The Ignoble Savages
 
 
 By EVELYN E. SMITH
 
 Illustrated by DILLON
 
 [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction March 1957. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
 
 
 Snaddra had but one choice in its fight to afford to live belowground—underhandedly pretend theirs was an aboveboard society!
 

 
 "Go Away from me, Skkiru," Larhgan said, pushing his hand off her arm.
"A beggar does not associate with the high priestess of Snaddra."
 
 "But the Earthmen aren't due for another fifteen minutes," Skkiru protested.
 
 "Of what importance are fifteen minutes compared to eternity!" she exclaimed. Her lovely eyes fuzzed softly with emotion. "You don't seem to realize, Skkiru, that this isn't just a matter of minutes or hours. It's forever."
 
 

 
 "Forever!" He looked at her incredulously. "You mean we're going to keep this up as a permanent thing? You're joking!"
 
 Bbulas groaned, but Skkiru didn't care about that. The sad, sweet way Larhgan shook her beautiful head disturbed him much more, and when she said, "No, Skkiru, I am not joking," a tiny pang of doubt and apprehension began to quiver in his second smallest left toe.
 
 "This is, in effect, good-by," she continued. "We shall see each other again, of course, but only from a distance. On feast days, perhaps you may be permitted to kiss the hem of my robe ... but that will be all."
 
 Skkiru turned to the third person present in the council chamber.
"Bbulas, this is your fault! It was all your idea!"
 
 There was regret on the Dilettante's thin face—an obviously insincere regret, the younger man knew, since he was well aware how Bbulas had always felt about the girl.
 
 "I am sorry, Skkiru," Bbulas intoned. "I had fancied you understood. This is not a game we are playing, but a new way of life we are adopting. A necessary way of life, if we of Snaddra are to keep on living at all."
 
 "It's not that I don't love you, Skkiru," Larhgan put in gently, "but the welfare of our planet comes first."
 
 

 
 She had been seeing too many of the Terrestrial fictapes from the library, Skkiru thought resentfully. There was too damn much Terran influence on this planet. And this new project was the last straw.
 
 No longer able to control his rage and grief, he turned a triple somersault in the air with rage. "Then why was I made a beggar and she the high priestess? You arranged that purposely, Bbulas. You—"
 
 "Now, Skkiru," Bbulas said wearily, for they had been through all this before, "you know that all the ranks and positions were distributed by impartial lot, except for mine, and, of course, such jobs as could carry over from the civilized into the primitive."
 
 Bbulas breathed on the spectacles he was wearing, as contact lenses were not considered backward enough for the kind of planet Snaddra was now supposed to be, and attempted to wipe them dry on his robe. However, the thick, jewel-studded embroidery got in his way and so he was forced to lift the robe and wipe all three of the lenses on the smooth, soft, spun metal of his top underskirt.
 
 "After all," he went on speaking as he wiped, "I have to be high priest, since I organized this culture and am the only one here qualified to administer it. And, as the president himself concurred in these arrangements, I hardly think you—a mere private citizen—have the right to question them."
 
 "Just because you went to school in another solar system," Skkiru said, whirling with anger, "you think you're so smart!"
 
 "I won't deny that I do have educational and cultural advantages which were, unfortunately, not available to the general populace of this planet. However, even under the old system, I was always glad to utilize my superior attainments as Official Dilettante for the good of all and now—"
 
 "Sure, glad to have a chance to rig this whole setup so you could break up things between Larhgan and me. You've had your eye on her for some time."
 
 Skkiru coiled his antennae at Bbulas, hoping the insult would provoke him into an unbecoming whirl, but the Dilettante remained calm. One of the chief outward signs of Terran-type training was self-control and Bbulas had been thoroughly terranized.
  I hate Terrestrials , Skkiru said to himself. I hate Terra. The quiver of anxiety had risen up his leg and was coiling and uncoiling in his stomach. He hoped it wouldn't reach his antennae—if he were to break down and psonk in front of Larhgan, it would be the final humiliation.
 
 "Skkiru!" the girl exclaimed, rotating gently, for she, like her fiance—her erstwhile fiance, that was, for the new regime had caused all such ties to be severed—and every other literate person on the planet, had received her education at the local university. Although sound, the school was admittedly provincial in outlook and very poor in the emotional department. "One would almost think that the lots had some sort of divine intelligence behind them, because you certainly are behaving in a beggarly manner!"
 
 "And I have already explained to you, Skkiru," Bbulas said, with a patience much more infuriating than the girl's anger, "that I had no idea of who was to become my high priestess. The lots chose Larhgan. It is, as the Earthmen say, kismet."
 
 

 
 He adjusted the fall of his glittering robe before the great polished four-dimensional reflector that formed one wall of the chamber.
  Kismet , Skkiru muttered to himself, and a little sleight of hand. But he didn't dare offer this conclusion aloud; the libel laws of Snaddra were very severe. So he had to fall back on a weak, "And I suppose it is kismet that makes us all have to go live out on the ground during the day, like—like savages."
 
 "It is necessary," Bbulas replied without turning.
 
 "Pooh," Skkiru said. "Pooh, pooh , POOH!"
 
 Larhgan's dainty earflaps closed. "Skkiru! Such language!"
 
 "As you said," Bbulas murmured, contemptuously coiling one antenna at Skkiru, "the lots chose well and if you touch me, Skkiru, we shall have another drawing for beggar and you will be made a metal-worker."
 
 "But I can't work metal!"
 
 "Then that will make it much worse for you than for the other outcasts," Bbulas said smugly, "because you will be a pariah without a trade."
 
 "Speaking of pariahs, that reminds me, Skkiru, before I forget, I'd better give you back your grimpatch—" Larhgan handed the glittering bauble to him—"and you give me mine. Since we can't be betrothed any longer, you might want to give yours to some nice beggar girl."
 
 "I don't want to give my grimpatch to some nice beggar girl!" Skkiru yelled, twirling madly in the air.
 
 "As for me," she sighed, standing soulfully on her head, "I do not think I shall ever marry. I shall make the religious life my career. Are there going to be any saints in your mythos, Bbulas?"
 
 "Even if there will be," Bbulas said, "you certainly won't qualify if you keep putting yourself into a position which not only represents a trait wholly out of keeping with the new culture, but is most unseemly with the high priestess's robes."
 
 Larhgan ignored his unfeeling observations. "I shall set myself apart from mundane affairs," she vowed, "and I shall pretend to be happy, even though my heart will be breaking."
 
 It was only at that moment that Skkiru realized just how outrageous the whole thing really was. There must be another solution to the planet's problem. "Listen—" he began, but just then excited noises filtered down from overhead. It was too late.
 
