"The error," he continued, "was made when Papa Nipe generalized from one tiger to all tigers. If tigers were rare, this bit of lore might be passed on for many generations. Those who learned that most tigers are not conquered by walking up to them and hitting them on the noggin undoubtedly died before they could pass this bit of information on. Then, one day, a Nipe survived the ordeal. His mind now contained conflicting information, which must be resolved. He knows that tigers are killed in this way. He also knows that this one did not die. Plainly, then, this one is not a tiger. Ha! He has the solution!
"What does he tell his children? Why, first he tells them how tigers are killed. Then he warns them that there is an animal that looks just like a tiger, but is not a tiger. One should not make the mistake of thinking it is a tiger or one will get badly hurt. Since the only way to tell the true tiger from the false is to hit it, and since that test may prove fatal to the Nipe who tries it, it follows that one is better off if one avoids all animals that look like tigers. You see?"
"Yeah," said Stanton. "Some snarks are boojums."
"Exactly! Thank you for that allusion. I must remember to use it in my report."
"It seems to me to follow," Stanton said musingly, "that there would be some things that they'd never learn the truth about, once they'd gotten a wrong idea in their heads."
"Ah! Indeed. It is precisely that which led me to formulate my theory in the first place. How else to explain the fact that the Nipe, for all his technical knowledge, is still in the ancient ritual-taboo stage of development?"
"A savage?"
Yoritomo smiled. "As to his savagery, I think no one on Earth would disagree. But they are not the same thing. What I do mean is that the Nipe is undoubtedly the most superstitious and bigoted being on the face of this planet."
XIV
There was a knock at the door, and the physical therapist put his head in. "Sorry to interrupt, but the clam is done. I'll give him a rubdown, Doc, and you can have him back."