The Saturn
Presentation of this planet and its moons, including ring and creatures
- Chapter 32 -
The Saturn house servant, Fur. A species of tame ape. Concerning the Saturn dog, horse, sheep and other animal species.
As far as this animal called the fur is concerned, its name is derived from the purpose that it serves for the Saturnites, whereas the animal which we discussed previously derived its name from its color.
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What does this animal do? It renders the same services to its master as a faithful and diligent house servant on earth. This animal carries out almost all the work which you on earth would consider to be heavy or hard work with the greatest accuracy. This animal tills the fields, carries water to the house, gathers wood and carries it to the house for the human beings to use, cleans the fields and chases away harmful animals, and at night guards the entire household and carries out many more such chores.
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Therefore the people on Saturn have given this animal the name fur which is in accordance with its usefulness; the meaning in your language is "faithful house servant."
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Now we already know what this creature does and what its name is. What does this useful domesticated animal resemble? That of course is an entirely different question. Is there on earth a similar creature which it resembles in form? The answer is yes, on earth there are similar creatures, and they exist in large numbers in all kinds of gradations. Only on earth these animals are without exception wild, whereas on Saturn the reverse is the case; there most animals of this species are tame and they learn so easily that in a very short time they can be trained to do all kinds of human labor and can be employed in this manner. What is the name of this animal on earth, which on account of its natural ability and physical structure could also be employed for most of these chores if one only knew how to domesticate it and teach it the various human tasks? On earth these animals are called apes; and particularly those which you know as the orangutan.
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As aforementioned, these creatures are the most useful members of the animal kingdom on Saturn, because they can be employed for all kinds of work. Does it cost much to maintain such an animal? They do not cost much at all. They are the most inexpensive servants for the Saturnites, because they demand nothing but to be treated properly and to eat the occasional fruit from the hand of a human being. That is everything that these workers demand from their masters.
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Only when they are abused or treated cruelly do they usually revenge themselves by becoming unfaithful and leaving the house forever. If they are retained by force, then the owner is in for a big fight wherein the animal always becomes the winner by running away. When people on Saturn offend the fur so that the animal wants to leave, they indicate to the animal by holding some fruit in their hands and offering it that they regret their error and want to make up; usually the offended animal turns around and, just as before, becomes again a faithful servant to its master.
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What kind of food does this useful animal eat? Its usual nourishment consists of all kinds of lower-growing fruit on trees and shrubs, which is rarely eaten by human beings and not at all by those who are well-to-do. From this you can gather how little such servants cost their masters. And if you add to this the fact that this kind of fruit is in great abundance and not fit for human consumption and that I care for the indestructible clothing of these workers, then you must clearly understand how extremely inexpensive these laborers are for the Saturnites.
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Since we have mentioned quite a bit about the usefulness of these animals, we will now turn to the shape. I mentioned before that these animals closely resemble the ape on earth. However, on this large planet everything is much more developed and perfected in accordance with its shape; therefore these faithful house servants are much more developed and perfected than an orangutan on earth.
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As far as the skin of the Saturn orangutan is concerned, it is covered thickly with hair except for the palms of the hands and a small part of the face. Also, the hands and feet are, as a rule, significantly slimmer and therefore less fleshy than those of a Saturnian human. The human beings on Saturn are all very well built and perfect, without any hair on their bodies, except for the head and genital parts. The color of the skin of the Saturnites is mostly snow white and, in the plains, the color touches on a reddish brown, whereas the color of the hair of this animal is either light-blue or sometimes gray. The parts which are without hair are at all times a pale red.
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How tall is such an animal? It is close to the height of a Saturn woman; but nobody has ever seen one reaching the height of a Saturn man.
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What is the main habitat of this animal? If you take into consideration that on this planet all the continents are in one and the same climatic zone, it should be easily understood when I say that this animal's habitat is on almost every continent, and mainly with mountain dwellers, and that this applies to the entire planet with very little variance in its form and color.
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This species of ape is not the only one that lives on this planet. There is an almost immeasurable variety of species of this particular animal, but all of them are wild. On some continents these animals are so numerous that they move in large herds to the mountains and, while there, they do not spare the noble fruit intended for the mountain dwellers.
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When this occurs the faithful house servants perform an invaluable service, because as soon as they catch sight of these herds anywhere close to the fruit trees of the Saturnites, they immediately drop whatever they might be doing and run incensed towards these uninvited parasites. Woe to those intruders who are caught! They will not escape; instead they are torn to pieces immediately.
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Because all the smaller species of this group of animals knows instinctively that the reception by these larger members of their species is anything but friendly, these confrontations happen very rarely, only when they are forced by vital necessity. Such a venture is always undertaken at night and never during the day, and only when the area is under the shadow of the ring (which to the people on Saturn means as much as winter on earth).
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Now we know everything noteworthy about this animal, and for this reason we shall describe another domesticated animal which is held in great esteem by the Saturnites of the plains and valleys.
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What kind of animal is this? In many aspects it resembles your domesticated dog. As far as its usefulness is concerned, on account of its strength and agility it is used for everything for which you use horses, except for riding, because the Saturnites do not ride animals. A Saturnite considers it below his human dignity to mount the ignoble body of an animal with his noble body; and nothing will carry him faster to his destination than his own two feet.
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This animal also has many various gradations or species, which on the different continents exist in a variety of species, and, with the exception of a few smaller species, almost all are used for the same purpose.
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These are the least beautiful animals; their color is similar to the color of other animals on Saturn, but they are not as clean and not as lively. Therefore, between dogs on earth and on Saturn there is almost no other difference other than size. The largest of this species on Saturn is 500 times the size of your largest dog on earth. But as far as the rest of these dogs is concerned, they are used besides their other activities as guard dogs. They do not bark; their voice is more like a thunder-like growling. The growling is of course much louder when it comes to the larger species, whereas it is not loud when it comes to the smaller species.
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That is about everything noteworthy that can be said about this animal. If you would ask the question: Is there one animal on Saturn that resembles our noble horse on earth? My answer to that question would be yes, there is a kind of horse on Saturn, but it is never tamed, because on Saturn it belongs to the wild animals.
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Are there any sheep on Saturn? Yes, there are, but they are nor tame either, but are considered as wild. And they are often hunted for their beautiful, soft hides.
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There are quite a few of these species on Saturn in the form which are tame on earth, whereas on Saturn these animals are not domesticated but live wild.
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The entire animal kingdom on Saturn has been described in the shortest possible manner and if you exercise your powers of Imagination just a little, it should be easy, as a result of this, to achieve a very pictorial representation that you can almost imagine any animal described here and how it exists in its natural state on this planet. The great multifariousness shall give new proof of how wonderful and abundant My infinite works are. And since these works exist already on one planet in such multifariousness and beauty, how many more wonderful and grandiose works does a sun contain on its vast soil, and how many unpronounceable, wonderfully grandiose and multifarious works does a spiritual world contain, when a material, natural world by comparison hardly represents much more than the external dead bark of a tree?