I blinked at him for a moment. “I can’t imagine.”
“Think about it.”
“Well … obviously their law is that A’s eat C’s and B’s eat A’s and C’s eat B’s.”
Ishmael shook his head. “These are food preferences. No law is required.”
“I need something more to go on then. All I’ve got is their food preferences.”
“You have three other things to go on. They have a law, they follow it invariably, and because they follow it invariably, they have a highly successful society.”
“It’s still very tenuous. Unless it’s something like … ‘Be cool.’”
“I’m not asking you to guess what the law is. I’m asking you to devise a method for discovering what the law is.”
I slid down in my chair, folded my hands on my stomach, and stared at the ceiling. After a few minutes I had an idea. “Is there a penalty for breaking this law?”
“Death.”
“Then I’d wait for an execution.”
Ishmael smiled. “Ingenious, but hardly a method. Besides, you’re overlooking the fact that the law is obeyed invariably. There has never been an execution.”
I sighed and closed my eyes. A few minutes later I said: “Observation. Careful observation over a long period.”
“That’s more like it. What would you be looking for?”
“For what they didn’t do. For what they never did.”
“Good. But how would you eliminate irrelevancies? For example, you might find that they never slept standing on their heads or that they never threw rocks at the moon. There would be a million things they never did, but these wouldn’t necessarily be prohibited by the law.”
“True. Well, let’s see. They have a law, they follow it invariably, and according to them … ah. According to them, following this law has given them a society that works very well. Am I supposed to take that seriously?”
“Certainly. It’s part of the hypothesis.”
“Then this would eliminate most of the irrelevancies. The fact that they never sleep standing on their heads wouldn’
t have anything to do with having a society that works well. Let’s see. In effect … What I would actually be looking for is … I would be closing in on it from two sides. From one side I would be saying: ‘What is it that makes this society work?’ And from the other side I would be saying: ‘What is it they don’t do that makes this society work?’”
“Bravo. Now, since you’ve worked this out so brilliantly, I’m going to give you a break: There’s going to be an execution after all. For the first time in history, someone has broken the law that is the foundation of their society. They’re outraged, horrified, astounded. They take the offender, cut him into little bits, and feed him to the dogs. This should be a big help to you in discovering their law.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll take the part of your host. We’ve just been to the execution. You may ask questions.”
“Okay. Just what did this guy do?”
“He broke the law.”
“Yes, but specifically what did he do?”
Ishmael shrugged. “He lived contrary to the law. He did the things we never do.”
I glared at him. “That’s not fair. You’re not answering my questions.”
“I tell you the whole sorry tale is public record, young man.
His biography, complete in every detail, is available at the library.”