Page:Life in a thousand worlds.djvu/220

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A WORLD OF LOW LIFE.
215

the rod represent, in their language, certain kinds of sounds and are used to assist the vocal organs in expressing the more intricate combinations of ideas. Naturally, the listener watches the fingers more than the mouth.

It is amusing to see a Scumite busily engaged in delivering a speech to a few of his fellow creatures. It would remind you of a person playing a fife or violin without producing any sound.

The children of Scum learn this rod language just the same as our children at first learn to speak our language by observation and practice.

The face of a Scumite does not resemble a human face of our planet. The mouth and jaws are at right angles to ours and this arrangement seems to be just as convenient to these Scumites as the formation of our mouth is to us. The nose lies above the mouth, but is relatively much higher, its point coining between the two eyes which are situated more toward the sides of the head.

The startling fact about this world is