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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Student's Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 4. March 26 1968

The Return Of The Triboldies — Part 4

The Return Of The Triboldies

Part 4

Photo by Rort W. Joiner

Photo by [unclear: Rort] W. Joiner

Today I was talking to the boy Nenuphar. He will be a magician (and superior to most of them); already I perceive his mystic nature. He came to me with a number of paradoxes: an egg has feathers; a chicken has three legs; the Valley for Foreboding contains the whole world; a dog can be a sheep; a horse lays eggs; a frog has a tail; fire is not hot; mountains have mouths; the wheel never touches the ground; the eye does not see; attributes never reach, and the reaching never comes to an end; the tortoise is longer than the snake; compasses do not make circles, and squares are not right-angled; chisels do not surround their handles; the shadow of a flying bird never moves; there are moments when a flying arrow is neither in motion nor at rest; a puppy is not a dog; the shadow of a flying bird never moves; a bay horse and a dun cow make three; a white dog is black; an orphan rhinocerous has never had a mother; take a piece of bread, eat half every day, and it will still have something left. I was amazed by such perspicacity in one so young, and begged him to explain the paradoxes. He could not, so deep were they. This is true mysticism: to invent [unclear: paradoxes] so deep than one cannot explain them.

Later: take this back; I have found that he copied them from a book.

I shall certainly observe his career with great interest.

Our present task is to reunite with the remainder of our people. Sparadrap has suggested that since this valley is moist at the bottom, perhaps if we follow it downhill a stream or river may appeal, in which case we can modify our wagons so that they will float downstream. Streams come from under the ground, he argues, then they flow along the ground, therefore to maintain the constancies they must later flow through mid-air,. running uphill then down as they do on earth. Then, on reaching earth once more they flow uphill, then down into the centre of the earth. However, this theory has some opposition among learned people, such as Cantilever and Gerontophilia. The latter is of the opinion streams do not come out of the ground, but are the result of the rotting of fallen leaves; if they sometime come from springs, these springs are only as deep as the roots of the nearest tree; streams flow along the surface of the earth (which may or may not run downhill) to finally enter the abys and plunge far down into the earth, to the mirror-world, Arguments have been resolved: we shall continue down this valley; if there is a stream, we shall follow it as long as it runs eastward. But first we have a reindeer-rhino to bury.

I do not know which is the worse, to make one's way along a valley, continually pushing aside trees, rocks, and other grownths page 9 [unclear: to] travel along a ridge, plunging up and down hill in a [unclear: y] fashion. Our present mode of travel is a compromise; [unclear: are] moving at an alarming angle; my right side is far above [unclear: left], and I am forced to hold on by my tail. This forces me write with my foot, which explains the badly formed signs [unclear: his] page.

[unclear: axtehude] makes continual trips on the bird, looking for signs [unclear: the] majority of our people. He has been away days at [unclear: a] and so far found nothing. In fact, he almost lost this group [unclear: last] time he went out; therefore he will go less often [unclear: now], when he does we shall all slop and wait for him. Now we [unclear: crossing] the bottom of the valley, at a spot where there is [unclear: much] in the way. Today we shall travel with our left sides [unclear: are] our right, in order to maintain our psychic balance.

[unclear: 646], We have found a stream! It is unfrozen, and flowing [unclear: all]; we have turned a corner in the valley and seen that [unclear: are] almost at the end; the valley does not continue beyond [unclear: her] day's journey. We shall have to climb the fearfully [unclear: to] hill at the end of the valley. The most sharp-sighted of us, [unclear: ghing] Gas, can see trees at the top of the distant mountain. encouraging sign that we are coming to a more temperate ate. We are now travelling Northeast.

[unclear: We] are on our way up the mountain; the rock is sleep and [unclear: very], and the animals are all but exhausted, though we are [unclear: half] way up. We have paused to let the animals rest, and [unclear: looking] back over the valley. The stream has gone; it disared into the ground at the bottom of the mountain. [unclear: Spara's] theory has been discredited thoroughly; because of this he has lost a good deal of reputation among some of us, particularly among Cantilever and Gerontophilia. In the distance there are white mountains; perhaps that is where we came from. Already we have been travelling more than a year. I wonder whether the rest of our people have arrived already at the homeland, where they are now basking in the warmth of the sun that shines all day and all night. Or perhaps not all night; it would be difficult to sleep. But why should sleep be necessary, in such a salubrious clime? Sleep is good, because it produces dreams. But dreams are unnecessary, in such a salubrious clime; life must be like a welcome dream. There are plants that grow food, the old chronicles imply; it is only necessary to pick the food from the plant. How welcome this will be after our continual diet of licorice! We have enough licorice with us to keep us fed for years. Perhaps it will be a rarity in our new homeland, and we could then sell it at a high price. But money would not be necessary there.

We have camped almost at the top of the slippery mountain. It was getting very windy, so we have retreated a little to this sheltered spot in a small dip. Tomorrow we shall cross over the top and look below. From here I can see trees on the top. They are much bent fom the wind, but there is enough warmth here to enable them to survive. There is not even snow here. Where we have come from, it will now be mid-winter. Ugh! Perhaps what is over the mountain is the valley of Foreboding. The old chronicles describe it as surrounded by slippery hills, and populated by an angry, pale, very tall, tailless people. If so, perhaps we should skirt the valley rather than cross it.