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Speaker 1: The Man Eating Tree by phil Robinson. Preliminary note before

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committing this paper to the ridicule of the great mediocre,

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For many I fear will be inclined to regard this

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story as incredible, I would venture on the expression of

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an opinion regarding credulity which I do not remember to

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have met before. It is this, placing supreme wisdom and

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supreme unwisdom at the two extremes, and myself in the

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exact mean between them, I am surprised to find that

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whether I travel towards the one extreme or the other,

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the credulity of those I meet increases. To put it

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as a paradox, whether a man be foolish or wiser

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than I am, he is more credulous. I make this

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remark to point out to those of the great mediocre

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whose notice it may have escaped, that credulity is not

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of itself shameful or contemptible, and that it depends upon

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the manner rather than the matter of their belief, whether

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they gravitate towards the sage or the reverse way. According therefore,

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to the incredibility found in the following, the reader may

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measure as pleases him his wisdom or his unwisdom z

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Oriel end of preliminary note. Peregrine Oriel, my maternal uncle

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was a great traveler, as his prophetical sponsors at the

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font seemed to have guessed he would be. Indeed, he

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had rummaged in the garrets and cellars of the earth

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was something more than ordinary diligence. But in the narrative

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of his travels he did not, unfortunately preserve the judicious

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caution of Xenophon between the things seen and the thing heard.

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And thus it came about that the town counselors of Brunsbutel,

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to whom he had shown a duck billed platypus caught

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alive by him in Australia, and who had him posted

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for an importer of artificial vermin, were not alone in

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their skepticism of some of the old Man's tales. Thus,

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for instance, who could hear and believe the tale of

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the man sucking tree, from which he had barely escaped

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with his life. He called it himself more terrible than

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the upas this awful plant that rears its splendid death

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shade in the central solitude of a Nubian fern forest.

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Sickens by its unwholesome humors all vegetation from its immediate vicinity,

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and feeds upon the wild beasts that, in the terror

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of the chase or the heat of noon, seek the

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thick shelter of its boughs, Upon the birds that flitting

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across the open space come within the charmed circle of

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its power, or innocently refresh themselves from the cups of

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its great waxen flowers, Upon even man himself, when an

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infrequent prey, the savage seeks its asylum in the storm,

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or turns from the harsh foot wounding sword grass of

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the glade to pluck the wondrous fruit that hang plum

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down among the wondrous foliage, and such fruit glorious golden ovals,

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great honey drops, swelling by their own weight into pear

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shaped translucencies. The foliage glistens with a strange dew that

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all day long drips on to the ground below, nurturing

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a rank growth of grasses, which shoot up in places

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so high that their spikes of fierce, blood fed green

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show far up among the deep tinted foliage of the

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terrible tree, and like a jealous bodyguard keep concealed the

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fearful secret of the charnel house within, and draw round

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the black roots of the murderous plant a decent screen

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of living green. Such was his description of the plant.

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And the other day, looking up in a botanical dictionary,

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I find that there is really known to naturalists a

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family of carnivorous plants. But I see that they are

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most of them very small, and prey upon little insects.

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Only my maternal uncle, however, knew nothing of this, for

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he died before the days of the discovery of the

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sun dew and pitcher plants, And, grounding his knowledge of

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the man sucking tree simply on his own terrible experience

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of it, explained its existence by theories of his own,

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denying the fixity of all the laws of nature, except

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one that the stronger shall endeavor to consume the weaker,

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and holding even this fixity to be itself only a

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means to a greater general changefulness, he argued that, since

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any partial distribution of the faculty of self defense would

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presume an unworthy partiality in the Creator, and since the

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central instincts of beast and vegetable and manifest the analogous,

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the world must be as precipient as sentient. Throughout carrying

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on his theory, for it was something more than hypothesis.

