Our ancestors? Oh, now, really ... you're talking just like Duncan. That was always his apology for them. He said our own ancestors were pretty bad, too. Certainly they were, but I can't see any ancestor of mine acting the way a Tarchik does with a captured enemy. And they haven't the slightest sense of sportsmanship, either. They'd rather jump you from ambush than fight in the open, and they won't fight at all if the enemy's stronger than they are. That's why they've never made any serious attempt to do in all the Earthmen on their world. That, and greed; they get very good deals from us, and they know it.

Anyway, I'm sure none of my ancestors ever acted like that.

But Duncan was always ready to forgive a Tarchik anything. That used to upset the hell out of them, too, because they expect to be punished when they're caught at anything. They don't understand our reluctance to kill, but they respect a Patrolman's shock gun, and when they get caught stealing or taking each other's tails they know they're going to get a few months in quod, or what they hate much worse, a public flogging. If they didn't get punished, they'd assume it was weakness on our part. Just like kids.

Anyway, there was Duncan, holding long confabs with the Tarchiki, trying to teach them some sort of elementary ethics. Naturally, it didn't take at all. They listened, because they love long speeches, but they never acted on what he said.

He used to tell them that if they stopped chopping each other up and hanging up the rows of tails as war trophies, their lives would be a lot pleasanter. They used to nod and applaud, but Duncan never caught on to the simple fact that they thought this was meant to be a joke. They didn't think their lives weren't pleasant enough. After all, look at their situation. They've got plenty to eat, without working hard for it, plenty of time on their hands—why shouldn't they keep down their surplus population? They don't know any other way, except breaking up their eggs, and they only do that to enemy tribes.

While he was at it, Duncan tried to tell them all about love and things like that. Oh, no, not sex. If there's anything a Tarchik doesn't know about that, there's no Earthman going to teach him. I mean the way they treat their women. A Tarchik woman's nothing but a piece of property as far as sex goes, but there's some kind of curious maternal inheritance thing—anyway, it's as funny as hell to see a big Tarchik buck get down and bump his head in front of his mother, and his aunts, and all his other female ancestors. 

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