Anyway, I'm sure none of my ancestors ever acted like that. * * * * * But Duncan was always ready to forgive a Tarchik anything. That used to upset the hell out of them, too, because they expect to be punished when they're caught at anything. They don't understand our reluctance to kill, but they respect a Patrolman's shock gun, and when they get caught stealing or taking each other's tails they know they're going to get a few months in quod, or what they hate much worse, a public flogging. If they didn't get punished, they'd assume it was weakness on our part. Just like kids. Anyway, there was Duncan, holding long confabs with the Tarchiki, trying to teach them some sort of elementary ethics. Naturally, it didn't take at all. They listened, because they love long speeches, but they never acted on what he said. He used to tell them that if they stopped chopping each other up and hanging up the rows of tails as war trophies, their lives would be a lot pleasanter. They used to nod and applaud, but Duncan never caught on to the simple fact that they thought this was meant to be a joke. _They_ didn't think their lives weren't pleasant enough. After all, look at their situation. They've got plenty to eat, without working hard for it, plenty of time on their hands--why shouldn't they keep down their surplus population? They don't know any other way, except breaking up their eggs, and they only do that to enemy tribes. While he was at it, Duncan tried to tell them all about love and things like that. Oh, no, not sex. If there's anything a Tarchik doesn't know about _that_, there's no Earthman going to teach him. I mean the way they treat their women. A Tarchik woman's nothing but a piece of property as far as sex goes, but there's some kind of curious maternal inheritance thing--anyway, it's as funny as hell to see a big Tarchik buck get down and bump his head in front of his mother, and his aunts, and all his other female ancestors. That's the one thing he's really afraid of. But, till she gets to be a mother, a woman leads a fairly rough life, getting passed around as a kind of prize of war, working harder than the men, all that. So Duncan wanted them to be a bit chivalrous to their women. Share the work, all kinds of things like that. You know what they thought of that idea--another Earthman's joke. But the funniest thing of all, to them, was his idea about the kids. Naturally, a Tarchik pup's no use to its father till it's a bit grown. Then, if it's a boy, the old man teaches it to drink _smassi_ and file its teeth, and go out ambushing and cutting tails with the other noble savages. If it's a girl, the father looks around for a suitable buyer as soon as its breasts are grown, and hopes for the best price possible.