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diff --git a/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/sffms/README b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/sffms/README new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..074c1d01e72 --- /dev/null +++ b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/sffms/README @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- README --- + +sffms: A LaTeX class for typesetting fiction manuscripts + +This directory contains files for version 2.0 of sffms, a LaTeX class +for typesetting science fiction and fantasy manuscripts. Sffms now +includes several options for specific publishers as well as extensive +documentation aimed at new LaTeX users. The code has been cleaned up +for version 2.0 and the geometry package made optional. + +See the web page (http://mcd.freeshell.org) for more information and +sample output. + + +--- sffms files --- + +README.txt - this file + +sffms.ins - the docstrip file + Latex this file to extract the sffms class files. + +sffms.dtx - the documented source file + Latex this file to create the sffms documentation. + +sffms_manual.pdf - the sffms documentation + The manual is included in case you want to read + about sffms without downloading and latexing it. + +blind.tex - In the Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells + Typeset using sffms with the submission option. + Output provided in dvi, postscript and pdf formats + at the website (http://mcd.freeshell.org/sffms/). + + +--- supporting packages --- + +Download the following supporting files from CTAN: + +fancyhdr.sty +setspace.sty +ulem.sty +geometry.dtx (optional) +geometry.ins (optional) + +--- EOF --- + diff --git a/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/sffms/blind.tex b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/sffms/blind.tex new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..09d50950750 --- /dev/null +++ b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/sffms/blind.tex @@ -0,0 +1,1084 @@ +\documentclass[submission]{sffms} +\author{H. G. Wells} +\surname{Wells} +\title{The Country of the Blind} +\runningtitle{Blind} +\wordcount{9600} +% copyright lapsed in the United States of America +\disposable +\begin{document} + + + +Three hundred miles and more from Chimborazo, one hundred from the +snows of Cotopaxi, in the wildest wastes of Ecuador's Andes, there +lies that mysterious mountain valley, cut off from all the world of +men, the Country of the Blind. Long years ago that valley lay so far +open to the world that men might come at last through frightful gorges +and over an icy pass into its equable meadows, and thither indeed men +came, a family or so of Peruvian half-breeds fleeing from the lust and +tyranny of an evil Spanish ruler. Then came the stupendous outbreak of +Mindobamba, when it was night in Quito for seventeen days, and the +water was boiling at Yaguachi and all the fish floating dying even as +far as Guayaquil; everywhere along the Pacific slopes there were +land-slips and swift thawings and sudden floods, and one whole side of +the old Arauca crest slipped and came down in thunder, and cut off the +Country of the Blind for ever from the exploring feet of men. But one +of these early settlers had chanced to be on the hither side of the +gorges when the world had so terribly shaken itself, and he perforce +had to forget his wife and his child and all the friends and +possessions he had left up there, and start life over again in the +lower world. He started it again but ill, blindness overtook him, and +he died of punishment in the mines; but the story he told begot a +legend that lingers along the length of the Cordilleras of the Andes +to this day. + +He told of his reason for venturing back from that fastness, into +which he had first been carried lashed to a llama, beside a vast bale +of gear, when he was a child. The valley, he said, had in it all that +the heart of man could desire---sweet water, pasture, an even climate, +slopes of rich brown soil with tangles of a shrub that bore an +excellent fruit, and on one side great hanging forests of pine that +held the avalanches high. Far overhead, on three sides, vast cliffs of +grey-green rock were capped by cliffs of ice; but the glacier stream +came not to them, but flowed away by the farther slopes, and only now +and then huge ice masses fell on the valley side. In this valley it +neither rained nor snowed, but the abundant springs gave a rich green +pasture, that irrigation would spread over all the valley space. The +settlers did well indeed there. Their beasts did well and multiplied, +and but one thing marred their happiness. Yet it was enough to mar it +greatly. A strange disease had come upon them and had made all the +children born to them there---and, indeed, several older children +also---blind. It was to seek some charm or antidote against this plague +of blindness that he had with fatigue and danger and difficulty +returned down the gorge. In those days, in such cases, men did not +think of germs and infections, but of sins, and it seemed to him that +the reason of this affliction must he in the negligence of these +priestless immigrants to set up a shrine so soon as they entered the +valley. He wanted a shrine---a handsome, cheap, effectual shrine---to be +erected in the valley; he wanted relics and such-like potent things of +faith, blessed objects and mysterious medals and prayers. In his +wallet he had a bar of native silver for which he would not account; +he insisted there was none in the valley with something of the +insistence of an inexpert liar. They had all clubbed their money and +ornaments together, having little need for such treasure up there, he +said, to buy them holy help against their ill. I figure this dim-eyed +young mountaineer, sunburnt, gaunt, and anxious, hat brim clutched +feverishly, a man all unused to the ways of the lower world, telling +this story to some keen-eyed, attentive priest before the great +convulsion; I can picture him presently seeking to return with pious +and infallible remedies against that trouble, and the infinite dismay +with which he must have faced the tumbled vastness where the gorge had +once come out. But the rest of his story of mischances is lost to me, +save that I know of his evil death after several years. Poor stray +from that remoteness! The stream that had once made the gorge now +bursts from the mouth of a rocky cave, and the legend his poor, +ill-told story set going developed into the legend of a race of blind +men somewhere "over there" one may still hear to-day. + +And amidst the little population of that now isolated and forgotten +valley the disease ran its course. The old became groping, the young +saw but dimly, and the children that were born to them never saw at +all. But life was very easy in that snow-rimmed basin, lost to all the +world, with neither thorns nor briers, with no evil insects nor any +beasts save the gentle