pes. But it is used almost entirely for ritualistic purposes, it
is pictographical in form, and is known only to a very few. For others
to learn it would be taboo.

"Remember, I said that there is only one society, one culture remaining
on the Nipe planet. And remember that history is a very late development
in our own culture, just as written language is. One important event in
every ten centuries of Nipe history would still give a Nipe historian
ten thousand events to remember just since the invention of the steam
engine. What, then, does Nipe history become? A series of folk chants,
of _chansons de geste_."

"Why?" Stanton asked. "If they have perfect memories, why would
histories be distorted?"

"Time, my dear boy. Time." Yoritomo spread his hands in a gesture of
futility. "When one has a few million years of history to learn, it
_must_ become distorted, even in a race with a perfect memory.
Otherwise, no individual would have a chance to learn it all in a single
lifetime, even a lifetime of five hundred years, much less to pass that
knowledge on to another. So only the most important events are reported.
And that means that each historian must also be an editor. He must
excise those portions which he considers unimportant."

"But wouldn't that very limitation induce them to record history?"
Stanton asked. "Right there is your inducement to use a written
language."

Yoritomo looked at him with wide-eyed innocence. "Why? _What good is
history?_"

"Ohhh," said Stanton. "I see."

"Certainly you do," Yoritomo said firmly. "Of what use is history to the
ritual-taboo culture? Only to record what is to be done. And, with a
memory that can _know_ what is to be done, of what use is a historian,
except to remember the _important_ things. No ritual-taboo culture looks
upon history as we do. Only the doings of the great are recorded. All
else must be edited out. Thus, while the memory of the individual may
be, and _is_, perfect, the memory of the race is not. _But they don't
know that!_"

"What about communications, then?" Stanton asked. "What did they use
before they invented radio?"

"Couriers," Yoritomo said. "And, possibly, written messages from one
priestly scribe to another. That last, by the way, has probably survived
in a ritualistic form. When an officer is appointed to a post, let's
say, he may get a formal paper that says so. The Nipes may use symbols
to signify rank and so on. They must have a symbology