Free The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells

animalising
these men, had infected their dwarfed brains with a kind of
deification of himself. However, I was too keenly aware of white
teeth and strong claws about me to stop my chanting on that account.
    "
His
are the stars in the sky."
    At last that song ended. I saw the Ape-man's face shining
with perspiration; and my eyes being now accustomed to the darkness,
I saw more distinctly the figure in the corner from which the voice came.
It was the size of a man, but it seemed covered with a dull grey
hair almost like a Skye-terrier. What was it? What were they all?
Imagine yourself surrounded by all the most horrible cripples
and maniacs it is possible to conceive, and you may understand
a little of my feelings with these grotesque caricatures of humanity
about me.
    "He is a five-man, a five-man, a five-man—like me," said the Ape-man.
    I held out my hands. The grey creature in the corner leant forward.
    "Not to run on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?"
he said.
    He put out a strangely distorted talon and gripped my fingers.
The thing was almost like the hoof of a deer produced into claws.
I could have yelled with surprise and pain. His face came
forward and peered at my nails, came forward into the light of
the opening of the hut and I saw with a quivering disgust that it
was like the face of neither man nor beast, but a mere shock
of grey hair, with three shadowy over-archings to mark the eyes
and mouth.
    "He has little nails," said this grisly creature in his hairy beard.
"It is well."
    He threw my hand down, and instinctively I gripped my stick.
    "Eat roots and herbs; it is His will," said the Ape-man.
    "I am the Sayer of the Law," said the grey figure. "Here come
all that be new to learn the Law. I sit in the darkness and say
the Law."
    "It is even so," said one of the beasts in the doorway.
    "Evil are the punishments of those who break the Law.
None escape."
    "None escape," said the Beast Folk, glancing furtively at one another.
    "None, none," said the Ape-man,—"none escape. See! I did a little thing,
a wrong thing, once. I jabbered, jabbered, stopped talking.
None could understand. I am burnt, branded in the hand. He is great.
He is good!"
    "None escape," said the grey creature in the corner.
    "None escape," said the Beast People, looking askance at one another.
    "For every one the want that is bad," said the grey Sayer of the Law.
"What you will want we do not know; we shall know. Some want
to follow things that move, to watch and slink and wait and spring;
to kill and bite, bite deep and rich, sucking the blood.
It is bad. 'Not to chase other Men; that is the Law.
Are we not Men? Not to eat Flesh or Fish; that is the Law. Are we
not Men?'"
    "None escape," said a dappled brute standing in the doorway.
    "For every one the want is bad," said the grey Sayer of the Law.
"Some want to go tearing with teeth and hands into the roots of things,
snuffing into the earth. It is bad."
    "None escape," said the men in the door.
    "Some go clawing trees; some go scratching at the graves of the dead;
some go fighting with foreheads or feet or claws; some bite suddenly,
none giving occasion; some love uncleanness."
    "None escape," said the Ape-man, scratching his calf.
    "None escape," said the little pink sloth-creature.
    "Punishment is sharp and sure. Therefore learn the Law.
Say the words."
    And incontinently he began again the strange litany of the Law,
and again I and all these creatures began singing and swaying.
My head reeled with this jabbering and the close stench of the place;
but I kept on, trusting to find presently some chance of a
new development.
    "Not to go on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?"
    We were making such a noise that I noticed nothing of a tumult outside,
until some one, who I think was one of the two Swine Men I
had seen, thrust his head over the little pink sloth-creature
and shouted something excitedly, something that I did not catch.
Incontinently those at the opening of the hut