Browsing Inuktitut translation

11.

''For this reason I will cast myself into the water, and live no more.'' he said, then jumped.

12.

His body made a loud splash and he felt the cool water touch every part of his body. His hair grew deeply saturated with water until all of the air bubbles wriggled their way up to the surface. Hairy Jo exhaled and sank even deeper, far deeper perhaps, than any other Skullmonkey had ever gone before. Weightless, he refused to move or struggle. Dark waters surrounded him and he thought about his youth. Hairy Jo remembered a particularly unpleasant day many years before when he was just a lad-Skullmonkey receiving his lesson from an elder named Low Jaw.

13.

''Many are the hairs on our backs,'' said Low Jaw, ''and likewise are the number of Skullmonkeys in this world.''

14.

Hairy Jo looked up to Low Jaw as a father figure. For weeks, Hairy Jo followed every move Low Jaw made. If Low Jaw went into the forest to forage for nuts and grubs so went Hairy Jo. If Low Jaw tended to his garden, so did Hairy Jo.

15.

One especially warm and beautiful day Hairy Jo was on his way to Low Jaw's cave when he saw a great crowd gathered around the entrance. Many Skullmonkeys were howling to show their mournful state. Low Jaw's wife was the gloomiest of all... she was like a brittle fall leaf blown into a corner. Hairy Jo pushed his way to the front of the crowd demanding to see his mentor. Low Jaw gently swung by his neck, hung from a braided piece of cloth his two children had made. His children were the first to find him in this state. The peculiar thing that Hairy Jo recalled, was that he had shaved himself completely naked.

16.

Arnod - inhabited by the Rrs. Rrs observe other planets and civilizations hoping one day to apply all that they have learned to their own civilization. This is not likely, however, since they find comfort in research and are terrified of application. Rrs are extremely advanced in the arts of the mind which they use to read other beings' minds. Every other generation in the Rrs' lifeline produces an Omega Rr. Omega Rrs have such superior mind control that they can use their minds to form physical doorways between worlds. This has been outlawed by Arven, and only because Quater brought this to his attension. But the Omega Rrs were not stopped until after they had moved a few Ynts, Skullmonkeys and even Rrs to other planets.

17.

Ba'ak - inhabited by Half-Skullmonkeys, who are half Blue Ynt. Called ''Blue-Ynt-Skullmonkeys'' these beings look just like White Ynts since the mating of a Skullmonkey with a Blue Ynt causes a loss of pigmentation in the offspring resulting in a Blue Ynt that appears to be white. There is no other visual effect on the offspring from the Skullmonkeys, though their behavior is more like that of a Skullmonkey than the community-building Blue Ynts.

18.

Guhrli - inhabited by Proto-Skullmonkeys. These pitiful beings have to bury themselves up to their necks every night in the rich Guhrli soil to keep from dying of dehydration. They can only eat HoBread, which can only be made by grinding up the largest Wx and adding them to HoBatter before it rises. (Arven corrected all of these limitations in the final design of Skullmonkeys.) Guhrli has a monthly orbit that floats so close to Wx that the Proto-Skullmonkeys can harvest the plumpest ´Wx for their HoBread. Due to the Proto-Skullmonkeys' tie to the soil of Guhrli every evening, colonizing Wx with Proto-Skullmonkeys is not possible.

19.

Wx - inhabited by Wx. Wx are fat, furry and yellowish in color. Wx reproduce asexually and often, which would create an overcrowding problem if they were not harvested each month by the Proto-Skullmonkeys.

20.

Hapsborg - inhabited by one Rr and one Skullmonkey who became best friends. The Rr's name is Rrheostan and the Skullmonkey's name is Mazzimoast. Their first year on Hapsiborg was one of confused emotions. Because of the myth of the seven planets fighting amongst each other, Mazzimoast and Rrheostan feared each other, but they were lonely and longed for companionship also. Rrheostan, behaving in perfect Rr fashion, wanted to study Mazzimoast and all of his habits. He spent a lot of time following the Skullmonkey's tracks to see where he went, examining his feces to see what he ate, and climbing up trees to see where he lived. They found that helping each other was their only chance at happiness and survival. While they were extremely productive during the first hundred years of friendship, they now just sit in front of their houses swapping grossly exaggered stories of their first year together.