breed of llamas they had lugged and thrust and +followed up the beds of the shrunken rivers in the gorges up which +they had come. The seeing had become purblind so gradually that they +scarcely noticed their loss. They guided the sightless youngsters +hither and thither until they knew the whole valley marvellously, and +when at last sight died out among them the race lived on. They had +even time to adapt themselves to the blind control of fire, which they +made carefully in stoves of stone. They were a simple strain of people +at the first, unlettered, only slightly touched with the Spanish +civilisation, but with something of a tradition of the arts of old +Peru and of its lost philosophy. Generation followed generation. They +forgot many things; they devised many things. Their tradition of the +greater world they came from became mythical in colour and +uncertain. In all things save sight they were strong and able, and +presently chance sent one who had an original mind and who could talk +and persuade among them, and then afterwards another. These two +passed, leaving their effects, and the little community grew in +numbers and in understanding, and met and settled social and economic +problems that arose. Generation followed generation. Generation +followed generation. There came a time when a child was born who was +fifteen generations from that ancestor who went out of the valley with +a bar of silver to seek God's aid, and who never returned. Thereabout +it chanced that a man came into this community from the outer +world. And this is the story of that man. + +He was a mountaineer from the country near Quito, a man who had been +down to the sea and had seen the world, a reader of books in an +original way, an acute and enterprising man, and he was taken on by a +party of Englishmen who had come out to Ecuador to climb mountains, to +replace one of their three Swiss guides who had fallen ill. He climbed +here and he climbed there, and then came the attempt on Parascotopetl, +the Matterhorn of the Andes, in which he was lost to the outer +world. The story of that accident has been written a dozen +times. Pointer's narrative is the best. He tells how the little party +worked their difficult and almost vertical way up to the very foot of +the last and greatest precipice, and how they built a night shelter +amidst the snow upon a little shelf of rock, and, with a touch of real +dramatic power, how presently they found Nunez had gone from +them. They shouted, and there was no reply; shouted and whistled, and +for the rest of that night they slept no more. + +As the morning broke they saw the traces of his fall. It seems +impossible he could have uttered a sound. He had slipped eastward +towards the unknown side of the mountain; far below he had struck a +steep slope of snow, and ploughed his way down it in the midst of a +snow avalanche. His track went straight to the edge of a frightful +precipice, and beyond that everything was hidden. Far, far below, and +hazy with distance, they could see trees rising out of a narrow, +shut-in valley---the lost Country of the Blind. But they did not know +it was the lost Country of the Blind, nor distinguish it in any way +from any other narrow streak of upland valley. Unnerved by this +disaster, they abandoned their attempt in the afternoon, and Pointer +was called away to the war before he could make another attack. To +this day Parascotopetl lifts an unconquered crest, and Pointer's +shelter crumbles unvisited amidst the snows. + +And the man who fell survived. + +At the end of the slope he fell a thousand feet, and came down in the +midst of a cloud of snow upon a snow-slope even steeper than the one +above. Down this he was whirled, stunned and insensible, but without a +bone broken in his body; and then at last came to gentler slopes, and +at last rolled out and lay still, buried amidst a softening heap of +the white masses that had accompanied and saved him. He came to +himself with a dim fancy that he was ill in bed; then realized his +position with a mountaineer's intelligence and worked himself loose +and, after a rest or so, out until he saw the stars. He rested flat +upon his chest for a space, wondering where he was and what had +happened to him. He explored his limbs, and discovered that several of +his buttons were gone and his coat turned over his head. His knife had +gone from his pocket and his hat was lost, though he had tied it under +his chin. He recalled that he had been looking for loose stones to +raise his piece of the shelter wall. His ice-axe had disappeared. + +He decided he must have fallen, and looked up to see, exaggerated by +the ghastly light of the rising moon, the tremendous flight he had +taken. For a while he lay, gazing blankly at the vast, pale cliff +towering above, rising moment by moment out of a subsiding tide of +darkness. Its phantasmal, mysterious beauty held him for a space, and +then he was seized with a paroxysm of sobbing laughter . . . . + +After a great interval of time he became aware that he was near the +lower edge of the snow. Below, down what was now a moon-lit and +practicable slope, he saw the dark and broken appearance of +rock-strewn turf He struggled to his feet, aching in every joint and +limb, got down painfully from the heaped loose snow about him, went +downward until he was on the turf, and there dropped rather than lay +beside a boulder, drank deep from the flask in his inner pocket, and +instantly fell asleep . . . . + +He was awakened by the singing of birds in the trees far below. + +He sat up and perceived he was on a little alp at the foot of a vast +precipice that sloped only a little in the gully down which he and his +snow had come. Over against him another wall of rock reared itself +against the sky. The gorge between these precipices ran east and west +and was full of the morning sunlight, which lit to the westward the +mass of fallen mountain that closed the descending gorge. Below him it +seemed there was a precipice equally steep, but behind the snow in the +gully he found a sort of chimney-cleft dripping with snow-water, down +which a desperate man might venture. He found it easier than it +seemed, and came at last to another desolate alp, and then after a +rock climb of no particular difficulty, to a steep slope of trees. He +took his bearings and turned his face up the gorge, for he saw it +opened out above upon green meadows, among which he now glimpsed quite +distinctly a cluster of stone huts of unfamiliar fashion. At times his +progress was like clambering along the face of a wall, and after a +time the rising sun ceased to strike along the gorge, the voices of +the singing birds died away, and the air grew cold and dark about him. +But the distant valley with its houses was all the brighter for +that. He came presently to talus, and among the rocks he noted---for he +was an observant man---an unfamiliar fern that seemed to clutch out of +the crevices with intense green hands. He