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With him a stage or two further, he arrived at

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the belief that, given the necessity of any imminent danger

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or urgent self interest, every animal or vegetable could eventually

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revolutionize its nature. The wolf feeding on grass or nesting

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in trees, and the violet arming herself with thorns or

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entrapping insects. How he would ask, can we claim for

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man the consequence of perceptions to sensations, and yet deny

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to beasts that here see, feel, smell, and taste a

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precipient principle coexistent with their senses. And if in the

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whole range of the animate world there is this gift

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of self defense against extirpation and offense against weakness, why

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is the inanimate world holding as fiercely struggle for existence

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as the other, to be left defenseless and unarmed? And

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I did nigh that it is. The Brazilian epiphyte strangles

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the tree and sucks out its juices. The tree again,

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to starve off its vampire parasite, withdraws its juices into

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its roots and piercing the ground in some new place,

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turns the current of its sap into other growths. The

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epiphyte then drops off the dead boughs on to the

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fresh green sprouts springing from the ground beneath it, And

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so the fight goes on again. Look at the Indian

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peepool tree in what does the fierce yearning of its

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roots towards the distant well differ from the sad struggling

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of the camel to the oasis, or of Sennachiab's army

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to the saving nile? Is the sensitive plant unconscious? I

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have walked for miles through plains of it, and watched

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till the watching almost made me afraid lest the plants

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should pluck up courage and turn upon me, the green

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carpet paling into silver gray before my feet and fainting

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away all round me as I walked. So strangely did

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I feel the influence of this universal aversion that I

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would have argued with the plant. But what was the

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use If only I stretched out my hands, the mere

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shadow of the limb terrified the vegetable to sickness. Shrubs

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crumbled up at every commencement of my speech, and at

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my period's great sturdy looking bushes, to whose robustness I

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had foolishly appealed, sank in pallid supplication. Not a leaf

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would keep me company. A breath went forth from me

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that sickened life. My mere presence paralyzed life. And I

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was glad at last to come out among a less

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timid vegetation, and to feel the resentful spear grass retaliating

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on the heedlessness that would have crushed it. The vegetable world, however,

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has its revenge. You may keep the guinea pig in

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a hutch, but how will you pet the basilisk. The

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little sensitive plant in your garden amuses your children, who

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will find pleasure also in seeking cock chaffers spin round

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on a pin. But how could you transplant a vegetable

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that seizes the running deer, strikes down the passing bird, and,

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once taking hold of him, sucks the carcass of man

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himself till his matter becomes as vague as his mind,

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and all his animate capabilities cannot snatch him from the

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terrible embrace of God. Help him an inanimate tree. Many

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years ago, said my uncle, I turned my restless steps

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towards Central Africa, and made the journey from whether Senegal

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empties itself into the Atlantic to the Nile, skirting the

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Great Desert and reaching Nubia. On my way to the

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eastern coast, I had with me then three native attendants,

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two of them brothers, the third Otona, a young savage

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from the Gaboon uplands, a mere lad in his teens.

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And one day, leaving my mule with the two men

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who were pitching my tent for the night, I went

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on with my gun, the boy accompanying me, towards a

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fern force, which I saw in the near distance. As

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I approached it, I found the force was cut into

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two by a wide glade, and, seeing a small herd

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of the common antelope, an excellent beast in the pot,

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browsing their way along the shaded side, I crept after them,

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though ignorant of their real danger. The herd was suspicious

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and slowly trotting along before me. Enticed me for a

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mile or more along the verge of the fern growths.

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Turning a corner, I suddenly became aware of a solitary

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tree growing in the middle of the glade, one tree alone.

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It struck me at once that I had never seen

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a tree exactly like it before, But being intent upon

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venison for my supper, I looked at it only long

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enough to satisfy my first surprise at seeing a single

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plant of such rich growth flourishing luxuriantly in a spot

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where only the harsh fern canes seemed to thrive. The deer, meanwhile,

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were midway between me and the tree, and looking at them,

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I saw they were going to cross the glade. Exactly

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opposite them was an opening in the forest in which

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I should certainly have lost my supper. So I fired

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into the middle of the family. As they were filing

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before me. I hit a young fawn, and the rest

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of the herd, wheeling round in their sudden terror, made

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off in the direction of the tree, leaving the fawn

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struggling on the ground Otona. The boy ran forward at

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my order to secure it, but the little creature, seeing

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him coming, attempted to follow its comrades, and at a

