Page 89 - erewhon

try. I naturally questioned them about many of the things
which had puzzled me since my arrival. I inquired what
was the object and meaning of the statues which I had seen
upon the plateau of the pass. I was told that they dated from
a very remote period, and that there were several other such
groups in the country, but none so remarkable as the one
which I had seen. They had a religious origin, having been
designed to propitiate the gods of deformity and disease. In
former times it had been the custom to make expeditions
over the ranges, and capture the ugliest of Chowbok’s an-
cestors whom they could find, in order to sacrifice them in
the presence of these deities, and thus avert ugliness and
disease from the Erewhonians themselves. It had been
whispered (but my informant assured me untruly) that
centuries ago they had even offered up some of their own
people who were ugly or out of health, in order to make
examples of them; these detestable customs, however, had
been long discontinued; neither was there any present ob-
servance of the statues.
I had the curiosity to inquire what would be done to any
of Chowbok’s tribe if they crossed over into Erewhon. I was
told that nobody knew, inasmuch as such a thing had not
happened for ages. They would be too ugly to be allowed
to go at large, but not so much so as to be criminally liable.
Their offence in having come would be a moral one; but they
would be beyond the straightener’s art. Possibly they would
be consigned to the Hospital for Incurable Bores, and made
to work at being bored for so many hours a day by the Ere-
whonian inhabitants of the hospital, who are extremely

Erewhon