picked a frond or so and +gnawed its stalk, and found it helpful. + +About midday he came at last out of the throat of the gorge into the +plain and the sunlight. He was stiff and weary; he sat down in the +shadow of a rock, filled up his flask with water from a spring and +drank it down, and remained for a time, resting before he went on to +the houses. + +They were very strange to his eyes, and indeed the whole aspect of +that valley became, as he regarded it, queerer and more +unfamiliar. The greater part of its surface was lush green meadow, +starred with many beautiful flowers, irrigated with extraordinary +care, and bearing evidence of systematic cropping piece by piece. High +up and ringing the valley about was a wall, and what appeared to be a +circumferential water channel, from which the little trickles of water +that fed the meadow plants came, and on the higher slopes above this +flocks of llamas cropped the scanty herbage. Sheds, apparently +shelters or feeding-places for the llamas, stood against the boundary +wall here and there. The irrigation streams ran together into a main +channel down the centre of the valley, and this was enclosed on either +side by a wall breast high. This gave a singularly urban quality to +this secluded place, a quality that was greatly enhanced by the fact +that a number of paths paved with black and white stones, and each +with a curious little kerb at the side, ran hither and thither in an +orderly manner. The houses of the central village were quite unlike +the casual and higgledy-piggledy agglomeration of the mountain +villages he knew; they stood in a continuous row on either side of a +central street of astonishing cleanness, here and there their +parti-coloured facade was pierced by a door, and not a solitary window +broke their even frontage. They were parti-coloured with extraordinary +irregularity, smeared with a sort of plaster that was sometimes grey, +sometimes drab, sometimes slate-coloured or dark brown; and it was the +sight of this wild plastering first brought the word "blind" into the +thoughts of the explorer. "The good man who did that," he thought, +"must have been as blind as a bat." + +He descended a steep place, and so came to the wall and channel that +ran about the valley, near where the latter spouted out its surplus +contents into the deeps of the gorge in a thin and wavering thread of +cascade. He could now see a number of men and women resting on piled +heaps of grass, as if taking a siesta, in the remoter part of the +meadow, and nearer the village a number of recumbent children, and +then nearer at hand three men carrying pails on yokes along a little +path that ran from the encircling wall towards the houses. These +latter were clad in garments of llama cloth and boots and belts of +leather, and they wore caps of cloth with back and ear flaps. They +followed one another in single file, walking slowly and yawning as +they walked, like men who have been up all night. There was something +so reassuringly prosperous and respectable in their bearing that after +a moment's hesitation Nunez stood forward as conspicuously as possible +upon his rock, and gave vent to a mighty shout that echoed round the +valley. + +The three men stopped, and moved their heads as though they were +looking about them. They turned their faces this way and that, and +Nunez gesticulated with freedom. But they did not appear to see him +for all his gestures, and after a time, directing themselves towards +the mountains far away to the right, they shouted as if in +answer. Nunez bawled again, and then once more, and as he gestured +ineffectually the word "blind" came up to the top of his +thoughts. "The fools must be blind," he said. + +When at last, after much shouting and wrath, Nunez crossed the stream +by a little bridge, came through a gate in the wall, and approached +them, he was sure that they were blind. He was sure that this was the +Country of the Blind of which the legends told. Conviction had sprung +upon him, and a sense of great and rather enviable adventure. The +three stood side by side, not looking at him, but with their ears +directed towards him, judging him by his unfamiliar steps. They stood +close together like men a little afraid, and he could see their +eyelids closed and sunken, as though the very balls beneath had shrunk +away. There was an expression near awe on their faces. + +"A man," one said, in hardly recognisable Spanish. "A man it is---a man +or a spirit---coming down from the rocks." + +But Nunez advanced with the confident steps of a youth who enters upon +life. All the old stories of the lost valley and the Country of the +Blind had come back to his mind, and through his thoughts ran this old +proverb, as if it were a refrain:--- + +"In the Country of the Blind the One-Eyed Man is King." + +"In the Country of the Blind the One-Eyed Man is King." + +And very civilly he gave them greeting. He talked to them and used his +eyes. + +"Where does he come from, brother Pedro?" asked one. + +"Down out of the rocks." + +"Over the mountains I come," said Nunez, "out of the country beyond +there---where men can see. From near Bogota---where there are a hundred +thousands of people, and where the city passes out of sight." + +"Sight?" muttered Pedro. "Sight?" + +"He comes," said the second blind man, "out of the rocks." + +The cloth of their coats, Nunez saw was curious fashioned, each with a +different sort of stitching. + +They startled him by a simultaneous movement towards him, each with a +hand outstretched. He stepped back from the advance of these spread +fingers. + +"Come hither," said the third blind man, following his motion and +clutching him neatly. + +And they held Nunez and felt him over, saying no word further until +they had done so. + +"Carefully," he cried, with a finger in his eye, and found they +thought that organ, with its fluttering lids, a queer thing in +him. They went over it again. + +"A strange creature, Correa," said the one called Pedro. "Feel the +coarseness of his hair. Like a llama's hair." + +"Rough he is as the rocks that begot him," said Correa, investigating +Nunez's unshaven chin with a soft and slightly moist hand. "Perhaps he +will grow finer." + +Nunez struggled a little under their examination, but they gripped him +firm. + +"Carefully," he said again. + +"He speaks," said the third man. "Certainly he is a man." + +"Ugh!" said Pedro, at the roughness of his coat. + +"And you have come into the world?" asked Pedro. + +"OUT of the world. Over mountains and glaciers; right over above +there, half-way to the sun. Out of the great, big world that goes +down, twelve days' journey to the sea." + +They scarcely seemed to heed him. "Our fathers have told us men may be +made by the forces of Nature," said Correa. "It is the warmth of +things, and moisture, and rottenness---rottenness." + +"Let us lead him to the elders," said Pedro. + +"Shout first," said Correa, "lest the children be afraid. This is a +marvellous occasion." + +So they shouted, and Pedro went first and took Nunez by the hand to +lead him to the houses. + +He drew his hand away. "I can see," he said. + +"See?" said Correa. + +"Yes; see," said Nunez, turning towards him, and stumbled against +Pedro's pail. + +"His senses are still imperfect," said the third blind man. "He +stumbles, and talks unmeaning words. Lead him by the hand." + +"As you will," said Nunez, and was led along laughing. + +It seemed they knew nothing of sight. + +Well, all in good time he would teach them. + +He heard people shouting, and saw a number of figures gathering +together in the middle roadway of the village. + +He found it tax his nerve and patience more than he had anticipated, +that first encounter with the population of the Country of the +Blind. The place seemed larger as he drew near to it, and the smeared +plasterings queerer, and a crowd of children and men and women (the +women and girls he was pleased to note had, some of them, quite sweet +faces, for all that their eyes were shut and sunken) came about him, +holding on to him, touching him with soft, sensitive hands, smelling +at him, and listening at every word he spoke. Some of the maidens and +children, however, kept aloof as if afraid, and indeed his voice +seemed coarse and rude beside their softer notes. They mobbed him. His +three guides kept close to him with an effect of proprietorship, and +said again and again, "A wild man out of the rocks." + +"Bogota," he said. "Bogota. Over the mountain crests." + +"A wild man---using wild words," said Pedro. "Did you hear +that---"BOGOTA? His mind has hardly formed yet. He has only the +beginnings of speech." + +A little boy nipped his hand. "Bogota!" he said mockingly. + +"Aye! A city to your village. I come from the great world---where men +have eyes and see." + +"His name's Bogota," they said. + +"He stumbled," said Correa---" stumbled twice as we came hither." + +"Bring him in to the elders." + +And they thrust him suddenly through a doorway into a room as black as +pitch, save at the end there faintly glowed a fire. The crowd closed +in behind him and shut out all but the faintest glimmer of day, and +before he could arrest himself he had fallen headlong over the feet of +a seated man. His arm, outflung, struck the face of someone else as he +went down; he felt the soft impact of features and heard a cry of +anger, and for a moment he struggled against a number of hands that +clutched him. It was a one-sided fight. An inkling of the situation +came to him and he lay quiet. + +"I fell down," be said; I couldn't see in this pitchy darkness." + +There was a pause as if the unseen persons about him tried to +understand his words. Then the voice of Correa said: "He is but newly +formed. He stumbles as he walks and mingles words that mean nothing +with his speech." + +Others also said things about him that he heard or understood +imperfectly. + +"May I sit up?" he asked, in a pause. "I will not struggle against you +again." + +They consulted and let him rise. + +The voice of an older man began to question him, and Nunez found +himself trying to explain the great world out of which he had fallen, +and the sky and mountains and such-like marvels, to these elders who +sat in darkness in the Country of the Blind. And they would believe +and understand nothing whatever that he told them, a thing quite +outside his expectation. They would not even understand many of his +words. For fourteen generations these people had been blind and cut +off from all the seeing world; the names for all the things of sight +had faded and changed; the story of the outer world was faded and +changed to a child's story; and they had ceased to concern themselves +with anything beyond the rocky slopes above their circling wall. Blind +men of genius had arisen among them and questioned the shreds of +belief and tradition they had brought with them from their seeing +days, and had dismissed all these things as idle fancies and replaced +them with new and saner explanations. Much of their imagination had +shrivelled with their eyes, and they had made for themselves new +imaginations with their ever more sensitive ears and +finger-tips. Slowly Nunez realised this: that his expectation of +wonder and reverence at his origin and his gifts was not to be borne +out; and after his poor attempt to explain sight to them had been set +aside as the confused version of a new-made being describing the +marvels of his incoherent sensations, he subsided, a little dashed, +into listening to their instruction. And the eldest of the blind men +explained to him life and philosophy and religion, how that the world +(meaning their valley) had been first an empty hollow in the rocks, +and then had come first inanimate things without the gift of touch, +and llamas and a few other creatures that had little sense, and then +men, and at last angels, whom one could hear singing and making +fluttering sounds, but whom no one could touch at all, which puzzled +Nunez greatly until he thought of the birds. + +He went on to tell Nunez how this time had been divided into the warm +and the cold, which are the blind equivalents of day and night, and +how it was good to sleep in the warm and work during the cold, so that +now, but for his advent, the whole town of the blind would have been +asleep. He said Nunez must have been specially created to learn and +serve the wisdom they had acquired, and that for all his mental +incoherency and stumbling behaviour he must have courage and do his +best to learn, and at that all the people in the door-way murmured +encouragingly. He said the night---for the blind call their day +night---was now far gone, and it behooved everyone to go back to +sleep. He asked Nunez if he knew how to sleep, and Nunez said he did, +but that before sleep he wanted food. They brought him food, llama's +milk in a bowl and rough salted bread, and led him into a lonely place +to eat out of their hearing, and afterwards to slumber until the chill +of the mountain evening roused them to begin their day again. But +Nunez slumbered not at all. + +Instead, he sat up in the place where they had left him, resting his +limbs and turning the unanticipated circumstances of his arrival over +and over in his mind. + +Every now and then he laughed, sometimes with amusement and sometimes +with indignation. + +"Unformed mind!" he said. "Got no senses yet! They little know they've +been insulting their Heaven-sent King and master . . . . . + +"I see I must bring them to reason. + +"Let me think. + +"Let me think." + +He was still thinking when the sun set. + +Nunez had an eye for all beautiful things, and it seemed to him that +the glow upon the snow-fields and glaciers that rose about the valley +on every side was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. His eyes +went from that inaccessible glory to the village and irrigated fields, +fast sinking into the twilight, and suddenly a wave of emotion took +him, and he thanked God from the bottom of his heart that the power of +sight had been given him. + +He heard a voice calling to him from out of the village. + +"Yaho there, Bogota! Come hither!" + +At that he stood up, smiling. He would show these people once and for +all what sight would do for a man. They would seek him, but not find +him. + +"You move not, Bogota," said the voice. + +He laughed noiselessly and made two stealthy steps aside from the +path. + +"Trample not on the grass, Bogota; that is not allowed." + +Nunez had scarcely heard the sound he made himself. He stopped, +amazed. + +The owner of the voice came running up the piebald path towards him. + +He stepped back into the pathway. "Here I am," he said. + +"Why did you not come when I called you?" said the blind man. "Must +you be led like a child? Cannot you hear the path as you walk?" + +Nunez laughed. "I can see it," he said. + +"There is no such word as SEE," said the blind man, after a +pause. "Cease this folly and follow the sound of my feet." + +Nunez followed, a little annoyed. + +"My time will come," he said. + +"You'll learn," the blind man answered. "There is much to learn in the +world." + +"Has no one told you, `In the Country of the Blind the One-Eyed Man is +King?'" + +"What is blind?"\ asked the blind man, carelessly, over his shoulder. + +Four days passed and the fifth found the King of the Blind still +incognito, as a clumsy and useless stranger among his subjects. + +It was, he found, much more difficult to proclaim himself than he had +supposed, and in the meantime, while he meditated his coup d'etat, he +did what he was told and learnt the manners and customs of the Country +of the Blind. He found working and going about at night a particularly +irksome thing, and he decided that that should be the first thing he +would change. + +They led a simple, laborious life, these people, with all the elements +of virtue and happiness as these things can be understood by men. They +toiled, but not oppressively; they had food and clothing sufficient +for their needs; they had days and seasons of rest; they made much of +music and singing, and there was love among them and little +children. It was marvellous with what confidence and precision they +went about their ordered world. Everything, you see, had been made to +fit their needs; each of the radiating paths of the valley area had a +constant angle to the others, and was distinguished by a special notch +upon its kerbing; all obstacles and irregularities of path or meadow +had long since been cleared away; all their methods and procedure +arose naturally from their special needs. Their senses had become +marvellously acute; they could hear and judge the slightest gesture of +a man a dozen paces away---could hear the very beating of his +heart. Intonation had long replaced expression with them, and touches +gesture, and their work with hoe and spade and fork was as free and +confident as garden work can be. Their sense of smell was +extraordinarily fine; they could distinguish individual differences as +readily as a dog can, and they went about the tending of llamas, who +lived among the rocks above and came to the wall for food and shelter, +with ease and confidence. It was only when at last Nunez sought to +assert himself that he found how easy and confident their movements +could be. + +He rebelled only after he had tried persuasion. + +He tried at first on several occasions to tell them of sight. "Look +you here, you people," he said. "There are things you do not +understand in me." + +Once or twice one or two of them attended to him; they sat with faces +downcast and ears turned intelligently towards him, and he did his +best to tell them what it was to see. Among his hearers was a girl, +with eyelids less red and sunken than the others, so that one could +almost fancy she was hiding eyes, whom especially he hoped to +persuade. He spoke of the beauties of sight, of watching the +mountains, of the sky and the sunrise, and they heard him with amused +incredulity that presently became condemnatory. They told him there +were indeed no mountains at all, but that the end of the rocks where +the llamas grazed was indeed the end of the world; thence sprang a +cavernous roof of the universe, from which the dew and the avalanches +fell; and when he maintained stoutly the world had neither end nor +roof such as they supposed, they said his thoughts were wicked. So far +as he could describe sky and clouds and stars to them it seemed to +them a hideous void, a terrible blankness in the place of the smooth +roof to things in which they believed---it was an article of faith with +them that the cavern roof was exquisitely smooth to the touch. He saw +that in some manner he shocked them, and gave up that aspect of the +matter altogether, and tried to show them the practical value of +sight. One morning he saw Pedro in the path called Seventeen and +coming towards the central houses, but still too far off for hearing +or scent, and he told them as much. "In a little while," he +prophesied, "Pedro will be here." An old man remarked that Pedro had +no business on path Seventeen, and then, as if in confirmation, that +individual as he drew near turned and went transversely into path Ten, +and so back with nimble paces towards the outer wall. They mocked +Nunez when Pedro did not arrive, and afterwards, when he asked Pedro +questions to clear his character, Pedro denied and outfaced him, and +was afterwards hostile to him. + +Then he induced them to let him go a long way up the sloping meadows +towards the wall with one complaisant individual, and to him he +promised to describe all that happened among the houses. He noted +certain goings and comings, but the things that really seemed to +signify to these people happened inside of or behind the windowless +houses---the only things they took note of to test him by---and of those +he could see or tell nothing; and it was after the failure of this +attempt, and the ridicule they could not repress, that he resorted to +force. He thought of seizing a spade and suddenly smiting one or two +of them to earth, and so in fair combat showing the advantage of +eyes. He went so far with that resolution as to seize his spade, and +then he discovered a new thing about himself, and that was that it was +impossible for him to hit a blind man in cold blood. + +He hesitated, and found them all aware that he had snatched up the +spade. They stood all alert, with their heads on one side, and bent +ears towards him for what he would do next. + +"Put that spade down," said one, and he felt a sort of helpless +horror. He came near obedience. + +Then he had thrust one backwards against a house wall, and fled past +him and out of the village. + +He went athwart one of their meadows, leaving a track of trampled +grass behind his feet, and presently sat down by the side of one of +their ways. He felt something of the buoyancy that comes to all men in +the beginning