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learned agriculture. Where we were twenty thousand years ago.
"You think any glib-talking Kwann can hang a lot of rags, bones and old iron
onto himself, go through some impromptu mummery, and set up as shoonoo? Well,
he can't. The shoonoon are a hereditary caste.
A shoonoo father will begin teaching his son as soon as he can walk and talk,
and he keeps on teaching him till he's the age-equivalent of a graduate M.D.
or a science Ph. D."
"Well, what all is there to learn ?"
"The theoretical basis and practical applications of sympathetic magic.
Action-at-a-distance by one object upon another. Homeopathic magic: the
principle that things which resemble one another will interact. For instance,
there's an animal the natives call a shynph. It has an excrescence of horn on
its brow like an arrowhead, and it arches its back like a bow when it jumps.
Therefore, a shynph is equal to a bow and arrow, and for that reason the
Kwanns made their bowstrings out of shynph-gut. Now they use tensilon because
it won't break as easily or get wet and stretch. So they have to turn the
tensilon into shynph-gut. They used to do that by drawing a picture of a
shynph on the spool, and then the traders began labeling the spools with
pictures of shynph. I think my father was one of the first to do that.
"Then, there's contagious magic. Anything that's been part of anything else or
come in contact with it will interact permanently with it. I wish I had a sol
for every time I've seen a Kwann pull the wad out of a shot-shell, pick up a
pinch of dirt from the footprint of some animal he's tracking, put it in among
the buckshot, and then crimp the wad in again.
"Everything a Kwann does has some sort of magical implications. It's the
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shoonoo's business to know all this; to be able to tell just what magical
influences have to be produced, and what influences must be avoided. And there
are circumstances in which magic simply will not work, even in theory. The
reason is that there is some powerful counter-influence at work. He has to
know when he can't use magic, and he has to be able to explain why. And when
he's theoretically able to do something by magic, he has to have a plausible
explanation why it won't produce results just as any highly civilized and
ethical Terran M.D.
has to be able to explain his failures to the satisfaction of his late
patient's relatives. Only a shoonoo doesn't get sued for malpractice; he gets
a spear stuck in him. Under those circumstances, a caste of hereditary
magicians is literally bred for quick thinking. These old gaffers we have
aboard are the intellectual top crust among the natives. Any of them can think
rings around your Government school products. As for preying on the ignorance
and credulity of the other natives, they're only infinitesimally less ignorant
and credulous themselves. But they want to learn from anybody who can gain
their respect by respecting them."
Edith Shaw didn't say anything in reply. She was thoughtful during the rest of
the meal, and when they were back on the observation deck he noticed that she
seemed to be looking at the shoonoon with new eyes.
In the screen-views of Bluelake, Beta had already set, and the sky was fading;
stars had begun to twinkle. There were more fires one, close to the city in
the east, a regular conflagration and fighting had broken out in the native
city itself. He was wishing now, that he hadn't thought it necessary to use
those screens. The shoonoon were noticing what was going on in them, and
talking among themselves.
Travis, after one look at the situation, hurried back to the bridge to make a
screen-call. After a while, he returned, almost crackling with suppressed
excitement.
"Well, it's finally happened! Maith's forced Kovac to declare martial rule!"
he said in an exultant undertone.
"Forced him?" Edith was puzzled. "The Army can't force the Civil Government "
"He threatened to do it himself. Intervene and suspend civil rule."
"But I thought only the Navy could do that."
"Any planetary commander of Armed Forces can, in a state of extreme emergency.
I think you'll both agree that this emergency is about as extreme as they
come. Kovac knew that Maith was unwilling to do it he'd have to stand
court-martial to justify his action but he also knew that a governor general
who has his Colony taken away from him by the Armed Forces never gets it back;
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