S
Sciborg_S_Patel
Heh, so let's try this again. I think this thread has been gobbled up twice so hopefully this time is the charm.
The Dance of the Frogs
It's always been unclear to me whether Eisley wanted this story to be regarded as fact or fiction. But in his collection the other stories are clearly meant to be non-fiction.
Something I've hesitated to mention before is that when I was a kid I'd see "game lords" but they were giant bats. I learned early on that no one else could see them, and perhaps they weren't really there anyway. But they are among my earliest memories and perhaps why I've always been open minded about the Numinous.
The Dance of the Frogs
It's always been unclear to me whether Eisley wanted this story to be regarded as fact or fiction. But in his collection the other stories are clearly meant to be non-fiction.
Something I've hesitated to mention before is that when I was a kid I'd see "game lords" but they were giant bats. I learned early on that no one else could see them, and perhaps they weren't really there anyway. But they are among my earliest memories and perhaps why I've always been open minded about the Numinous.
"The special tent with its entranced occupant is no different from the cabinet," I contended ... The only difference is the type of voices that emerge. Many of the physical phenomena are identical -- the movement of powerful forces shaking the conical hut, objects thrown, all this is familiar to Western psychical science. What is different are the voices projected. Here they are the cries of animals, the voices from the swamp and the mountain -- the solitary elementals before whom the primitive man stands in awe, and from whom he begs sustenance. Here the game lords reign supreme; man himself is voiceless."
A low, halting query reached me from the back of the room. I was startled, even in the midst of my discussion, to note that it was Dreyer.
"And the game lords, what are they?"
"Each species of animal is supposed to have gigantic leaders of more than normal size," I explained. "These beings are the immaterial controllers of that particular type of animal. Legend about them is confused. Sometimes they partake of human qualities, will and intelligence, but they are of animal shape. They control the movements of game, and thus their favor may mean life or death to man."
"Are they visible?" Again Dreyer's low, troubled voice came from the back of the room.
"Native belief has it that they can be seen on rare occasions," I answered. "In a sense they remind one of the concept of the archetypes, the originals behind the petty show of our small, transitory existence. They are the immortal renewers of substance -- the force behind and above animate nature."
"Do they dance?" persisted Dreyer.