of a fight, but more perplexity. He began to realise +that you cannot even fight happily with creatures who stand upon a +different mental basis to yourself. Far away he saw a number of men +carrying spades and sticks come out of the street of houses and +advance in a spreading line along the several paths towards him. They +advanced slowly, speaking frequently to one another, and ever and +again the whole cordon would halt and sniff the air and listen. + +The first time they did this Nunez laughed. But afterwards he did not +laugh. + +One struck his trail in the meadow grass and came stooping and feeling +his way along it. + +For five minutes he watched the slow extension of the cordon, and then +his vague disposition to do something forthwith became frantic. He +stood up, went a pace or so towards the circumferential wall, turned, +and went back a little way. There they all stood in a crescent, still +and listening. + +He also stood still, gripping his spade very tightly in both +hands. Should he charge them? + +The pulse in his ears ran into the rhythm of "In the Country of the +Blind the One-Eyed Man is King." + +Should he charge them? + +He looked back at the high and unclimbable wall behind---unclimbable +because of its smooth plastering, but withal pierced with many little +doors and at the approaching line of seekers. Behind these others were +now coming out of the street of houses. + +Should he charge them? + +"Bogota!" called one. "Bogota! where are you?" + +He gripped his spade still tighter and advanced down the meadows +towards the place of habitations, and directly he moved they converged +upon him. "I'll hit them if they touch me," he swore; "by Heaven, I +will. I'll hit." He called aloud, "Look here, I'm going to do what I +like in this valley! Do you hear? I'm going to do what I like and go +where I like." + +They were moving in upon him quickly, groping, yet moving rapidly. It +was like playing blind man's buff with everyone blindfolded except +one. "Get hold of him!" cried one. He found himself in the arc of a +loose curve of pursuers. He felt suddenly he must be active and +resolute. + +"You don't understand," he cried, in a voice that was meant to be +great and resolute, and which broke. "You are blind and I can +see. Leave me alone!" + +"Bogota! Put down that spade and come off the grass!" + +The last order, grotesque in its urban familiarity, produced a gust of +anger. "I'll hurt you," he said, sobbing with emotion. "By Heaven, +I'll hurt you! Leave me alone!" + +He began to run---not knowing clearly where to run. He ran from the +nearest blind man, because it was a horror to hit him. He stopped, and +then made a dash to escape from their closing ranks. He made for where +a gap was wide, and the men on either side, with a quick perception of +the approach of his paces, rushed in on one another. He sprang +forward, and then saw he must be caught, and SWISH! the spade had +struck. He felt the soft thud of hand and arm, and the man was down +with a yell of pain, and he was through. + +Through! And then he was close to the street of houses again, and +blind men, whirling spades and stakes, were running with a reasoned +swiftness hither and thither. + +He heard steps behind him just in time, and found a tall man rushing +forward and swiping at the sound of him. He lost his nerve, hurled his +spade a yard wide of this antagonist, and whirled about and fled, +fairly yelling as he dodged another. + +He was panic-stricken. He ran furiously to and fro, dodging when there +was no need to dodge, and, in his anxiety to see on every side of him +at once, stumbling. For a moment he was down and they heard his +fall. Far away in the circumferential wall a little doorway looked +like Heaven, and he set off in a wild rush for it. He did not even +look round at his pursuers until it was gained, and he had stumbled +across the bridge, clambered a little way among the rocks, to the +surprise and dismay of a young llama, who went leaping out of sight, +and lay down sobbing for breath. + +And so his coup d'etat came to an end. + +He stayed outside the wall of the valley of the blind for two nights +and days without food or shelter, and meditated upon the +Unexpected. During these meditations he repeated very frequently and +always with a profounder note of derision the exploded proverb: "In +the Country of the Blind the One-Eyed Man is King." He thought chiefly +of ways of fighting and conquering these people, and it grew clear +that for him no practicable way was possible. He had no weapons, and +now it would be hard to get one. + +The canker of civilisation had got to him even in Bogota, and he could +not find it in himself to go down and assassinate a blind man. Of +course, if he did that, he might then dictate terms on the threat of +assassinating them all. But---Sooner or later he must sleep! . . . . + +He tried also to find food among the pine trees, to be comfortable +under pine boughs while the frost fell at night, and--- with less +confidence---to catch a llama by artifice in order to try to kill +it---perhaps by hammering it with a stone---and so finally, perhaps, to +eat some of it. But the llamas had a doubt of him and regarded him +with distrustful brown eyes and spat when he drew near. Fear came on +him the second day and fits of shivering. Finally he crawled down to +the wall of the Country of the Blind and tried to make his terms. He +crawled along by the stream, shouting, until two blind men came out to +the gate and talked to him. + +"I was mad," he said. "But I was only newly made." + +They said that was better. + +He told them he was wiser now, and repented of all he had done. + +Then he wept without intention, for he was very weak and ill now, and +they took that as a favourable sign. + +They asked him if he still thought he could SEE." + +"No," he said. "That was folly. The word means nothing. Less than +nothing!" + +They asked him what was overhead. + +"About ten times ten the height of a man there is a roof above the +world---of rock---and very, very smooth. So smooth---so beautifully +smooth . . "He burst again into hysterical tears. "Before you ask me +any more, give me some food or I shall die!" + +He expected dire punishments, but these blind people were capable of +toleration. They regarded his rebellion as but one more proof of his +general idiocy and inferiority, and after they had whipped him they +appointed him to do the simplest and heaviest work they had for anyone +to do, and he, seeing no other way of living, did submissively what he +was told. + +He was ill for some days and they nursed him kindly. That refined his +submission. But they insisted on his lying in the dark, and that was a +great misery. And blind philosophers came and talked to him of the +wicked levity of his mind, and reproved him so impressively for his +doubts about the lid of rock that covered their cosmic casserole that +he almost doubted whether indeed he was not the victim of +hallucination in