The Natural Sun
Announcements about our sun and its natural conditions
- Chapter 59 -
The Miron cow
What kind of animal is this? None other than what the cow is on Earth, but with a far different appearance. It manifoldly exceeds the usefulness of your equivalent animal. But we shall have to deal with its shape again first.
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Firstly its length is forty metres from the back to the top of its head and twenty metres from the ground to the top of its spine, whilst its belly also is of disproportionate size. The legs resemble those of the above goat, but less sturdy and thinner. A long, bushy tail with horse-type mane sits on its rear; its back is quite camel-like, but without the sharp curve upwards gradually from the back and then gently down towards the shoulder area of the front legs. In its shoulder area, two oval, foreshortened cones of about one metre jut out, giving it a rough appearance, the cones moving towards one another at every step in a haphazard fashion.
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The rest of its body, except for the extremities is covered with the most beautiful, fine, rich wool; short hair covers the feet, cones and ears. This is the only animal upon this planet that has hooves similar to your female stag. There is a large udder just before the hind legs on its belly with six teats in one straight line; its wool is completely white, whilst the mane upon the tail and horn are dark brown, the shorter hair sections having a pale look. So much for its shape.
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Looking at this animal, one could say: it may be useful but by no means extraordinary; but I say unto you: although everything that shines is not gold, as you would say, a lot can be gold without sparkle. For whoever wants it to sparkle has to polish it like any other metal. So we shall get into polishing this animal and see how much peculiar gold comes out, proceeding to the noteworthy and amazing part before revealing its usefulness.
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The first notable thing about this animal is that it is able to virtually communicate with men upon this planet, through a kind of language of signs with its front legs, accompanied by mimicry with its head, tongue and eyes. Not that it has to be trained for this first, the way you do with some animals on Earth, as this is already part of its nature. This ability is of course developed gradually over time with its dealings with man, though without instruction.
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Wherefore these animals are also the most reliable prophets for future happenings; developing their ability ever further through contact with man, they herald, nearly to the second, the future weather aberrations, atmospheric eclipses through all kinds of meteoric formations, great earthquakes, future appearances of Lightning-Trees, and such-like upon this planet.
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Wherefore these people have great respect for this animal sometimes leading to a kind of idolatry, although such does not last for long, as these people are also in contact with their planet's spirit world, but rather like the foolish enthusing of some of your poets, who at times cry songs before carved statues, as if standing before an angelic spirit of the third celestial kingdom. That too is idolatry but, as you have gathered, of no deep or lasting duration. It is the same upon our planet also, where it resembles their amazement at the animal's abilities, more than idolatry.
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Behold, this animal's ability already exceeds that of any animal we have dealt with so far. Has this animal any further noteworthy and amazing capabilities? Indeed, hearken further!
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Its other amazing and noteworthy capacity is how it encounters its enemies, of which it has many. How does it defend itself? Firstly it accurately determines the position of the lurking adversary, advancing on its enemy with its barbed tongue extended. By poking its tongue out, the animal, due to its inner structure, charges itself with an immense amount of positive current. On perceiving its charge full, it closes its jaws after pulling in its tongue, turning its sphere-topped horn, it discharges the full electric load over the enemy who, if not killed instantly, is so humbled with this shock that it compulsorily leaves, never to approach this animal again. Therewith another memorable attribute.
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A third one is that when the residents want milk, they don't have to milk it but just place a vessel before it, the animal voluntarily releases its milk into the vessel; if however the udder is not sufficiently full, the animal milks itself by taking its teat between its two front claws, carefully pressing the milk out to the last drop, then signalling to the people, who pick up the vessel for their consumption.
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A fourth noteworthy attribute of these animals is that, during great storms, they tum into living lightning rods, for the animal has a natural affinity with lightning. On the approach of highly charged clouds these animals stand together upon some elevated height stretching their tongues towards the cloud and not infrequently completely discharge their electricity, then gradually discharging it through their shoulder cones, which is the purpose of these cones. For this reason they are also the best night watchmen for private dwellings on this planet, it not being advisable for anyone, other than a familiar person, to approach their home at night. Anyone doing so is in great danger of being either killed by a lightning strike or suffering serious injury.
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That this animal can be used on account of these attributes can easily be seen. You will guess that they are used during frequent hunts, and on many other occasions. So, apart from its peculiarities we have also dealt with its usefulness. It needs only to be added that its rich wool provides residents with their clothing; and therewith we have the entire usefulness of this animal before us; hence we shall turn to the two-footed animals next time, after casting a cursory glance at the rest of the animal kingdom. And so we will leave it for today.