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fair pace held on their course. The herd had meanwhile

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reached the tree, but suddenly, instead of passing under it,

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swerved in their career and swept round it at some

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yards distance. Was I mad? Or did the plant really

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try to catch the deer. On a sudden I saw,

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or thought I saw the tree violently agitated, And while

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the ferns all round were standing motionless in the dead

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evening air, its boughs were swayed by some sudden gust

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towards the herd, and swept in the force of their impulse,

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almost to the ground. I drew my hand across my eyes,

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closed them for a moment, and looked again. The tree

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was as motionless as myself towards it, and now close

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to it, the boy was running in excited pursuit of

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the fawn. He stretched out his hands to catch it.

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It bounded from his eager grasp. Again he reached forward,

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and again it escaped him. There was another rush forward,

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and the next instant, boy and deer were beneath the tree.

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And now there was no mistaking what I saw. The

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convulsed with motion, leaned forward, swept its thick foliaged boughs

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to the ground, and enveloped from my sight the pursuer

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and the pursued. I was within a hundred yards, and

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the cry of otuna from the midst of the tree

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came to me. In all the clearness of its agony.

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There was then one stifled, strangling scream, and except for

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the agitation of the leaves where they had closed upon

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the boy, there was not a sign of life. I

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called out auturner, no answer came. I tried to call

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out again, but my utterance was like that of some

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wild beast smitten at once with sudden tear and its

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death wound. I stood there, changed from all semblance of

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a human being. Not all the tears of earth together

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could have made me take my eye from the awful plant,

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or my foot off the ground. I must have stood

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thus for at least an hour, for the shadows had

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crept out from the half across the glade before that

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hideous paroxysm of fear left me. My first impulse then

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was to creep stealthily away, lest the tree should perceive me.

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But my returning reason bade me approach it. The boy

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might have fallen into the lair of some beast of prey,

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or perhaps the terrible life in the tree was that

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of some great serpent among its branches. Preparing to defend myself,

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I approached the silent tree, the harsh grass crisping beneath

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my feet with a strange loudness. The cicadas in the forest,

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shrilling till the air seemed throbbing round me with waves

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of sound. The terrible truth was soon before me, in

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all its awful novelty. The vegetable first discovered my presence

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at about fifty yards distance. I then became aware of

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the stealthy motion among the thick lipped leaves, reminding me

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of some wild beast slowly gathering itself up from long sleep.

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A vast coil of snakes in restless motion. Have you

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ever seen bees hanging from a bough, a great cluster

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of bodies, bee clinging to bee, and by striking the

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bough or agitating the air, caused that massed life to

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begin sulkily to disintegrate, each insect asserting its individual right

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to move. And do you remember how, without one bee

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leaving the pencile cluster, the whole became gradually instinct with

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sullen life and horrid, with a multitudinous motion. I came

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within twenty yards of it. The tree was quivering through

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every branch, muttering for blood, and helpless, with rooted feet,

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yearning with every branch towards me. It was that terror

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of the deep sea which the men of the northern

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fiords dread, and which anchored upon some sunken rock, stretches

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into vein space. Its longing arms pellucid as the sea itself,

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and as relentless, maimed Polypheme groping for his victims. Each

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separate leaf was agitated and hungry. Like hands, they fumbled together,

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their fleshy palms, curling upon themselves and again unfolding, closing

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on each other, and falling apart again, thick, helpless, fingerless

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hands rather lips or tongues than hands, dimpled closely with

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little cup like hollows. I approached nearer and nearer, step

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by step, till I saw that these soft horrors were

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all of them in motion, opening and closing incessantly. I

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was now ten yards of the farthest reaching bough. Every

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part of it was hysterical with excitement. The agitation of

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its members was awful, sickening, yet fascinating, in an ecstasy

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of eagerness for the food so near them. The leaves

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turned upon each other, two meeting, would suck together face

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to face with a force that compressed their joint thickness

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to a half, thinning the two leaves into one. Now

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grappling in a volume like a double shell, writhing like

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some green worm, and at last, faint with the violence

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of the paroxysm, would slowly separate, falling apart. As leeches