 "Earth ship in view!" a squeaky voice called through the intercom.
"Everybody topside and don't forget your shoes."
 
 Except the beggar. Beggars went barefoot. Beggars suffered. Bbulas had made him beggar purposely, and the lots were a lot of slibwash.
 
 "Hurry up, Skkiru."
 
 

 
 Bbulas slid the ornate headdress over his antennae, which, already gilded and jeweled, at once seemed to become a part of it. He looked pretty damn silly, Skkiru thought, at the same time conscious of his own appearance—which was, although picturesque enough to delight romantic Terrestrial hearts, sufficiently wretched to charm the most hardened sadist.
 
 "Hurry up, Skkiru," Bbulas said. "They mustn't suspect the existence of the city underground or we're finished before we've started."
 
 "For my part, I wish we'd never started," Skkiru grumbled. "What was wrong with our old culture, anyway?"
 
 That was intended as a rhetorical question, but Bbulas answered it anyway. He always answered questions; it had never seemed to penetrate his mind that school-days were long since over.
 
 "I've told you a thousand times that our old culture was too much like the Terrans' own to be of interest to them," he said, with affected weariness. "After all, most civilized societies are basically similar; it is only primitive societies that differ sharply, one from the other—and we have to be different to attract Earthmen. They're pretty choosy. You've got to give them what they want, and that's what they want. Now take up your post on the edge of the field, try to look hungry, and remember this isn't for you or for me, but for Snaddra."
 
 "For Snaddra," Larhgan said, placing her hand over her anterior heart in a gesture which, though devout on Earth—or so the fictapes seemed to indicate—was obscene on Snaddra, owing to the fact that certain essential organs were located in different areas in the Snaddrath than in the corresponding Terrestrial life-form. Already the Terrestrial influence was corrupting her, Skkiru thought mournfully. She had been such a nice girl, too.
 
 "We may never meet on equal terms again, Skkiru," she told him, with a long, soulful glance that made his hearts sink down to his quivering toes, "but I promise you there will never be anyone else for me—and I hope that knowledge will inspire you to complete cooperation with Bbulas."
 
 "If that doesn't," Bbulas said, "I have other methods of inspiration."
 
 "All right," Skkiru answered sulkily. "I'll go to the edge of the field, and I'll speak broken Inter-galactic, and I'll forsake my normal habits and customs, and I'll even beg . But I don't have to like doing it, and I don't intend to like doing it."
 
 All three of Larhgan's eyes fuzzed with emotion. "I'm proud of you, Skkiru," she said brokenly.
 
 Bbulas sniffed. The three of them floated up to ground level in a triple silence.
 
 

 
 "Alms, for the love of Ipsnadd," Skkiru chanted, as the two Terrans descended from the ship and plowed their way through the mud to meet a procession of young Snaddrath dressed in elaborate ceremonial costumes, and singing a popular ballad—to which less ribald, as well as less inspiring, words than the originals had been fitted by Bbulas, just in case, by some extremely remote chance, the Terrans had acquired a smattering of Snadd somewhere. Since neither party was accustomed to navigating mud, their progress was almost imperceptible.
 
 "Alms, for the love of Ipsnadd," chanted Skkiru the beggar. His teeth chattered as he spoke, for the rags he wore had been custom-weatherbeaten for him by the planet's best tailor—now a pariah, of course, because Snadd tailors were, naturally, metal-workers—and the wind and the rain were joyously making their way through the demolished wires. Never before had Skkiru been on the surface of the planet, except to pass over, and he had actually touched it only when taking off and landing. The Snaddrath had no means of land transport, having previously found it unnecessary—but now both air-cars and self-levitation were on the prohibited list as being insufficiently primitive.
 
 The outside was no place for a civilized human being, particularly in the wet season or—more properly speaking on Snaddra—the wetter season. Skkiru's feet were soaked with mud; not that the light sandals worn by the members of the procession appeared to be doing them much good, either. It gave him a kind of melancholy pleasure to see that the privileged ones were likewise trying to repress shivers. Though their costumes were rich, they were also scanty, particularly in the case of the females, for Earthmen had been reported by tape and tale to be humanoid.
 
 As the mud clutched his toes, Skkiru remembered an idea he had once gotten from an old sporting fictape of Terrestrial origin and had always planned to experiment with, but had never gotten around to—the weather had always been so weathery, there were so many other more comfortable sports, Larhgan had wanted him to spend more of his leisure hours with her, and so on. However, he still had the equipment, which he'd salvaged from a wrecked air-car, in his apartment—and it was the matter of a moment to run down, while Bbulas was looking the other way, and get it.
 
 Bbulas couldn't really object, Skkiru stilled the nagging quiver in his toe, because what could be more primitive than any form of land transport? And even though it took time to get the things, they worked so well that, in spite of the procession's head start, he was at the Earth ship long before the official greeters had reached it.
 
 

 
 The newcomers were indeed humanoid, he saw. Only the peculiarly pasty color of their skins and their embarrassing lack of antennae distinguished them visibly from the Snaddrath. They were dressed much as the Snaddrath had been before they had adopted primitive garb.
 
 In fact, the Terrestrials were quite decent-looking life-forms, entirely different from the foppish monsters Skkiru had somehow expected to represent the cultural ruling race. Of course, he had frequently seen pictures of them, but everyone knew how easily those could be retouched. Why, it was the Terrestrials themselves, he had always understood, who had invented the art of retouching—thus proving beyond a doubt that they had something to hide.
 
 "Look, Raoul," the older of the two Earthmen said in Terran—which the Snaddrath were not, according to the master plan, supposed to understand, but which most of them did, for it was the fashionable third language on most of the outer planets. "A beggar. Haven't seen one since some other chaps and I were doing a spot of field work on that little planet in the Arcturus system—what was its name? Glotch, that's it. Very short study, it turned out to be. Couldn't get more than a pamphlet out of it, as we were unable to stay long enough to amass enough material for a really definitive work. The natives tried to eat us, so we had to leave in somewhat of a hurry."
 
 "Oh, they were cannibals?" the other Earthman asked, so respectfully that it was easy to deduce he was the subordinate of the two. "How horrible!"
 
 "No, not at all," the other assured him. "They weren't human—another species entirely—so you could hardly call it cannibalism. In fact, it was quite all right from the ethical standpoint, but abstract moral considerations seemed less important to us than self-preservation just then. Decided that, in this case, it would be best to let the missionaries get first crack at them. Soften them up, you know."
 
 "And the missionaries—did they soften them up, Cyril?"
 
