Free Out Of The Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis Page A

on the creature's belly
were not genital organs nor organs at all; it was wearing a kind of girdle hung with various
pouch~like objects, and it was adding a few drops of liquid from one of these to the water
in the shell. This done it raised the shell to its black lips and drank - not throwing back
its head like a man but bowing it and sucking like a horse. When it had finished it refilled
the shell and once again added a few drops from the receptacle - it seemed to be some kind
of skin bottle - at its waist. Supporting the shell in its two arms, it extended them towards
Ransom. The intention was unmistakable. Hesitantly, almost shyly, he advanced and took the cup.
His fingertips touched the webbed membrane of the creature's paws and an indescribable thrill
of mingled attraction and repulsion ran through him; then he drank. Whatever had been added
to the water was plainly alcoholic; he had never enjoyed a drink so much.
    'Thank you,' he said in English. 'Thank you very much.'
    The creature struck itself on the chest and made a noise. Ransom did not at first realize what
it meant. Then he saw that it was trying to teach him its name - presumably the name of the
species.
    "Hross,' it said, 'hross,' and flapped itself.
    'Hross,' repeated Ransom, and pointed at it; then 'Man,' and struck his own chest.
    'Hma - hma - hman,' imitated the hross. It picked up a handful of earth, where earth appeared
between weed and water at the bank of the lake.
    'Handra,' it said. Ransom repeated the word. Then an idea occurred to him.
    'Malacandra?' he said in an inquiring voice. The hross rolled its eyes and waved its arms,
obviously in an effort to indicate the whole landscape. Ransom was getting on well. Handra
was earth the element; Malacandra the 'earth' or planet as a whole. Soon he would find out
what Malac meant. In the meantime 'H disappears after C' he noted, and made his first step
in Malacandrian phonetics. The hross was now trying to teach him the meaning of 'handramit'.
He recognized the root handra- again (and noted 'They have suffixes as well as prefixes'),
but this time he could make nothing of the hross's gestures, and remained ignorant what a
handramit might be. He took the initiative by opening his mouth, pointing to it and going
through the pantomime of eating. The Malacandrian word for food or eat which he got in return
proved to contain consonants unreproducible by a human mouth, and Ransom, continuing the
pantomime, tried to explain that his interest was practical as well as philological. The
hross understood him, though he took some time to understand from its gestures that it was
inviting him to follow it. In the end, he did so.
    It took him only as far as where it had got the shell, and here, to his not very reasonable
astonishment, Ransom found that a kind of boat was moored. Man-like, when he saw the artefact
he felt more certain of the hross's rationality. He even valued the creature the more because
the boat, allowing for the usual Malacandrian height and flimsiness, was really very like an
earthly boat; only later did he set himself the question, 'What else could a boat be like?'
The hross produced an oval platter of some tough but slightly flexible material, covered it
with strips of a spongy, orange-coloured substance and gave it to Ransom. He cut a convenient
length off with his knife and began to eat; doubtfully at first and then ravenously. It had a
bean-like taste but sweeter; good enough for a starving man. Then, as his hunger ebbed, the
sense of his situation returned with dismaying force. The huge, seal-like creature seated
beside him became unbearably ominous. It seemed friendly; but it was very big, very black,
and he knew nothing at all about it. What were its relations to the sorns? And was it really
as rational as it appeared?
    It was only many days later that Ransom discovered how to deal with these sudden losses
of confidence. They arose when the rationality of