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gorged drop off the limbs. A sticky dew glistened in

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the dimples, welled over and trickled down the leaf. The

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sound of it dripping from leaf to leaf made it

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seem as if the tree was muttering to itself. The

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beautiful golden fruit as they swung here and there, were

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clutched now by one leaf and now by another, held

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for a moment close enfolded from the sight, and then

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as suddenly released here a large leaf, vampire like, had

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sucked out the juices of a smaller one. It hung

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limp and bloodless, like a carcass of which the weasel

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has tired. I watched the terrible struggle till my starting eyes,

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strained by intense attention, refused their offers. And I can

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hardly say what I saw, But the tree before me

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seemed to have become a live beast. Above me, I

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felt conscious, was a great limb, and each of its

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thousand clammy hands reached downwards towards me, fumbling, It strained, shivered, rocked,

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and heaved. It flung itself about in despair. The boughs,

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tantalized to madness with the presence of flesh, were tossed

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to this side and to that in the agony of

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a frantic desire. The leaves were wrung together as the

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hands of one driven to madness by sudden misery. I

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felt the vile dew spurting from the tense veins fall

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upon me. My clothes began to give out a strange odor.

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The ground I stood on glistened with animal juices. Was

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I bewildered by terror? Had my senses abandoned me in

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my need? I know not, But the trees seemed to

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me to be alive, leaning over towards me. It seemed

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to be pulling up its room roots from the softened ground,

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and to be moving towards me. A mountainous monster with

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myriad lips mumbling together for my life was upon me,

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Like one who desperately defends himself from imminent death. I

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made an effort for life and fired my gun at

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the approaching horror. To my dizzied senses, the sound seemed

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far off, but the shock of the recoil partially recalled

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me to myself, and starting back, I reloaded. The shots

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had torn their way into the soft body of the

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great thing. The trunk as it received the wound, shuddered,

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and the whole tree was struck with a sudden quiver.

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A fruit fell down, slipping from the leaves, now rigid

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with swollen veins as from carven foliage. Then I saw

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a large arm slowly droop, and without a sound, it

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was severed from the juice fattened bowl and sank down softly,

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noiselessly through the glistening leaves. I fired again, and another

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vile fragment was powerless dead. At each discharge, the terrible

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vegetable yielded a life piecemeal. I attacked it, killing here

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a leaf and there a branch. My fury increased with

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a slaughter, till when my ammunition was exhausted, the splendid

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giant was left a wreck, as if some hurricane had

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torn through it. On the ground lay heaped together, the fragments, struggling,

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rising and falling, gasping over them, drooped in dying languor.

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A few stricken boughs, while upright in the midst stood

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dripping at every joint the glistening trunk. My continued firing

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had brought up one of my men on my mule.

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He dared not, so he told me come near me,

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thinking me mad. I had now drawn my hunting knife,

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and with this was fighting with the leaves. Yes, but

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each leaf was instinct with a hard life, and more

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than once I felt my hand entangled for a moment

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and seized as if by sharp lips. Ignorant of the

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presence of my companion, I made a rush forward over

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the fallen foliage, and with a last paroxysm of frenzy,

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drove my knife up to the handle into the soft bowl, and,

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slipping on the fast congealing sap, fell exhausted and unconscious

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among the still panting leaves. My companions carried me back

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to the camp, and, after vainly searching for otuna, awaited

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my return to consciousness. Two or three hours elapsed before

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I could speak, and several days before I could approach

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the terrible thing. My men would not go near it.

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It was quite dead, for as we came up, a

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great build bird with gaudy plumage that had been securely

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feasting on the decaying fruit flew up from the wreck.

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We removed the rotting foliage, and there among the dead leaves,

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still limp, with juices and pots filed round the roots,

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we found the ghastly relics of many former meals and

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its last nourishment, the corpse of little Otuna. To have

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removed the leaves would have taken too long, so we

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buried the body as it was, with a hundred vampire

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leaves still clinging to it. Such as nearly as I

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remember it was my uncle's story of the man eating Tree.

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End of the Man Eating Tree by phil Robinson