"Of course," he replied. "It will also make my own people live in greater comfort to know that the crocodiles will never be hungry for them again. But … er, just out of curiosity, are there any marshmallow trees around? Just to be on the safe side, you know."
They all laughed.
CHAPTER 10
ALL ABOUT THE GILLIGOGGS AND THE DROFFS
The Droffs and the Gilligoggs had never understood each other. They were a different people, really. For example, the Droffs were shaggy-looking creatures with forms that resembled the Wooly Mammoth. They had short squat legs like tree trunks; short squat little bodies with arms to match, and heads that were too large for their bodies with eyes that were buried beneath long straggly shaggy fur. Their voices had a deep gruff sound not unlike a cave man might have sounded, and their words came out in a torrent of grunts that did not vary in tone and that did not exactly follow the rules of grammar. For example: "Who you?" "What you name?" "How got you this place?" "Why you here for?" etc. Whereas the Gilligoggs were quite elegant—even sophisticated—compared to the Droffs. They were tall and slender, with long delicate fingers that they waved expressively as they talked. They also had long hair but it was as soft and sweet smelling as the Droffs' hair was coarse and pungent. Their faces were feminine looking (even the males) with long curling eyelashes, delicately chiseled features, full lips, etc. The only perceptible difference between the males and females was that the males' voices were a little deeper, and they were a little taller.
Anyway, as you can imagine, two peoples that were so different had very little love for one another. Why this should be I do not know, except that people with different appearances seem to distrust each other, even when there has been no physical aggression between them. Neither group would willingly mix with the other either socially or even live in the other's neighborhood. Each race pretty much kept to itself.
I suppose that in a way, the Gilligoggs looked down on the Droffs. They considered them somehow inferior to themselves. The Droffs were well aware of this and were deeply resentful. Now if you or I were to try to analyze the exact reason for this, we might fall short of our goal. We could say that the Gilligoggs were far more intelligent because their speech was more sophisticated. But if you took the trouble to get to know a Droff, you would find that, in spite of their crude manner of speech, they are, as a whole, equally as intelligent as the Gilligoggs, except that they express their intelligence in a different way. Another argument might be that the Droffs were not nearly so sweet smelling in comparison. Now, this may be true in one way, but in actual fact, the Droffs had just as high a standard of personal hygiene as the Gilligoggs. It was just that the Gilligoggs' olfactory senses were sensitive to the natural scent of the Droffs (just as the Droffs' olfactory senses were equally sensitive to the natural scent of the Gilligoggs). And while neither group found the other offensive in this way, they could detect a difference, albeit on a subconscious level. Another argument might be that the Droffs had lower social standards than the Gilligoggs. This argument, too, has to fall by the wayside. For reasons that we will not go into here, the Droffs had had difficulty in keeping up with the Joneses, so to speak. Due to circumstances beyond their control, they had not done quite as well on a socioeconomic scale. So there you have it. And this was the situation that Elephant and his pals were confronted with after their excursion with the Marshmallow people. As they continued on their way to the home of the Saber-Toothed Light-Bulbs, they hardly expected yet another interruption. But it happened all the same. A particularly tall and attractive Gilligogg woman who looked to be about sixteen approached them. She had dark hair that glistened in the sunlight in a particularly gorgeous manner which reminded Lisa of fine silk.
"Greetings," said Ozma to the young lady. Even though she was not anxious to be interrupted again, she was always polite to her people. She knew that, in order to be a good ruler for the land of Oz, she should be aware of the individual needs of all of the Ozites.
"Good morrow," came the reply. The lady's voice was like music. Beautiful music such as is usually reserved only for the Fairies, angels or gods. So in awe of this lovely lady were our adventurers that only Ozma found her voice which, though beautiful in its own youthful manner, did not hold a candle to that of this Gilligogg lady.
"I am Ozma, the Queen of Oz," said the little girl. "My friends and I are on our way to enlist the help of some people who live beyond your territory. I hope you won't mind if we pass through your lovely country."