Free The Totems of Abydos by John Norman

innocence of the barracuda, those who have discovered choice, and questions.”
    “There is nothing important on Abydos,” said Brenner.
    “Why did you come?” asked Rodriguez. “Why did you not protest your assignment? Surely you had not expended your set of refusal rights.”
    “It gave me an opportunity to step off the porch,” said Brenner, “to see the stars.”
    “You should not have come,” said Rodriguez. “There is nothing for you on Abydos.”
    “I might find a shell or two,” said Brenner.
    “I am intrigued by Abydos,” said Rodriguez. “On Abydos is to be found one of the few remaining, and perhaps the most pure, of the totemic cultures.”
    “It is known only by a footnote in old texts,” said Brenner. He had, of course, as far as he could, in the university retrieval system, researched the matter.
    “Also in company records, of course,” said Rodriguez.
    Brenner’s visage clouded. Such records, of course, would not be in the university’s library. Indeed, most of the corporations were rather secretive about records, or at least their personal records, as opposed to their official records, readily available for public review.
    “The totemic cultures,” said Rodriguez, “are the oldest known to our species. They lie not only before civilizations as we know them today, but even before earlier civilizations. They are older even than the gods and the heroes. They may be at the beginning itself.”
    The theme here, of course, was a common one to anthropology, the thesis that the earlier stages of more complex civilizations may be discovered in more primitive cultures. In the examination of such cultures, for example, in a consideration of their customs and beliefs, their monuments and tools, their works, ways, and traditions, their stories, their songs, their drawings, their legends and myths, their religions and sciences, their feelings, there might be found, in such rubble, so to speak, the origins and meanings, perhaps elaborated or distorted, of more complex modern forms. And, to be sure, there seemed little doubt that many such remnants, or relics, of one sort or another, sometimes primitive, if not actually embarrassing, lingered into more enlightened eras. To be frank, of course, much of this was controversial, for a number of reasons, and it must be pointed out, as well, that it was not always clear as to whether a culture was truly primitive or not. For example, a culture which had achieved no technology other than what might be attained with a hammer and a blade might be as old in its way, and have a history, however quiescent, behind it as ancient as that of the most advanced star world, routinely exploiting triumphs in hyperspace navigation. Too, of course, even totemic institutions might develop, undergoing various refinements and elaborations. Accordingly, one might even distinguish between, say, primitive totemisms and, so to speak, developed, or advanced, totemisms.
    Brenner did not respond to Rodriguez. He was familiar with such matters, and speculations, of course. Rather he was enrapt with the vistas before him, and reminded himself that he was, in a sense, looking backward into the past, and that many of the lights which he saw, as those which he had seen from the surface of the home world, had begun their journeys thousands upon thousands of years ago. The light of the sun of Abydos, on the other hand, had begun its journey but a moment past. Astronomically, on standardized star charts, the sun of Abydos was identified by its catalog number, and the identificatory numbers of Abydos and its satellites, if it had had them, would have been indexed to this same number. For example, although the number of the sun of Abydos had several digits, let us suppose that its number was as simple as 17. The number of Abydos, then, would have been 17.3. You would then know that Abydos was the third planet from its star. If Abydos had had satellites, say, three of them, and we wished to