“We hear you, Father,” he said surprisingly. “Yet we sense that though what you say is the truth, it is not… — James Blish

Martel still did not want to believe in it, but brute experience of it forced him to, whatever his preferences.

Yet the closer he came to it, the more alert he felt; it was as though he were paying more and more attention to fewer and fewer things, so that at the heart of the mystery he would paradoxically be totally intent upon nothing at all.

The tribesmen understand this very well, although they would not describe it in the same terms I have. It is simply a working part of their lives. Do you think they would continue to consult me if they found that the advice that I gave them did not work? They are uncivilized, but they are not insane.