not seeing it overhead. + +So Nunez became a citizen of the Country of the Blind, and these +people ceased to be a generalised people and became individualities to +him, and familiar to him, while the world beyond the mountains became +more and more remote and unreal. There was Yacob, his master, a kindly +man when not annoyed; there was Pedro, Yacob's nephew; and there was +Medina-sarote, who was the youngest daughter of Yacob. She was little +esteemed in the world of the blind, because she had a clear-cut face +and lacked that satisfying, glossy smoothness that is the blind man's +ideal of feminine beauty, but Nunez thought her beautiful at first, +and presently the most beautiful thing in the whole creation. Her +closed eyelids were not sunken and red after the common way of the +valley, but lay as though they might open again at any moment; and she +had long eyelashes, which were considered a grave disfigurement. And +her voice was weak and did not satisfy the acute hearing of the valley +swains. So that she had no lover. + +There came a time when Nunez thought that, could he win her, he would +be resigned to live in the valley for all the rest of his days. + +He watched her; he sought opportunities of doing her little services +and presently he found that she observed him. Once at a rest-day +gathering they sat side by side in the dim starlight, and the music +was sweet. His hand came upon hers and he dared to clasp it. Then very +tenderly she returned his pressure. And one day, as they were at their +meal in the darkness, he felt her hand very softly seeking him, and as +it chanced the fire leapt then, and he saw the tenderness of her face. + +He sought to speak to her. + +He went to her one day when she was sitting in the summer moonlight +spinning. The light made her a thing of silver and mystery. He sat +down at her feet and told her he loved her, and told her how beautiful +she seemed to him. He had a lover's voice, he spoke with a tender +reverence that came near to awe, and she had never before been touched +by adoration. She made him no definite answer, but it was clear his +words pleased her. + +After that he talked to her whenever he could take an opportunity. The +valley became the world for him, and the world beyond the mountains +where men lived by day seemed no more than a fairy tale he would some +day pour into her ears. Very tentatively and timidly he spoke to her +of sight. + +Sight seemed to her the most poetical of fancies, and she listened to +his description of the stars and the mountains and her own sweet +white-lit beauty as though it was a guilty indulgence. She did not +believe, she could only half understand, but she was mysteriously +delighted, and it seemed to him that she completely understood. + +His love lost its awe and took courage. Presently he was for demanding +her of Yacob and the elders in marriage, but she became fearful and +delayed. And it was one of her elder sisters who first told Yacob that +Medina-sarote and Nunez were in love. + +There was from the first very great opposition to the marriage of +Nunez and Medina-sarote; not so much because they valued her as +because they held him as a being apart, an idiot, incompetent thing +below the permissible level of a man. Her sisters opposed it bitterly +as bringing discredit on them all; and old Yacob, though he had formed +a sort of liking for his clumsy, obedient serf, shook his head and +said the thing could not be. The young men were all angry at the idea +of corrupting the race, and one went so far as to revile and strike +Nunez. He struck back. Then for the first time he found an advantage +in seeing, even by twilight, and after that fight was over no one was +disposed to raise a hand against him. But they still found his +marriage impossible. + +Old Yacob had a tenderness for his last little daughter, and was +grieved to have her weep upon his shoulder. + +"You see, my dear, he's an idiot. He has delusions; he can't do +anything right." + +"I know," wept Medina-sarote. "But he's better than he was. He's +getting better. And he's strong, dear father, and kind---stronger and +kinder than any other man in the world. And he loves me---and, father, +I love him." + +Old Yacob was greatly distressed to find her inconsolable, and, +besides---what made it more distressing---he liked Nunez for many +things. So he went and sat in the windowless council-chamber with the +other elders and watched the trend of the talk, and said, at the +proper time, "He's better than he was. Very likely, some day, we shall +find him as sane as ourselves." + +Then afterwards one of the elders, who thought deeply, had an idea. He +was a great doctor among these people, their medicine-man, and he had +a very philosophical and inventive mind, and the idea of curing Nunez +of his peculiarities appealed to him. One day when Yacob was present +he returned to the topic of Nunez. "I have examined Nunez," he said, +"and the case is clearer to me. I think very probably he might be +cured." + +"This is what I have always hoped," said old Yacob. + +"His brain is affected," said the blind doctor. + +The elders murmured assent. + +"Now, WHAT affects it?" + +"Ah!" said old Yacob. + +THIS," said the doctor, answering his own question. "Those queer +things that are called the eyes, and which exist to make an agreeable +depression in the face, are diseased, in the case of Nunez, in such a +way as to affect his brain. They are greatly distended, he has +eyelashes, and his eyelids move, and consequently his brain is in a +state of constant irritation and distraction." + +"Yes?" said old Yacob. "Yes?" + +"And I think I may say with reasonable certainty that, in order to +cure him complete, all that we need to do is a simple and easy +surgical operation---namely, to remove these irritant bodies." + +"And then he will be sane?" + +"Then he will be perfectly sane, and a quite admirable citizen." + +"Thank Heaven for science!" said old Yacob, and went forth at once to +tell Nunez of his happy hopes. + +But Nunez's manner of receiving the good news struck him as being cold +and disappointing. + +"One might think," he said, "from the tone you take that you did not +care for my daughter." + +It was Medina-sarote who persuaded Nunez to face the blind surgeons. + +"YOU do not want me," he said, "to lose my gift of sight?" + +She shook her head. + +"My world is sight." + +Her head drooped lower. + +"There are the beautiful things, the beautiful little things---the +flowers, the lichens amidst the rocks, the light and softness on a +piece of fur, the far sky with its drifting dawn of clouds, the +sunsets and the stars. And there is YOU. For you alone it is good to +have sight, to see your sweet, serene face, your kindly lips, your +dear, beautiful hands folded together. . . . . It is these eyes of +mine you won, these eyes that hold me to you, that these idiots seek. +Instead, I must touch you, hear you, and never see you again. I must +come under that roof of rock