"Olaf Stapledon - Starmaker" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stapledon Olaf)

blade, which was rusty, and obviously made of iron. There were two iron handles, and chains for attachment to a beast
of burden. It was difficult to believe that I was many light-years distant from England. Looking round, I saw an
unmistakable cart track, and a bit of dirty ragged cloth hanging on a bush. Yet overhead was the unearthly sky, full
noon with stars.
I followed the lane through a little wood of queer bushes, whose large fat drooping leaves had cherry-like fruits
along their edges. Suddenly, round a bend in the lane, I came upon —a man. Or so at first he seemed to my astounded
and star-weary sight. I should not have been so surprised by the strangely human character of this creature had I at
this early stage understood the forces that controlled my adventure. Influences which I shall later describe doomed me
to discover first such worlds as were most akin to my own. Meanwhile the reader may well conceive my amazement at
this strange encounter.
28
I had always supposed that man was a unique being. An inconceivably complex conjunction of circumstances had
pro-duced him, and it was not to be supposed that such condi-tions would be repeated anywhere in the universe. Yet
here, on the very first globe to be explored, was an obvious peas-ant. Approaching him, I saw that he was not quite so
like terrestrial man as he seemed at a distance; but he was a man for all that. Had God, then, peopled the whole
universe with our kind? Did he perhaps in very truth make us in his image? It was incredible. To ask such questions
proved that I had lost my mental balance.
As I was a mere disembodied view-point, I was able to observe without being observed. I floated about him as he
strode along the lane. He was an erect biped and in general plan definitely human. I had no means of judging his
height, but he must have been approximately of normal terrestrial stature, or at least not smaller than a pigmy and not
taller than a giant. He was of slender build. His legs were almost like a bird's, and enclosed in rough narrow trousers.
Above the waist he was naked, displaying a disproportionately large thorax, shaggy with greenish hair. He had two
short but pow-erful arms, and huge shoulder muscles. His skin was dark and ruddy, and dusted plentifully with bright
green down. All his contours were uncouth, for the details of muscles, sinews and joints were very plainly different
from our own. His neck was curiously long and supple. His head I can best describe by saying that most of the
brain-pan, covered with a green thatch, seemed to have slipped backwards and down-wards over the nape. His two
very human eyes peered from under the eaves of hair. An oddly projecting, almost spout-like mouth made him look as
though he were whistling. Be-tween the eyes, and rather above them, was a pair of great equine nostrils which were
constantly in motion. The bridge of the nose was represented by an elevation in the thatch, reaching from the nostrils
backwards over the top of the head. There were no visible ears. I discovered later that the auditory organs opened into
the nostrils.
Clearly, although evolution on this Earth-like planet must have taken a course on the whole surprisingly like that
which had produced my own kind, there must also have been many divergencies.
The stranger wore not only boots but gloves, seemingly ol tough leather. His boots were extremely short. I was to
dis-cover later that the feet of this race, the "Other Men," as I called them, were rather like the feet of an ostrich or a
camel
29
The instep consisted of three great toes grown together. In place of the heel there was an additional broad, stumpy
toe. The hands were without palms. Each was a bunch of three gristly fingers and a thumb.
The aim of this book is not to tell of ray own adventures but to give some idea of the worlds which I visited. I shall
therefore not recount in detail how I established myself among the Other Men. Of myself it is enough to say a few
words. When I had studied this agriculturalist for a while, I began to be strangely oppressed by his complete
unawareness, of myself. With painful clearness I realized that the purpose of my pilgrimage was not merely scientific
observation, but also the need to effect some kind of mental and spiritual traffic with other worlds, for mutual
enrichment and com-munity. How should I ever be able to achieve this end unless I could find some means of
communication? It was not until I had followed my companion to his home, and had spent many days in that little
circular stone house with roof of mudded wicker, that I discovered the power of entering into his mind, of seeing
through his eyes, sensing through all bis sense organs, perceiving his world just as he perceived it, and following
much of his thought and his emotional life. Not till very much later, when I had passively "inhabited" many individuals
of the race, did I discover how to make my pres-ence known, and even to converse inwardly with my host.