 "They softened up the missionaries, I believe." Cyril laughed. "Ah, well, it's all in the day's work."
 
 "I hope these creatures are not man-eaters," Raoul commented, with a polite smile at Cyril and an apprehensive glance at the oncoming procession— creatures indeed ! Skkiru thought, with a mental sniff.
"We have come such a long and expensive way to study them that it would be indeed a pity if we also were forced to depart in haste. Especially since this is my first field trip and I would like to make good at it."
 
 "Oh, you will, my boy, you will." Cyril clapped the younger man on the shoulder. "I have every confidence in your ability."
 
 Either he was stupid, Skkiru thought, or he was lying, in spite of Bbulas' asseverations that untruth was unknown to Terrestrials—which had always seemed highly improbable, anyway. How could any intelligent life-form possibly stick to the truth all the time? It wasn't human; it wasn't even humanoid; it wasn't even polite.
 
 "The natives certainly appear to be human enough," Raoul added, with an appreciative glance at the females, who had been selected for the processional honor with a view to reported Terrestrial tastes. "Some slight differences, of course—but, if two eyes are beautiful, three eyes can be fifty per cent lovelier, and chartreuse has always been my favorite color."
  If they stand out here in the cold much longer, they are going to turn bright yellow. His own skin, Skkiru knew, had faded from its normal healthy emerald to a sickly celadon.
 
 

 
 Cyril frowned and his companion's smile vanished, as if the contortion of his superior's face had activated a circuit somewhere. Maybe the little one's a robot! However, it couldn't be—a robot would be better constructed and less interested in females than Raoul.
 
 "Remember," Cyril said sternly, "we must not establish undue rapport with the native females. It tends to detract from true objectivity."
 
 "Yes, Cyril," Raoul said meekly.
 
 Cyril assumed a more cheerful aspect "I should like to give this chap something for old times' sake. What do you suppose is the medium of exchange here?"
  Money , Skkiru said to himself, but he didn't dare contribute this piece of information, helpful though it would be.
 
 "How should I know?" Raoul shrugged.
 
 "Empathize. Get in there, old chap, and start batting."
 
 "Why not give him a bar of chocolate, then?" Raoul suggested grumpily.
"The language of the stomach, like the language of love, is said to be a universal one."
 
 "Splendid idea! I always knew you had it in you, Raoul!"
 
 Skkiru accepted the candy with suitable—and entirely genuine—murmurs of gratitude. Chocolate was found only in the most expensive of the planet's delicacy shops—and now neither delicacy shops nor chocolate were to be found, so, if Bbulas thought he was going to save the gift to contribute it later to the Treasury, the "high priest" was off his rocker.
 
 To make sure there would be no subsequent dispute about possession, Skkiru ate the candy then and there. Chocolate increased the body's resistance to weather, and never before had he had to endure so much weather all at once.
 
 On Earth, he had heard, where people lived exposed to weather, they often sickened of it and passed on—which helped to solve the problem of birth control on so vulgarly fecund a planet. Snaddra, alas, needed no such measures, for its population—like its natural resources—was dwindling rapidly. Still, Skkiru thought, as he moodily munched on the chocolate, it would have been better to flicker out on their own than to descend to a subterfuge like this for nothing more than survival.
 
 

 
 Being a beggar, Skkiru discovered, did give him certain small, momentary advantages over those who had been alloted higher ranks. For one thing, it was quite in character for him to tread curiously upon the strangers' heels all the way to the temple—a ramshackle affair, but then it had been run up in only three days—where the official reception was to be held. The principal difficulty was that, because of his equipment, he had a little trouble keeping himself from overshooting the strangers. And though Bbulas might frown menacingly at him—and not only for his forwardness—that was in character on both sides, too.
 
 Nonetheless, Skkiru could not reconcile himself to his beggarhood, no matter how much he tried to comfort himself by thinking at least he wasn't a pariah like the unfortunate metal-workers who had to stand segregated from the rest by a chain of their own devising—a poetic thought, that was, but well in keeping with his beggarhood. Beggars were often poets, he believed, and poets almost always beggars. Since metal-working was the chief industry of Snaddra, this had provided the planet automatically with a large lowest caste. Bbulas had taken the easy way out.
 
 Skkiru swallowed the last of the chocolate and regarded the "high priest" with a simple-minded mendicant's grin. However, there were volcanic passions within him that surged up from his toes when, as the wind and rain whipped through his scanty coverings, he remembered the snug underskirts Bbulas was wearing beneath his warm gown. They were metal, but they were solid. All the garments visible or potentially visible were of woven metal, because, although there was cloth on the planet, it was not politic for the Earthmen to discover how heavily the Snaddrath depended upon imports.
 
 As the Earthmen reached the temple, Larhgan now appeared to join Bbulas at the head of the long flight of stairs that led to it. Although Skkiru had seen her in her priestly apparel before, it had not made the emotional impression upon him then that it did now, when, standing there, clad in beauty, dignity and warm clothes, she bade the newcomers welcome in several thousand words not too well chosen for her by Bbulas—who fancied himself a speech-writer as well as a speech-maker, for there was no end to the man's conceit.
 
 The difference between her magnificent garments and his own miserable rags had their full impact upon Skkiru at this moment. He saw the gulf that had been dug between them and, for the first time in his short life, he felt the tormenting pangs of caste distinction. She looked so lovely and so remote.
 
 "... and so you are most welcome to Snaddra, men of Earth," she was saying in her melodious voice. "Our resources may be small but our hearts are large, and what little we have, we offer with humility and with love. We hope that you will enjoy as long and as happy a stay here as you did on Nemeth...."
 
 Cyril looked at Raoul, who, however, seemed too absorbed in contemplating Larhgan's apparently universal charms to pay much attention to the expression on his companion's face.
 
 "... and that you will carry our affection back to all the peoples of the Galaxy."
 
 

 
 She had finished. And now Cyril cleared his throat. "Dear friends, we were honored by your gracious invitation to visit this fair planet, and we are honored now by the cordial reception you have given to us."
 
 The crowd yoomped politely. After a slight start, Cyril went on, apparently deciding that applause was all that had been intended.
 
 "We feel quite sure that we are going to derive both pleasure and profit from our stay here, and we promise to make our intensive analysis of your culture as painless as possible. We wish only to study your society, not to tamper with it in any way."
  Ha, ha , Skkiru said to himself. Ha, ha, ha!
 
 
 "But why is it," Raoul whispered in Terran as he glanced around out of the corners of his eyes, "that only the beggar wears mudshoes?"
 
 "Shhh," Cyril hissed back. "We'll find out later, when we've established rapport. Don't be so impatient!"
 
