Chapter 20 Doctor Dolittle in the Moon by Hugh Lofting
THE DOCTOR AND THE GIANT
"All right, Chee-Chee, all right," said the Doctor hurriedly. "Wait now. We'll see what we can find out. Don't get excited."
In spite of the Doctor's reassuring words, I could see that he himself was by this time quite a little agitated. And for that no one could blame him. After weeks in this weird world where naught but extraordinary things came up day after day we had been constantly wondering when we'd see the strange Human whose traces and influence were everywhere so evident. Now at last he had appeared.
I gazed up at the gigantic figure rearing away into the skies above our heads. With one of his feet he could easily have crushed the lot of us like so many cockroaches. Yet he, with the rest of the gathering, seemed not unfriendly to us, if a bit puzzled by our size. As for John Dolittle, he may have been a little upset by Chee-Chee's announcement, but he certainly wasn't scared. He at once set to work to get into touch with this strange creature who had called on us. And, as was usual with his experiments of this kind, the other side seemed more than willing to help.
The giant wore very little clothes. A garment somewhat similar to our own, made from the flexible bark and leaves we had discovered in the forest, covered his middle from the arm-pits down to the lower thighs. His hair was long and shaggy, falling almost to his shoulders. The Doctor measured up to a line somewhere near his ankle-bone. Apparently realizing that it was difficult for John Dolittle to talk with him at that range, the giant made a movement with his hand and at once the insects nearest to us rose and crawled away. In the space thus cleared the man-monster sat down to converse with his visitors from the Earth.
It was curious that after this I too no longer feared the enormous creature who looked like something from a fairy-tale or a nightmare. Stretching down a tremendous hand, he lifted the Doctor, as though he had been a doll, and set him upon his bare knee. From this height—at least thirty feet above my head—John Dolittle clambered still further up the giant's frame till he stood upon his shoulder.
Here he apparently had much greater success in making himself understood than he had had lower down. By standing on tip-toe he could just reach the Moon Man's ear. Presently descending to the knee again, he began calling to me.
"Stubbins—I say, Stubbins! Have you got a notebook handy?"
"Yes, Doctor. In my pocket. Do you want me to take dictation?"
"Please," he shouted back—for all the world like a foreman yelling orders from a high building. "Get this down. I have hardly established communication yet, but I want you to book some preliminary notes. Are you ready?"
As a matter of fact, the Doctor in his enthusiasm had misjudged how easy he'd find it to converse with the Moon Man. For a good hour I stood waiting with my pencil poised and no words for dictation were handed down. Finally the Doctor called to me that he would have to delay matters a little till he got in close touch with our giant visitor.
"Humph!" grunted Polynesia. "I don't see why he bothers. I never saw such an unattractive enormous brute.—Doesn't look as though he had the wits of a caterpillar anyway. And to think that it was this great lump of unintelligent mutton that has kept the Doctor—John Dolittle, M.D.—and the rest of us, hanging about till it suited him to call on us!—After sending for us, mind you! That's the part that rattles me!"
"Oh, but goodness!" muttered Chee-Chee, peering up at the towering figure in the dusk. "Think—think how old he is! That man was living when the Moon separated from the Earth—thousands, maybe millions, of years ago! Golly, what an age!"
"Yes: he's old enough to know better," snapped the parrot—"better manners anyway. Just because he's fat and overgrown is no reason why he should treat his guests with such outrageous rudeness."
"Oh, but come now, Polynesia," I said, "we must not forget that this is a human being who has been separated from his own kind for centuries and centuries. And even such civilization as he knew on the Earth, way back in those Stone Age days, was not, I imagine, anything to boast of. Pretty crude, I'll bet it was, the world then. The wonder is, to my way of thinking, that he has any mind at all—with no other humans to mingle with through all that countless time. I'm not surprised that John Dolittle finds it difficult to talk with him."
"Oh, well now, Tommy Stubbins," said she, "that may sound all very scientific and high-falutin. But just the same there's no denying that this overgrown booby was the one who got us up here. And the least he could have done was to see that we were properly received and cared for—instead of letting us fish for ourselves with no one to guide us or to put us on to the ropes. Very poor hospitality, I call it."
"You seem to forget, Polynesia," I said mildly, "that in spite of our small size, we may have seemed—as the Doctor said—quite as fearful to him and his world as he and his have been to us—even if he did arrange to get us here. Did you notice that he limped?"
"I did," said she, tossing her head. "He dragged his left foot after him with an odd gait. Pshaw! I'll bet that's what he got the Doctor up here for—rheumatism or a splinter in his toe. Still, what I don't understand is how he heard of John Dolittle, famous though he is, with no communication between his world and ours."
It was very interesting to me to watch the Doctor trying to talk with the Moon Man. I could not make the wildest guess at what sort of language it could be that they would finally hit upon. After all that time of separation from his fellows, how much could this strange creature remember of a mother tongue?
As a matter of fact, I did not find out that evening at all. The Doctor kept at his experiments, in his usual way, entirely forgetful of time or anything else. After I had watched for a while Chee-Chee's head nodding sleepily I finally dozed off myself.
When I awoke it was daylight. The Doctor was still engaged with the giant in his struggles to understand and be understood. However, I could see at once that he was encouraged. I shouted up to him that it was breakfast-time. He heard, nodded back to me and then apparently asked the giant to join us at our meal. I was surprised and delighted to see with what ease he managed to convey this idea to our big friend. For the Moon Man at once sat him down upon the ground near our tarpaulin which served as a table-cloth and gazed critically over the foodstuffs laid out. We offered him some of our famous yellow yam. At this he shook his head vigorously. Then with signs and grunts he proceeded to explain something to John Dolittle.
"He tells me, Stubbins," said the Doctor presently, "that the yellow yam is the principal cause of rapid growth. Everything in this world, it seems, tends towards size; but this particular food is the worst. He advises us to drop it—unless we want to grow as big as he is. He has been trying to get back to our size, apparently, for ever so long."
"Try him with some of the melon, Doctor," said Chee-Chee.
This, when offered to the Moon Man, was accepted gladly; and for a little we all munched in silence.
"How are you getting on with his language, Doctor?" I asked presently.
"Oh, so so," he grumbled. "It's odd—awfully strange. At first I supposed it would be something like most human languages, a variation of vocal sounds. And I tried for hours to get in touch with him along those lines. But it was only a few vague far-off memories that I could bring out. I was, of course, particularly interested to link up a connection with some earthly language. Finally I went on to the languages of the insects and the plants and found that he spoke all dialects, in both, perfectly. On the whole I am awfully pleased with my experiments. Even if I cannot link him up with some of our own dead languages, at least his superior knowledge of the insect and vegetable tongues will be of great value to me."
"Has he said anything so far about why he got you up here?" asked Polynesia.
"Not as yet," said the Doctor. "But we've only just begun, you know. All in good time, Polynesia, all in good time."