"Philip Jose' Farmer. The Green Odyssey (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

men or by big, powerful dogs went by. Merchants stood at the fronts of
their shops and hawked their wares in loud voices. They sold cloth,
grixtr nut, parchment, knives, swords, helmets, drugs, books-on
magic, on religion, on travel-spices, perfumes, ink, rugs, highly
sugared drinks, wine, beer, tonic, paintings, everything that went to
make up their civilization. Butchers stood before open shops where
dressed fowl, deer and dogs hung. Dealers in birds pointed out the
virtues of their many-colored and multi-songed pets.

For the thousandth time Green wondered at this strange planet where the
only large animals were men, dogs, grass cats, a small deer and a very
small equine. In fact, there was a paucity of any variety of animal life,
except for the surprisingly large number of birds. It was this scarcity of
horses and oxen, he supposed, that helped perpetuate slavery. Man and dog
had to provide most of the labor.

No doubt there was an explanation for all this, but it must be buried so
deep in this people's forgotten history that one would never know. Green,
always curious, wished that he had time and means to explore. But he
didn't. He might as well resign himself to keeping a whole skin and to
getting out of this mess as fast as he could.

There was enough to do merely to make his way through the narrow and
crowded streets. He had to display his baton often to clear a path, though
when he approached the harbor area he had less trouble because the streets
were much wider.

Here great wagons drawn by gangs of slaves carried huge loads to or from
the ships. The thoroughfares had to be broad, else the people would have
been crushed between wagon and house. Here also were the so-called Pens,
where the dock-slaves lived. Once the area had actually been an enclosure
where men and women were locked up for the night, But the walls had been
torn down and new houses built in the old Duke's time. The closest Earthly
parallel Green could think of for these edifices was a housing project.
Small cottages, all exactly alike, set in military columns.

For a moment he considered stopping off to see Amra, then decided against
it. She'd get him tied up in an argument or something, and he'd spend too
much time trying to soothe her, time that should be spent at the
marketplace. He hated scenes, whereas Amra was a born self-dramatist who
reveled in them, almost wallowed, one might say.

He averted his eyes from the Pens and looked at the other side of the
street, where the walls of the great warehouses towered. Workmen swarmed
around them, and cranes, operated by gangs pushing wheels like a ship's
capstan, raised or lowered big bundles. Here, he thought, was a business
opportunity for him.

Introduce the steam engine. It'd be the greatest thing that ever bit this
planet. Wood-burning automobiles could replace the rickshaws. Cranes could