 Bbulas gave a sickly smile. Skkiru could almost find it in his hearts to feel sorry for the man.
 
 "We have prepared our best hut for you, noble sirs," Bbulas said with great self-control, "and, by happy chance, this very evening a small but unusually interesting ceremony will be held outside the temple. We hope you will be able to attend. It is to be a rain dance."
 
 "Rain dance!" Raoul pulled his macintosh together more tightly at the throat. "But why do you want rain? My faith, not only does it rain now, but the planet seems to be a veritable sea of mud. Not, of course," he added hurriedly as Cyril's reproachful eye caught his, "that it is not attractive mud. Finest mud I have ever seen. Such texture, such color, such aroma!"
 
 Cyril nodded three times and gave an appreciative sniff.
 
 "But," Raoul went on, "one can have too much of even such a good thing as mud...."
 
 The smile did not leave Bbulas' smooth face. "Yes, of course, honorable Terrestrials. That is why we are holding this ceremony. It is not a dance to bring on rain. It is a dance to stop rain."
 
 He was pretty quick on the uptake, Skkiru had to concede. However, that was not enough. The man had no genuine organizational ability. In the time he'd had in which to plan and carry out a scheme for the improvement of Snaddra, surely he could have done better than this high-school theocracy. For one thing, he could have apportioned the various roles so that each person would be making a definite contribution to the society, instead of creating some positions plums, like the priesthood, and others prunes, like the beggarship.
 
 What kind of life was that for an active, ambitious young man, standing around begging? And, moreover, from whom was Skkiru going to beg? Only the Earthmen, for the Snaddrath, no matter how much they threw themselves into the spirit of their roles, could not be so carried away that they would give handouts to a young man whom they had been accustomed to see basking in the bosom of luxury.
 
 

 
 Unfortunately, the fees that he'd received in the past had not enabled him both to live well and to save, and now that his fortunes had been so drastically reduced, he seemed in a fair way of starving to death. It gave him a gentle, moody pleasure to envisage his own funeral, although, at the same time, he realized that Bbulas would probably have to arrange some sort of pension for him; he could not expect Skkiru's patriotism to extend to abnormal limits. A man might be willing to die for his planet in many ways—but wantonly starving to death as the result of a primitive affectation was hardly one of them.
 
 All the same, Skkiru reflected as he watched the visitors being led off to the native hut prepared for them, how ignominious it would be for one of the brightest young architects on the planet to have to subsist miserably on the dole just because the world had gone aboveground. The capital had risen to the surface and the other cities would soon follow suit. Meanwhile, a careful system of tabus had been designed to keep the Earthmen from discovering the existence of those other cities.
 
 He could, of course, emigrate to another part of the planet, to one of them, and stave off his doom for a while—but that would not be playing the game. Besides, in such a case, he wouldn't be able to see Larhgan.
 
 As if all this weren't bad enough, he had been done an injury which struck directly at his professional pride. He hadn't even been allowed to help in planning the huts. Bbulas and some workmen had done all that themselves with the aid of some antique blueprints that had been put out centuries before by a Terrestrial magazine and had been acquired from a rare tape-and-book dealer on Gambrell, for, Skkiru thought, far too high a price. He could have designed them himself just as badly and much more cheaply.
 
 It wasn't that Skkiru didn't understand well enough that Snaddra had been forced into making such a drastic change in its way of life. What resources it once possessed had been depleted and—aside from minerals—they had never been very extensive to begin with. All life-forms on the planet were on the point of extinction, save fish and rice—the only vegetable that would grow on Snaddra, and originally a Terran import at that. So food and fiber had to be brought from the other planets, at fabulous expense, for Snaddra was not on any of the direct trade routes and was too unattractive to lure the tourist business.
 
 Something definitely had to be done, if it were not to decay altogether. And that was where the Planetary Dilettante came in.
 
 

 
 The traditional office of Planetary Dilettante was a civil-service job, awarded by competitive examination whenever it fell vacant to the person who scored highest in intelligence, character and general gloonatz. However, the tests were inadequate when it came to measuring sense of proportion, adaptiveness and charm—and there, Skkiru felt, was where the essential flaw lay. After all, no really effective test would have let a person like Bbulas come out on top.
 
 The winner was sent to Gambrell, the nearest planet with a Terran League University, to be given a thorough Terran-type education. No individual on Snaddra could afford such schooling, no matter how great his personal fortune, because the transportation costs were so immense that only a government could afford them. That was the reason why only one person in each generation could be chosen to go abroad at the planet's expense and acquire enough finish to cover the rest of the population.
 
 The Dilettante's official function had always been, in theory, to serve the planet when an emergency came—and this, old Luccar, the former President, had decided, when he and the Parliament had awakened to the fact that Snaddra was falling into ruin, was an emergency. So he had, after considerable soul-searching, called upon Bbulas to plan a method of saving Snaddra—and Bbulas, happy to be in the limelight at last, had come up with this program.
 
 It was not one Skkiru himself would have chosen. It was not one, he felt, that any reasonable person would have chosen. Nevertheless, the Bbulas Plan had been adopted by a majority vote of the Snaddrath, largely because no one had come up with a feasible alternative and, as a patriotic citizen, Skkiru would abide by it. He would accept the status of beggar; it was his duty to do so. Moreover, as in the case of the planet, there was no choice.
 
 But all was not necessarily lost, he told himself. Had he not, in his anthropological viewings—though Bbulas might have been the only one privileged to go on ethnological field trips to other planets, he was not the only one who could use a library—seen accounts of societies where beggarhood could be a rewarding and even responsible station in life? There was no reason why, within the framework of the primitive society Bbulas had created to allure Terran anthropologists, Skkiru should not make something of himself and show that a beggar was worthy of the high priestess's hand—which would be entirely in the Terran primitive tradition of romance.
 
 "Skkiru!" Bbulas was screaming, as he spun, now that the Terrans were out of ear- and eye-shot "Skkiru, you idiot, listen to me! What are those ridiculous things you are wearing on your silly feet?"
 
 Skkiru protruded all of his eyes in innocent surprise. "Just some old pontoons I took from a wrecked air-car once. I have a habit of collecting junk and I thought—"
 
 Bbulas twirled madly in the air. "You are not supposed to think. Leave all the thinking to me!"
 