and stone and darkness, that horrible +roof under which your imaginations stoop . . . NO; YOU would not have +me do that?" + +A disagreeable doubt had arisen in him. He stopped and left the thing +a question. + +"I wish," she said, "sometimes---" She paused. + +"Yes?" he said, a little apprehensively. + +"I wish sometimes---you would not talk like that." + +"Like what?" + +"I know it's pretty---it's your imagination. I love it, but NOW---" + +He felt cold. "NOW?" he said, faintly. + +She sat quite still. + +"You mean---you think---I should be better, better perhaps---" + +He was realising things very swiftly. He felt anger perhaps, anger at +the dull course of fate, but also sympathy for her lack of +understanding---a sympathy near akin to pity. + +"DEAR," he said, and he could see by her whiteness how tensely her +spirit pressed against the things she could not say. He put his arms +about her, he kissed her ear, and they sat for a time in silence. + +"If I were to consent to this?" he said at last, in a voice that was +very gentle. + +She flung her arms about him, weeping wildly. "Oh, if you would," she +sobbed, "if only you would!" + +For a week before the operation that was to raise him from his +servitude and inferiority to the level of a blind citizen Nunez knew +nothing of sleep, and all through the warm, sunlit hours, while the +others slumbered happily, he sat brooding or wandered aimlessly, +trying to bring his mind to bear on his dilemma. He had given his +answer, he had given his consent, and still he was not sure. And at +last work-time was over, the sun rose in splendour over the golden +crests, and his last day of vision began for him. He had a few minutes +with Medina-sarote before she went apart to sleep. + +"To-morrow," he said, "I shall see no more." + +"Dear heart!" she answered, and pressed his hands with all her +strength. + +"They will hurt you but little," she said; "and you are going through +this pain, you are going through it, dear lover, for ME . . . . Dear, +if a woman's heart and life can do it, I will repay you. My dearest +one, my dearest with the tender voice, I will repay." + +He was drenched in pity for himself and her. + +He held her in his arms, and pressed his lips to hers and looked on +her sweet face for the last time. "Good-bye!" he whispered to that +dear sight, "good-bye!" + +And then in silence he turned away from her. + +She could hear his slow retreating footsteps, and something in the +rhythm of them threw her into a passion of weeping. + +He walked away. + +He had fully meant to go to a lonely place where the meadows were +beautiful with white narcissus, and there remain until the hour of his +sacrifice should come, but as he walked he lifted up his eyes and saw +the morning, the morning like an angel in golden armour, marching down +the steeps . . . . + +It seemed to him that before this splendour he and this blind world in +the valley, and his love and all, were no more than a pit of sin. + +He did not turn aside as he had meant to do, but went on and passed +through the wall of the circumference and out upon the rocks, and his +eyes were always upon the sunlit ice and snow. + +He saw their infinite beauty, and his imagination soared over them to +the things beyond he was now to resign for ever! + +He thought of that great free world that he was parted from, the world +that was his own, and he had a vision of those further slopes, +distance beyond distance, with Bogota, a place of multitudinous +stirring beauty, a glory by day, a luminous mystery by night, a place +of palaces and fountains and statues and white houses, lying +beautifully in the middle distance. He thought how for a day or so one +might come down through passes drawing ever nearer and nearer to its +busy streets and ways. He thought of the river journey, day by day, +from great Bogota to the still vaster world beyond, through towns and +villages, forest and desert places, the rushing river day by day, +until its banks receded, and the big steamers came splashing by and +one had reached the sea---the limitless sea, with its thousand islands, +its thousands of islands, and its ships seen dimly far away in their +incessant journeyings round and about that greater world. And there, +unpent by mountains, one saw the sky---the sky, not such a disc as one +saw it here, but an arch of immeasurable blue, a deep of deeps in +which the circling stars were floating . . . . + +His eyes began to scrutinise the great curtain of the mountains with a +keener inquiry. + +For example; if one went so, up that gully and to that chimney there, +then one might come out high among those stunted pines that ran round +in a sort of shelf and rose still higher and higher as it passed above +the gorge. And then? That talus might be managed. Thence perhaps a +climb might be found to take him up to the precipice that came below +the snow; and if that chimney failed, then another farther to the east +might serve his purpose better. And then? Then one would be out upon +the amber-lit snow there, and half-way up to the crest of those +beautiful desolations. And suppose one had good fortune! + +He glanced back at the village, then turned right round and regarded +it with folded arms. + +He thought of Medina-sarote, and she had become small and remote. + +He turned again towards the mountain wall down which the day had come +to him. + +Then very circumspectly he began his climb. + +When sunset came he was not longer climbing, but he was far and +high. His clothes were torn, his limbs were bloodstained, he was +bruised in many places, but he lay as if he were at his ease, and +there was a smile on his face. + +From where he rested the valley seemed as if it were in a pit and +nearly a mile below. Already it was dim with haze and shadow, though +the mountain summits around him were things of light and fire. The +mountain summits around him were things of light and fire, and the +little things in the rocks near at hand were drenched with light and +beauty, a vein of green mineral piercing the grey, a flash of small +crystal here and there, a minute, minutely-beautiful orange lichen +close beside his face. There were deep, mysterious shadows in the +gorge, blue deepening into purple, and purple into a luminous +darkness, and overhead was the illimitable vastness of the sky. But he +heeded these things no longer, but lay quite still there, smiling as +if he were content now merely to have escaped from the valley of the +Blind, in which he had thought to be King. And the glow of the sunset +passed, and the night came, and still he lay there, under the cold, +clear stars. + + + +\end{document} + diff --git a/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/sffms/sffms_manual.pdf b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/sffms/sffms_manual.pdf Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 00000000000..5ae47343ee3 --- /dev/null +++ b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/sffms/sffms_manual.pdf |