Page 20 - Three Adventures

Voyage of the Pomeranian

May 21, 1884. Lat. 9º 02’ S. Long. 14º 11’ W.

I decided to tell Tristan we were less than a day from the
approximate location of his capture. He replied that he knew we were
close, but I did not get a chance to learn the source of that
knowledge. Certainly he is not a mind-reader! I had another question
for him, one which led quickly to a rather fantastic explanation of his,
or, one assumes, the octopoda worldview. Reviewing my notes last
night I came across the entry for May 17 describing the second of his
brilliant high-speed color-changing exhibitions. I recorded at the time
that he indicated what I had witnessed was “adult” communication.
But I was too busy then learning the language he claimed was
reserved for other cephalopods and juvenile octopi. I therefore this
morning asked him, given that I, too, was an adult, but unable to
reciprocate in any meaningful way the visual language he so briefly
displayed, what sort of messages were conveyed in it. My expectation
was that the content of all that complicated flashing consisted of no
more than subtle emotional signals related to territory and mating.
But that assumption was not confirmed by Tristan.

It took several tries, using combinations of the binary codes I had
already learned, to get the gist of his answer. If it is correct, then I
have grossly underestimated the intelligence of this species—or, at
least, of Tristan’s group. If not, then my invertebrate guest on the
Pomeranian is none other than Baron Munchausen in disguise. Here is
what he told me, reduced to its salient points:

While the “baby” language was a limited set of binary codes
communicated solely through a time-consuming tactile progression,
the grown-ups possessed a system of complexity and rapidity far in
excess of anything humans could imagine. First, the means of
expression, the chromatophores found by the millions on the surface
of an octopus, including its arms: by modulating the color, location,
duration and sequence of their stimulation, the creature had at its
disposal a level of conceptual richness and descriptive power
pauperizing our own. Having absorbed that revelation, I asked him

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