 "Yes, Bbulas," Skkiru said meekly.
What is the plot of the story?
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The Ignoble Savages by Evelyn E. Smith details the tale of a race on the brink of extinction and their strange attempt to save themselves. Snaddra is a rainy planet with a mud surface. Due to the harsh weather, the Snaddrath chose to build their cities underground. Their civilized culture allowed for excellence in the metal industry and architecture, however, their isolation caused for poor education and expensive trade deals. In the face of crisis, the Bbulas Plan emerged, a plot to move their capital aboveground to convince visiting Terrans of their primitive nature and need for help. 
It begins with Skirru, an architect-turned-beggar, arguing with his former fiance, Larhgan, who is now the High Priestess. Their new jobs forbid marriage between the two, so Larhgan returns his grimpatch with regret. Bbulas, the new High Priest, watches gleefully, as he was in love with Larhgan all along. After much fighting, they levitate to the surface of the planet and wait for the Terrans to arrive. Now covered with huts, the new caste system emerges. Skirru is upset about his current position and feels ill. The woven metal clothes he was given to wear did not shield him from the light, so his green skin starts fading to yellow. 
The Terrans arrive, Raoul and Cyril, to analyze the planet. Skirru begs in front of them, and they give him a chocolate bar, a delicacy on Snaddra. He eats it quickly, grateful for the treat as it restores health to sick Snaddrath. He remembers a pair of shoes he once got and dashes belowground to get them, returning with booted feet. Able to walk easier now, he follows the Terrans to the temple, where Bbulas and Larhgan are waiting. 
Raoul eyes the female Snaddrath hungrily. Cyril reminds him that they are there to investigate, not fraternize with the natives. Once there, Larhgan welcomes them with a long speech Bbulas wrote. Bbulas invites the Terrans to a rain dance, which they laugh at seeing as the planet is covered in mud. Bbulas recovers quickly and claims it’s a ceremony to stop the rain. Already, his plot to save his planet is falling apart. Raoul quickly notices that the beggar, Skkiru, is wearing mudshoes, which makes no sense. 
Bbulas changes the subject and points them towards their hut, evidently the nicest one on Snaddra. He runs to Skkiru and angrily confronts him about his footwear. 

2
967c41320d6b4b8e8235818f8b182c8b

	The beings of Snaddra are hosting two Terrans who are coming to study their culture. The interest of the Terrans is extremely important because the planet’s population and natural resources are wasting away; they need the attention and resources that an anthropological study can provide. Bbulas, the Planetary Diletantte went to a Terran university on another planet after being selected for his highest intelligence score in the group tested with him. As Diletantte, he has been called upon to help solve the planet’s dilemma of saving itself. His plan, accepted because there were no better plans, involves restructuring the society and culture of the planet into one that he says the Terran anthropologists will find more intriguing than their real culture. He explains that this is because Terrans are most interested in societies that are different from their own, rather than like their own as Snaddrath really society is. He uses lots to assign roles in the society and ends up as the high priest, and the high priestess is Larhgan, a female he has been interested in for a long time but who was engaged to Skkiru. Skkiru has drawn the lot of a beggar and can no longer be engaged to Larhgan, and at the beginning of the story, he finds out that the changes Bbulas has instituted are actually going to be permanent. Bbulas threatens to make Skkiru a metal worker, the lowest position in the social hierarchy, if he doesn’t cooperate. Larhgan is sad that she will not be able to marry Skkiru and says she will not marry anyone at all but just devote her life to religion. 
	When the Earth ship arrives with the Terrans, everyone goes to the surface to welcome them even though it is cold and raining. There is a reminder for everyone except beggars to wear shoes. They hold a welcoming ceremony, and the Terrans notice Skkiru, the beggar, so he begs from them. They aren’t sure what to give him, so they give him chocolate which is a real treat because Bbulas has closed all the chocolate shops. One Terran, Raoul, notices how beautiful Larhgan is, and the other, Cyril, reminds him they cannot establish friendships with the native females because it would prevent them from being objective. The Terrans thank the Shadds for their welcome and tell them they hope their stay will be pleasant and profitable. They intend to study the Shadds without doing anything to disturb their culture.
	The Shadds desperately need the Terrans’ interest. The Shadds’ natural resources are nearly depleted, and their population is decreasing. The culture is getting close to being unsustainable. It can grow rice and catch fish but has to purchase all other food and fiber products from other planets, which is very expensive. Shadd doesn’t attract any tourists, so they are banking on the Terrans to help.

1
b77eb6c7abdf47d6916fc2d0274fab91
Skkiru, who was once a great architect of Snaddra, must now pretend to be a beggar. His fiance, Larhgan, will play the role of High Priestess, and she must separate herself from him. In this make-believe world created by Bbulas, the Planetary Dilettante, the couple will never be able to see each other again. Bbulas has given out roles to each citizen of Snaddra, and the entire planet is depending on the scheme. Two anthropologists from Terran (Earth) have been invited to research the fake society in hopes that their attention will bring good fortune. Snaddra’s various life forms are nearing extinction, and they have few natural resources left. The planet is not attractive to tourists, and it’s too far out of the way to make trade routes profitable. 

Skkiru blames Bbulas for his breakup with Larhgran. Bbulas has always had feelings for Larhgan, so Skirru believes he put them in different castes on purpose. Bbula defends his choices as necessary for society’s survival, and Larhgan agrees. She loves Skkiru, but she cannot put her own relationship before her people. 

Skkiru hates the Terrans and has zero interest in living above ground like they do. He has never stepped foot on the surface of Snaddra, but everyone is being forced above ground. The Terrans’ ship comes into view, and everyone rushes to put shoes on. Although beggars are not allowed to wear shoes, Skkiru puts some on anyway. The underground city must be kept a secret from the Terrans. Bbulas’s plan involves looking primitive in order to gain sympathy.

Skkiru is instructed to go to the field and look hungry. Two Terrans, Raoul and Cyril, leave their ship and approach a group of Snaddrath dressed in costumes singing songs. As soon as Raoul sees the female Snaddraths, Cyril sees a change in his face, and warns him that they must maintain objectivity. Then, Raoul and Cyril point their attention towards Skkiru. They would like to offer the poor beggar man something, but they’re not sure what. Raoul suggests a chocolate bar, and Skkiru eagerly accepts. His joy is fleeting, however, when he lays eyes on Larhgan, standing in her beautiful high priestess outfit, welcoming the Terrans with a speech written by Bbulas. He has never felt so lowly in his life. Skkiru hopes that he will have a chance to make something of himself and demonstrate his worthiness to Larhgan. The Terrans are infatuated with romance, after all. 

The Terrans thank the Snaddrath for welcoming them, and they learn that they are invited to view a rain dance. Raoul questions why the Snaddrath would ever want more rain when it’s already muddy, and Bbulas changes the plan and explains that the rain dance is to make the rain stop. When Raoul and Cyril are led to their huts, Bbulas finds Skkiru and yells at him for putting on shoes. He reminds Skkiru to let him do all of the thinking. 

