"L. Sprague De Camp - The Great Fetish" - читать интересную книгу автора (De Camp L Sprague)

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The Great Fetish
L. Sprague de Camp

1

The clerk of the court called: "Hear, hear! On this the fifteenth day of Franklin, in the Year of
Descent 1008, the District Court of the District of Skudra, in the Kralate of Vizantia, is now in
session. All persons having business with this honorable court draw nigh."
As Judge Kopitar entered, the clerk added: "All rise and uncover."
Off came the sheepskin kalpaks, which most of the audience had kept on against the early-morning
chill. The small peat fire in the bronze stove did little to lift this chill. Muphrid (Eta Bootis)
had not yet risen. Skudra, although but a few degrees from the equator of Kforri, was cool because
of its altitude. The doffing of hats revealed rows of broad skulls shaven, except for the single
braided tuft, against the invasion of scalp mites. Jaws moved rhythmically, chewing quids of
tobacco.
The judge said: "Clerk, lead the court in prayer."
The clerk rose and intoned: "Hail to the gods! May they preserve and watch over us; may they
forgive our shortcomings. Hail to the holy trinity of Yez, Moham, and Bud! May Yustinn, god of
law, guide us to just decisions. May Napoin, god of war, give us courage to face our duty. May
Kliopat, goddess of love, inspire us with due sympathy towards our erring fellows. May Niuto, god
of wisdom, increase our understanding. And may Froit, maker of souls, strengthen our characters to
choose the right. O gods, inform us with the wisdom of the Ancient Ones, whom at the time of the
Descent you did send from your paradise of Earth to teach us the arts of civilization. And look
with favor upon the proceedings of this court. Amen."
The clerk looked up and said: "You may sit. . . . You there! Put out that pipe! And no spitting on
the floor, either! The dignity of the court must be preserved."
The judge said: "Good morning, fellow subjects. Clerk, call the first case."
The clerk said: "The first case is that of the Kralate against Marko Prokopiu of Skudra, twenty-
one years old. It is charged that the said Marko Prokopiu did willfully and wrongfully, while
employed as a teacher of boys in the public school of Skudra, teach the false and heretical
doctrine called Descensionism or Anti-Evolution, namely: that the Earth, instead of being a plane
of spiritual existence, from which our souls come and to which they return, is a material place or
world like Kforri, and that all men, instead of having evolved under the guidance of the gods from
the lower animals of Kforri, came from Earth at the time of the Descent in a flying machine. It
is, moreover, charged that the said Marko Prokopiu did not only advance this false doctrine, but
did also deny, condemn, and ridicule the true belief, certified by the Holy Syncretic Church of
Vizantia and adopted as official by
the Krai's ministers, to wit: the doctrine of Evolution. How do you plead, Marko Prokopiu?"
Marko Prokopiu, the foster son of the late Milan Prokopiu the smith, stood up. Since the year on
Kforri is half again as long as that on Earth, by Terran time .Marko would have been thirty-two.
He was a little taller than the average but seemed short because of his abnormal breadth and
girth. These were conspicuous even among Kforrians, with whom a stocky build with thick legs was
general. The gravity of the planet, a third more than that of Mother Earth, had in the fifty-odd
generations since the Descent eliminated spindle legs and weak hearts.
So Marko looked more like a blacksmith, which his foster father had been, than a small-town school-
teacher, despite the fact that he was no passionate exerciser. His features were rather thick,
coarse, and brutal-looking. The blondness of his scalp lock distinguished him from the dark native-
born Vizantians.