ople around somewhere that have those characteristics. Anything else
is unthinkable."

"It seems to me that you're building an awfully involved theory out of
pretty flimsy stuff," Stanton said.

Yoritomo shook his head. "Not at all. Not at all. Every scrap and shred
of evidence we have points toward it. Why, do you suppose, does the Nipe
conscientiously devour his victims, often risking his own safety to do
so? Why do you suppose he never uses any weapon but his own hands to
kill with?"

Yoritomo leaned forward and speared out at Stanton with a long, bony
forefinger. "Why? To tell the Real People that he is a gentleman!"

He sat back with a satisfied smile and puffed complacently at his pipe,
remaining silent while Bart Stanton considered his last remark.

"Just one thing," Stanton said after a minute. "It seems to me that he
would be able to judge that some races have different Laws and Rituals
than he does. Wouldn't they have a science comparable to our
anthropology?"

Yoritomo grinned. "Nipology, shall we say? Well, he might, but it would
not tell him what our anthropology tells us.

"Consider. How have we learned much of our knowledge of the early
history of Man? By the study of ritual-taboo cultures. The so-called
'primitive' cultures. It is from these tribes that we have learned the
multifarious ways in which a group of human beings can evolve a culture
and a society. But does the Nipe have any such other tribes to study?"

"Why wouldn't he?" Stanton asked.

"Because there are none," Yoritomo said. "How could there be? Consider
again. Once a race has evolved a fairly high technological level, it is
capable of wiping out races which have not achieved that level. If the
technologically advanced tribe is still at the ritual-taboo level, it
will consider that all tribes which do not use the same Laws and Rituals
as it does must be animals--dangerous animals that must be wiped out.
Take a look at the history of our own race. In a few short centuries, we
find that the technologically advanced civilization and culture of
Renaissance Europe has spread over the whole globe. By military,
economic, and religious conquest, it has, in effect, westernized the
majority of Mankind.

"The same process would take place on the Nipe's world, only more
thoroughly. The weaker tribes would vanish, the stronger would
amalgamate."

"That process would take a lot of time," Stanton said.

"Indeed! Oh, yes, indeed," Yoritomo a