3
d1c82b4035d34c2599b020ba887772d0
The story begins in the middle of a discussion amongst Bbulas, Larhgan, and Skkiru. The three are Snaddrath of the planet Snaddra, and were preparing for the arrival of Terrans. Skkiru is upset; he is a beggar, but only by Bbulas' design: the society had been restructured to be more primitive for the sake of the eyes of the Terrans. Skkiru had been engaged to Larhgan, who would now serve as high priestess, but this difference in social status meant they could no longer be affiliated. They discuss some of the confusion and issues surrounding the plan, and all head outside when they hear the announcement that the Earthmen had arrived. It turned out that the Snaddrath lived in underground cities, but built some buildings above-ground where they would convince the Earthmen they actually lived. When they got to the surface, they saw the procession greeting the visitors, and started trying to navigate the huge amounts of mud on the surface. The Snaddrath could self-levitate, but didn't want to give this ability away so they made slow progress walking. Skkiru ran off to find his mud-shoes, and met everyone else at the ship. The Earthmen (the cultural ruling race) were talking about previous situations on other planets, not knowing that the Snaddrath could actually understand them. They offer Skkiru some chocolate, which he takes (it increases the body's resistance to weather, and was a delicacy). As this continues, Skkiru reflected on the rapid loss of population and resources on the planet and how the Terran visit has affected his planet. For instance, metal-working was the largest industry, so Bbulas made them the lowest caste when reorganizing the society, which Skkiru thought was an easy way out of a chance to be more creative. Eventually interacting with Larhgan, the Terrans express gratitude for the welcome they have received and expresses interest in learning from the Snaddrath, enjoying their stay, and to not affect the society as much as possible. Skkiru found humor in this, as the presence of the Earthmen is the only reason their society is structured the way it is currently. The Terrans are invited to a raindance, which confuses them, until Bbulas catches himself and says it's to stop the rain, not to get more. Skkiru continued to reflect: he hadn’t been able to live well and to save, so he didn't have savings. He was willing to play this game to avoid discovery of the truth by the Earthmen, with the careful systems of tabus to keep the visitors from discovering the underground cities, in part because he didn't want to leave Larhgan. The story ends with Bbulas yelling at Skkiru for having retrieved mudshoes and tells him not to think. 
What are the Terrans doing on Snaddra? What is the significance of their visit?
6
c13e3bd0c91c41e19acf996dc20b97d0
The visiting Terrans, Cyril and Raoul, are visiting Snaddra to survey and analyze the native culture. Evidently, Terrans do this on planets across the universe, immersing themselves in the culture only to leave however many days, months, or years later with a full-fledged report. Their visit is significant because it may give the Snaddrath a chance to revitalize their economy and people. Due to their current lack of resources, muddy surface, and planetary isolation, the Snaddrath are facing extinction. They hope that by presenting themselves as a primitive civilization, the Terrans will be more inclined to establish trade with them and give them an economic boost. 
2
967c41320d6b4b8e8235818f8b182c8b
The Terran visit is of great significance to the Snaddrans. The Snaddran population is dying, and most of its resources are depleted. So Snaddra needs Terrans to be interested in their planet and civilization in order to secure assistance that will help them survive. The Terran anthropologists are coming to Snaddra to study the culture and ways of life of the natives. Bbulas believes that the Terrans will not be interested in the Snaddrans’ real society because it is too much like their own; therefore, he has orchestrated a plan that completely changes the society and the way they live in hopes of attracting the interest of the Earthmen who are visiting. The Terrans, on the other hand, believe that they will enjoy their stay and profit from their study of the Snaddrans and claim they can do so without disturbing their culture. 

1
b77eb6c7abdf47d6916fc2d0274fab91
The Terrans are on Snaddra to get a better understanding of the planet’s culture. Raoul and Cyril are anthropologists, and they have previously studied primitive cultures on other planets. They are not interested in studying societies that are very similar to their own. Instead, they prefer to look at cultures that are less advanced than the Terrans’. 

The Terrans came to Snaddra after they were invited by Bbulas. Bbulas is the Planetary Dilettante, and he has been tasked with the difficult job of saving the planet. Snaddra is struggling without resources and no way of attracting tourists. Rice is the only vegetable that will grow there. Bbulas’s plan is to hide the Snaddrath’s underground cities and force the citizens to play roles in a caste system. They hide their technology and wear costumes and make up ceremonies in order to give the Terrans what Bbulas believes they want to see. Raoul and Cyril promise to be objective observers who do not meddle in the Snaddrath’s daily routines. 

Bbulas has prepared for the Terrans’ visit by building a hut for them and forcing some of the citizens to learn a rain dance. When Raoul questions why they would ever want more rain because it’s already very wet and muddy outside, Bbulas thinks quickly and explains that the rain dance has the power to make the rain stop. In truth, the Snaddrath have never lived on the surface of the planet, so they understand very little about weather patterns. 

3
d1c82b4035d34c2599b020ba887772d0

The Terrans are visiting Snaddra as part of a research mission. They are the "cultural ruling race", which means they have a lot of social influence in the sector, but they have not learned from many of the other races in the area. They want to enjoy their stay but also to gain something from it, but are careful to note that they have to be cautious in their relationships with the women who are native to the planet. It was apparently a long journey for them, and quite an expensive one at that, so they hope to make the most of their stay, even though they are not aware that they have walked into a fake version of the society they intend to study. They do not intend to affect the society they are visiting, but do not realize that they have done so in large ways already: in cultural influence, exports, and rice as a plant grown there to begin with. Perhaps one of the biggest influences is that of the restructuring of part of the Snaddrath society so that the Snaddrath think they will be more appealing to the Terrans as a focus of study. 
Describe the natives of Snaddra.
6
c13e3bd0c91c41e19acf996dc20b97d0
The natives of Snaddra are a very civilized race, progressing beyond what life on Earth is like now. They live underground, due to the terrible weather on the surface of the planet, and have built extensive cities and tunnels. They designed flying cars to use on the surface, and they have the capability to levitate. 
Their outward appearance is somewhat humanoid, though there are some very distinct and different features. For one, the natives have antennae, as well as green skin. When healthy, their skin is a beautiful emerald green color, but if they grow ill it will become more yellow. The Snaddrath also have three eyes, requiring spectacles to have three individual lenses. When upset, anxious, or provoked, they have a tendency to twirl mid-air. If a Snaddrath falls in love with another, they give their lover their grimpatch, a beautiful bauble, to indicate their dedication. Many Snaddrath work in the metal industry since some of the few resources left on the planet are minerals. 

