The Saturn
Presentation of this planet and its moons, including ring and creatures
- Chapter 23 -
The largest and most important land animal: the Mud. The teachings of the wise about the Mud. The purpose of its creation.
Because of the many species and kinds of land animals, we shall take a closer look at those which are especially noteworthy and which do not exist anywhere else except on this planet.
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The largest living land animal on Saturn is called the mud. It can only be found on a very few continents on Saturn. If you would add them all up, you would not find more than 10,000 such animals on this entire large planet. The countries where they can be found are sparsely populated. Because of the mud's large size and tremendous voracity there is not much left for any other creature. Also, the Saturnites do not have the courage to fight with this giant animal. They relinquish the land which is occupied by these animals without hesitation and they call it the "uninhabitable mud-land." This animal does not exist on the main continents. But south and north of these main continents there are other large islands, and these countries are mostly left to all kinds of those species and other animals. But none of these countries are avoided as much as those that are considered to be mud-land.
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What does this animal look like? Does a similar animal exist on earth? Yes, there is a similar animal on earth, but this animal plays very much a subordinate role, while on Saturn it occupies the foremost terrible rank in every aspect; this applies to its giant size as well as its ferocity and voracity.
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Which earthly animal does this creature resemble? It is one which is well-known to you: it is the pig. But as far as its size is concerned, the pig on earth would hardly be large enough to be a parasite by comparison. Even these huge Saturnites feel no larger than tiny little dwarves at the sight of such a giant animal. I tell you, if the mud would stand behind a high alp, for instance the , you would still have to stretch your neck in order to see the apex of its back.
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This immensely large animal is just as voracious as your little pig, as it is not very particular about its food; it eats whatever comes along, may that be grass or certain trees, or other species of animals, human beings as well as water animals - it eats them all with the same appetite.
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Since this animal has power in accordance with its size, it would be vain to enter into any kind of combat with it. Some courageous Saturnites have made the attempt with long sharp tips which they mounted onto 600 foot-long sticks to control such animals and in addition they employed their total willpower. Despite this, they were badly injured. The mud was wounded in many different areas and, because of the pain caused by these wounds, became very angry and ferocious and ran to a wide river in order to cool its wounds. As soon as the pain eased, the mud got up and scooped up a huge amount of water as well as some large stones from the river bed and spit them on its pursuers, who were under the impression that they had conquered this animal; they were all badly injured and only a few made it back home. Some of those that were killed by this animal were devoured with only a few bites as soon as the animal reached their location on land.
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In order that you may have some idea of how large the mud's mouth is, I shall give you an example: if there were nuts larger in size than your , such a nut would not be too big for one tooth of this animal to crush easily with one bite. If the mud were to fill its mouth with water and stones and spit out its contents from the upper part of Styria to the lower, the whole region would be flooded and the waves would reach higher than the highest steeples of your city of Graz.
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If you take this information into consideration, this will answer your question as to why the Saturnites do not entertain another encounter with this animal. This is also why the Saturnites have only made three such attempts since time immemorial, and each was a failure. And for now, they have given up this initiative. Their sages have the following advice:
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"A human being is capable of doing many things with his power, but he cannot control the moons, the large bright ring, the streams, the storms on the ocean, the giant fish and the mud. Therefore he should use his power where it can be effective. He should not attempt to control superior things with his limited powers."
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And there is also another advice or teaching of the sages which is as follows: "Listen! The Great Spirit gave us a great world to live in; we do not know where it begins or where it ends. In the land where we were born we know of the things in the water, on land and in the air, and we know and have experienced at all times that they were subject to our powers. If it would have been the Great Spirit's intention that the mud was meant for us, then it would also obey our powers. We know, however, that it scoffed at our powers with the greatest ease when we attempted to make it subject to our willpower. Therefore it is as bright and clear as the sun that shines throughout the day that the Great Spirit has appointed other powers besides ours that should not serve our powers; and we should not make those powers our servants. That is why we should remain within the borders of our powers as they have been determined for us, and let other great powers work where the Great Spirit has placed them. It should be of no interest to you to know what the great bright ring and the moons above us are. And we should never, now or in the future, set foot on mudland!"
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If you think about these words of wisdom for a short while, the purpose for this animal's giant size and tremendous strength will probably become clear to you. It would serve no purpose to describe the shape of this animal any further. It is left to the imagination of the individual to imagine this animal as well as he possibly can.
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Do the Saturnites at times keep an eye on this animal? That happens rarely. This only happens on the occasion of a long voyage, or when it is seen from the foothills of a main continent where such a mud-land is not too far distant. It is not advisable to get close to the shores of a mud-land. If this animal notices anything from its vantage point on land floating on the water's surface, it will walk with giant steps into the ocean, and if the ocean is not too deep it will succeed, with only a few steps, in catching whatever is floating on the surface and welcoming it with its immense mouth.
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Something that is especially frightening and horrible is the grunting of this animal; truly, you have no idea how horrible it is. I can tell you this much: if this animal were as far away in Hungary as it could possibly be, pointed its mouth towards Styria in Austria and grunted a few times, not only would the earth tremble in Styria but much farther. Not only would every building in Graz be leveled by this type of earthquake, but also the loose mountain tops of the neighboring Alps would tumble. This description should give you an answer as to why the Saturnites are not the greatest of friends of the "moving song" of this animal.
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This animal has very keen senses despite its tremendous size. Its hearing and smell are especially keen; that is why it can perceive something suitable for its stomach coming closer on the water surface even from the farthest distance. This pig is by far not as unclean as the pig on earth. Especially regarding defecation, the mud surpasses in cleanliness almost any animal known to you on earth. Before it releases its bodily waste, it digs a very deep hole in the soil which, in accordance with your measurements, has a circumference of about an hour's journey and is about 600 feet deep. Once such a hole has been dug, the mud disposes of its waste in this hole and covers it immediately with the same soil that it dug out. That is how this animal keeps the land it occupies clean and fertilizes it accordingly for the growth of grass that follows, which on these mud-lands is usually by far of a greater density and larger than the densest jungles on earth.
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What remains to be answered is this: What is the purpose of such a colossal animal on this or any other planet? The answer was given in the description of the giant fish. As this fish forms the general transition from an aquatic animal to an animal of the air, the mud is also such an animal; it forms the transition of all levels of animal and vegetation into a nobler species of animal which is closer to a human being. Now you know everything there is to know about this animal. In the next few chapters we shall extend our view of the land animals, but with greater expediency.