"Mike Resnick - Kirinyaga" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike) She stared at me for a long minute. "You read my biography on your
computer," she concluded at last. "As long as the facts are correct, what difference does it make whether I read them from the bones or the computer?" I responded, refusing to confirm her statement. "Please sit down, Memsaab Eaton." She lowered herself awkwardly to the ground, wrinkling her face as she raised a cloud of dust. "It's very hot," she noted uncomfortably. "It is very hot in Kenya," I replied. "You could have created any climate you desired," she pointed out. "We did create the climate we desired," I answered. "Are there predators out there?" she asked, looking out over the savannah. "A few," I replied. "What kind?" "Hyenas." "Nothing larger?" she asked. "There is nothing larger anymore," I said. "I wonder why they didn't attack me?" "Perhaps because you are an intruder," I suggested. "Will they leave me alone on my way back to Haven?" she asked nervously, ignoring my comment. "I will give you a charm to keep them away." "I'd prefer an escort." "Very well," I said. when we were monitoring your world." "They are very useful animals," I answered, "for they bring many omens, both good and bad." "Really?" I nodded. "A hyena left me an evil omen this morning." "And?" she asked curiously. "And here you are," I said. She laughed. "They told me you were a sharp old man." "They were mistaken," I replied. "I am a feeble old man who sits in front of his boma and watches younger men tend his cattle and goats." "You are a feeble old man who graduated with honors from Cambridge and then acquired two postgraduate degrees from Yale," she replied. "Who told you that?" She smiled. "You're not the only one who reads biographies." I shrugged. "My degrees did not help me become a better mundumugu," I said. "The time was wasted." "You keep using that word. What, exactly, is a mundumugu?" "You would call him a witch doctor," I answered. "But in truth the mundumugu, while he occasionally casts spells and interprets omens, is more a repository of the collected wisdom and traditions of his race." "It sounds like an interesting occupation," she said. "It is not without its compensations." "And such compensations!" she said with false enthusiasm as a goat bleated in the distance and a young man yelled at it in Swahili. "Imagine |
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