2
967c41320d6b4b8e8235818f8b182c8b
The natives of Snaddra look very much like humans, except they have antennae, three eyes, and earflaps that they can open and close. Snaddrans have two hearts, and their essential organs are placed differently from humans’. They speak Snadd but also learn English as their third language. They are intelligent and civilized, with a president, parliament, and a local university. When upset, they turn a triple somersault in the air and coil their antennae to insult another Snaddran. They can move by floating or self-levitating. Snaddrans form relationships much the same way that humans do, falling in love and marrying. They have emotions including love, sadness, jealousy, and pride.

1
b77eb6c7abdf47d6916fc2d0274fab91
The natives of Snaddra are under great stress. They are deeply concerned about their survival and are willing to do almost anything in order to save themselves. The creatures live underground and have never been to the surface of the planet. However, Bbulas’s plan involves proving to the Terrans that they are a primitive population with very little going for them, so they create a less advanced society above ground. Bbulas actually wears contact lenses, but in the new down-and-out society he has created, he cannot be seen wearing them. He must put on glasses in order to convince the Terrans that Snaddra is not a place of great wealth. All of the citizens are forced to dress in carefully crafted rags by society’s most notable tailor, and the costumes are deeply uncomfortable in the rain and wind on the surface of the planet. This is especially true since the people have never been exposed to the elements before. Bbulas, however, wears warm underskirts under his robes. He believes it’s important to keep imports like certain types of clothes secret from the Terrans. 

The Snaddraths do not actually live in huts, but Bbulas had some built in order to convince the Terrans that they have very little technology and are in need of more advanced peoples to teach them their ways. 

At one point, Skkiru remembers that the libel laws in Snaddra are very severe, so he can not openly criticize Bbula or his master plan without facing severe punishment. The planet’s government has a very top-down approach to ruling. The parliament selected Bbulas to be the only person in his generation to get a Terran education on another planet, and they have left the survival of Snaddra completely up to himi. 

3
d1c82b4035d34c2599b020ba887772d0
The natives of Snaddra are an advanced species who live in underground cities on a planet whose surface is extremely muddy and rainy. They have antennae, three eyes, and emerald green skin which becomes more pale if they are sick or malnourished. They are humanoid but have their organs in different places from Terrans. They have interesting reactions to food, such as chocolate helping provide resistance to weather. They are able to levitate on their own, but also have developed technology like air-cars and spaceships, and fourth-dimensional reflectors that can serve as walls. We know that they are an advanced species despite what the Terrestrians encounter because the Snaddrath have re-invented their society to be more primitive than they actually are. The reasoning behind this is that they want the Earthmen to take an interest in them, but if most civilized societies are about the same, they have to be a more primitive society for the Earthmen to care enough to want to learn more. The primary trade on the planet is metal work, and the lack of natural resources means that the Snaddrath have to rely heavily on trade with other planets in the system, especially for things like fabric. It is not only the level of resources that is dwindling, but the population as well. They have strong education systems of their own, and easy access to library resources, but they send one person per generation off-world to get a Terran education. The Snaddrath are considered more emotionally driven than humans, at least in that the focus of their education does not include as much on emotional regulation, so there are visible temperament differences between these groups.
Describe the setting of the story, Snaddra.
6
c13e3bd0c91c41e19acf996dc20b97d0
Snaddra is a planet leagues away from many other solar systems. Its isolation and general lack of resources has left the planet as a whole in a terrible situation. Snaddra has two seasons: wet and wetter season. Raining practically every day, the surface of the planet is covered in mud. Because of the muddy surface and difficult weather, the Snaddrath have built cities underground and truly thrived there. Skkiru, one of the main characters, is an architect, and supposedly helped to build underground buildings and cities. Their futuristic lifestyle is threatened, however, by a lack of resources. The only crop that can grow on Snaddra is rice, brought in by Terrans, and much of the native animals and fish are dying out. The one commodity and resource left is minerals. However, the constant importation of foreign goods depleted their economy, leaving the Snaddrath between a rock and a hard place. 
Bbulas, the Planetary Dilettante, developed the Bbulas Plan to save Snaddra from ruin. He designed a whole aboveground world, new garbs for citizens, as well as an entirely new culture. He believes, as does most of Snaddra, that a primitive culture will draw Terrans in more than an equally advanced and civilized one. So, the story mostly takes place on the surface of Snaddra, now covered in huts. 

2
967c41320d6b4b8e8235818f8b182c8b
On Snaddra, it rains almost all the time, and the surface is covered with thick, deep, murky mud. The temperature is uncomfortably cool. They have advanced technology in their air-cars. In addition to a president and parliament, the natives have a Planetary Dilettante. This civil-service position is filled by a Snaddran who has the highest intelligence score on a competitive examination. The winner attends university on Gambrell, which is the nearest planet with a Terran League University, to receive a Terran education. This is so expensive that only one person per generation can be awarded this opportunity. The Diletantte’s role is to help the planet in times of emergency. Presumably, the Diletantte’s superior intellect and education enable him to determine the best ways to handle the emergencies that arise. Snaddrans live underground, perhaps because of the unpleasant conditions on the planet’s surface where it rains almost constantly, and the ground is all mud. Snaddra’s population and natural resources are quickly dwindling, and its main natural resource has been minerals. Life forms on the planet are on the verge of extinction, and the only food the planet produces is fish and rice. Other foods and materials must be imported from other planets, which is extremely expensive because Snaddra is not located along direct trade routes. The planet also doesn’t attract tourists. The society has just been transformed in preparation for the arrival of the Terrans who want to study them. Now the society features a high priest and priestess. All the metal workers have been made outcasts, and beggars are just slightly higher than the metal workers. 

1
b77eb6c7abdf47d6916fc2d0274fab91
Snaddra, the planet where the story takes place, is in deep trouble. The Snaddrath who live underground, are forced to take a chance on the Planetary Dilettante’s plan to save the society. 
The population of Snaddra is decreasing rapidly, there are almost zero natural resources left, and creatures from other planets are not interested in visiting Snaddra for tourism or trading purposes. Food and other resources have to be purchased from other planets, and that is a highly expensive endeavor. Metal-working is the most important industry they have, yet metal-workers are looked at as the lowliest of the Snaddraths. Instead of being thankful for their hardest and most important workers, they treat them very poorly. 

When Raoul offers Skkiru a chocolate bar, he happily accepts the gift. This is because chocolate is only available in very expensive shops, and Skkiru has had very few opportunities to taste the delicacy. 

