, the backbone of
reason. The Far Seers, who were sterile, watched over the lower life forms,
measured the Breathers, milked the deadly Juicers, and tamed the fierce