Page:Life in a thousand worlds.djvu/219

. Either way of travel seems as natural as the other. When they walk on two limbs, the body is erect, presenting a stature of such gigantic proportions as to over-awe a representative of our world.

According to the universal standards of symmetry, these giants have an animal beauty that is anything but handsome, and they also lack those facial expressions of higher intelligence that come only through generations of cultured thinking. Their health is quite perfect and they live to a great age.

These Scumites have a language singularly their own. It is so totally different from any of our conceptions of speech that I can scarcely find words to describe it.

The medium of conversation is the Notched Rod. It is about twelve feet long with various kinds of notches cut along the two sides. Such a stick is possessed by every Scumite who expects to hold extended or descriptive conversations. It is usually held by a skin strung around the neck. While one of these persons is talking, two or three of his fingers pass from notch to notch along the rod. These indentures of