The surface of Snaddra is virtually untouched because all of society lives in underground cities. When the citizens embark on their new mission to convince the Terran that they live primitive lives on the surface, they are wholly unprepared to deal with the rainy and windy weather. The nonstop precipitation means that everyone is standing in mud, and their costumes do not adequately protect them from the harsh conditions. 

3
d1c82b4035d34c2599b020ba887772d0
Snaddra is a muddy and rainy planet with limited natural resources, and a race of people who live in underground cities. There is so much mud that neither the Terrans nor the Snaddrath can move very quickly on the surface. The depleting resources of the planet means that there are only a few things that can grow on the surface, rice and fish. Rice is itself an import from Earth, and a lot of resources are acquired through trade. The Snaddrath people live in underground cities, but they have erected buildings on the surface as well for the sake of their plan to convince the Earthmen of their facade. 
Who is Bbulas, and what happens to him throughout the story?
6
c13e3bd0c91c41e19acf996dc20b97d0
Bbulas, a Snaddrath, was chosen as a young boy to attend a Terran school on Gambrell. This Terran League University was far too expensive for any Snaddrath to afford, not only due to tuition costs. The travel expenses alone were outrageous. And so, only one student per generation would receive funds to attend. Since Bbulas was schooled there, he has more Terran tendencies than his brethren, such as his ability to not show emotions or keep from whirling when upset. 
After attending university, he was selected to work as the Planetary Dilettante. This selection process involves testing Snaddrath in a variety of subjects. Evidently, Bbulas’ scores were the highest, so when President Luccar declared a state of emergency, he chose Bbulas to fix the situation at hand. 
Bbulas designed the Bbulas Plan to solve Snaddra’s economic downfall. His ultimate goal was to entice Terrans to come to Snaddra and support the planet with foreign trade. In order to do so, he decided to completely redesign their entire culture and move their capital aboveground. Bbulas believes that Terrans will be more likely to help if Snaddra is primitive in nature. 
The story begins with an argument between Skkiru, Larhgan, and Bbulas. Bbulas elected himself High Priest in the new world, and the lots elected Larhgan to be the High Priestess. Skkiru, her fiance, was to be a beggar, sot hey could no longer be together, much to Bbulas’ delight. 
After passively threatening Skkiru, the three rise to the surface and ready themselves for the Terrans’ arrival. 
Bbulas welcomes the Terrans at the temple and invites them to a stop-the-rain ceremony. He sends the Terrans to their hut and then becomes upset at Skkiru for wearing mud shoes when he is supposed to be a beggar. 

2
967c41320d6b4b8e8235818f8b182c8b
Bbulas is the Planetary Diletantte who has just overhauled the Snaddran society in preparation for the Terrans’ study. He has done away with the president and parliament, replacing them with himself as high priest and a female high priestess. He has created elaborate rules and a new social hierarchy with all the roles assigned by lots, although some Snadds doubt the fairness of the lot-drawing. He has also made the Snadds move from underground to above ground even though the surface of the planet is covered with thick mud from the constant rain. Bbulas considers himself superior due to his education and thinks he is talented in multiple ways, including speechwriting and even building shelters. He anticipated the Terrans’ interests and makes sure the females are scantily clad and rewrites the words to their popular songs to make them less suggestive in case the Terrans have learned any Snadd. The majority of the Snaddrath voted to adopt Bbulas’s plan because no one else had come up with a better one. 

1
b77eb6c7abdf47d6916fc2d0274fab91
Bbulas is a pompous and conceited man, and he fancies himself very important. He was chosen by the government as the only person from Snaddra to get a Terran education on the planet of Gambrell. Not a single citizen can afford the expenses associated with interplanetary travel, so Bbulas’s opportunity is looked at as once-in-a-lifetime. 

Bbulas takes advantage of his position as an elite. Although he claims that in the program he created, each individual’s position was selected randomly, he openly acknowledges that he was the only person who could possibly pose as the high priest. When Skkiru complains about having to pose as a beggar when he was once a successful architect, Bbulas immediately threatens to turn him into a metal-worker, a member of the lowest caste system, instead. He is completely unconcerned about the breakup of Skkiru and Lahgran’s relationship and simply reminds Skkiru that he must make sacrifices for the good of the planet. Skkiru knows that Bbulas has had his eyes on his fiance for quite some time, so it’s no surprise that Bbulas have given her a role where he will get to spend loads of time with her. 

Skkiru definitely doesn’t approve of Bbulas as the Planetary Dilettante and believes he passed the examination because the exam itself was deeply flawed. He believes someone with more charm and adaptiveness should be in charge of society’s survival, and he isn’t impressed with Bbula’s grand scheme to win over the Terran anthropologists. When he hears Lahrgran making her speech as High Priestess, he instantly recognizes that Bbulas was the speechwriter and complains that it’s far too long and involved. Bbulas is undeniably interested in hearing himself speak and truly believes that it is he alone who can save the Snaddrath from a terrible fate. 

3
d1c82b4035d34c2599b020ba887772d0
Bbulas is a member of the Snaddrath race, the group of people who live on Snaddra. He has a particular role in the society as the Planetary Dilettante, which means he is the one person in his generation who was afforded an off-world education where he could learn from the Terran style system, which focuses more on emotional regulation than the native training. He was educated on Gambrell, a nearby planet which has a Terran League University. The government can only afford to send one person per generation to receive this kind of schooling so it is considered a high honor. The Dilettante is the one on standby for when there are emergencies, and the President decided that the arrival of the Earthmen was such an emergency. In order to prepare for the arrival of the Terrans, he set up everything necessary to fool the Terrans into thinking the Snaddrath were more primitive than they actually were. He was the one who restructured society so that the metal workers were the lower class, as they were the most populous group of people, and assigned Skkiru the role of a beggar which forced him to break off his engagement with Larhgan as she was assigned the high priestess role. This is especially angering to Skkiru because Bbulas assigned himself the high priest role. Skkiru is frustrated with Bbulas for making him a beggar and also disappointed because he thinks he could have been more creative in his set-up of a new society, especially being as intelligent as he was. He used blueprints from a Terrestrial magazine to build some of the above-ground features, instead of designing his own, for instance. At the beginning of the story, he is bickering with Skkiru about the fact that Skkiru is now a beggar, and all of the issues that come for Skkiru with that. He eventually led Skkiru and Larhgan to the surface of the planet when they received notice that the Earthmen had arrived, and focused on greeting these visitors. After a procession is completed, at the end of this excerpt of the story, he is yelling at Skkiru in an attempt to show his power over him, insisting that Skkiru not think for himself and just abide by the guidelines Bbulas puts forth. 
