greed. "But they have had the time,
have they not? Eh? What Western European Man has partially achieved in
less than a thousand years, surely the Nipe equivalent could have
achieved in ten thousand thousand. Eh?"

"But I'd think that the Nipe would have realized, after ten years, that
there is no such race of Real People," Stanton said. "He's had access to
our records and books and such things. Or does he reject them all as
lies?"

"Possibly he would, if he could read them," Yoritomo said. "Did I not
say he was illiterate?"

"You mean he's learned to speak our languages, but not to read them?"

The psychologist smiled broadly. "Your statement is accurate, my friend,
but incomplete. It is my opinion that the Nipe is incapable of reading
any written language whatever. The concept does not exist in his mind,
except vaguely."

Stanton closed one eye and gave Yoritomo the glance askance. "Aw, come
_awwn_, George! A technological race without a written language? That's
impossible!"

"Ah, no. No, it isn't. Ask yourself: What need has a race with a perfect
memory for written records? At least, in the sense that we think of
them. Certainly not to remember things. What would a Nipe need with a
memorandum book or a diary? All of their history and all of their
technology exists in the collective mind of the race.

"Think, for a moment, of their history. If it is somewhat analogous to
human history--and, as we have seen, there is reason to believe that
this is so--then we can, in a way, trace the development of writing.
We--"

"Wait a minute!" Stanton held up his hand. "I think I see what you're
driving at."

"Ah. So?" Yoritomo nodded. "Very well. Then _you_ expound."

"I can give it to you in two sentences," Stanton said. "One: Their first
writing was probably pictographic and was learned only by a select
priestly class. Two: It still is."

"Ahhhh!" Yoritomo's eyes lit up. "Admirable! Most admirable! And
succinctly put, too. And, to top it off, almost precisely correct. That
is what happened here on Earth; are we wrong in assuming that such may
have happened elsewhere in the Universe? (Remembering always, my dear
Bart, that we must not make the mistake of thinking like our friend, the
Nipe, and assuming that everybody else in the Universe has to be like us
in all things.)

"You are correct. That is why I hedged when I said he was _almost_
illiterate. There is a possibility that a written symbology does exist
for Ni