"I don't imagine it's rice, but it needs flooding whatever it is."
"Ask him how many humanoids there are on this planet."
"I'm way ahead of you, Griffin. He says there are only a few thousand left. The rest were all destroyed in a war with the barbarians."
"Barbarians?"
"They're extinct."
"How many races were there?"
"I'll get to that if you'll stop interrupting," Kung rejoined testily. "Joe says there are only two kinds of people, his own dark, straight-haired kind and the barbarians. They have curly hair, white skin and round eyes. You'd pass for a barbarian, according to Joe, only you don't have a faceful of hair. He wants to know how things are going on the other planets."
"I suppose that's my cue to break into a cold sweat and feel a premonition of disaster." Griffin tried to smile and almost made it.
"Not necessarily, but it seems our iron-age man is fairly well informed in extraplanetary affairs."
"I guess I'd better start learning the language."