B78 <=> B80 (BTG VIII Hassein dares call men “slugs,” p. 79)

Chapter VIII The Impudent Brat Hassein, Beelzebub’s Grandson, Dares to Call Men “Slugs”

HASSEIN immediately sat down at Beelzebub’s feet and coaxingly said:

“Tell me anything you wish, my dear Grandfather. Anything you tell me will be the greatest joy for me, if only because it is you who relate it.”

“No,” objected Beelzebub, “you yourself ask what interests you most of all. It will give me at the present moment much pleasure to tell you about just whatever you particularly wish to know.”

“Dear and kind Grandfather, tell me then something about those . . . how? . . . those . . . I forget . . . yes, about those ‘slugs.’”

“What? About what slugs?” asked Beelzebub, not understanding the boy’s question.

“Don’t you remember, Grandfather, that a little while ago, when you spoke about the three-centered beings breeding on the various planets of that solar system where you existed for such a long time, you happened to say that on one planet – I forget how you called it – that on that planet exist three-centered beings who, on the whole, are like us, but whose skin is a little slimier than ours.”

“Ah!” laughed Beelzebub. “You are surely asking about those beings who breed on the planet Earth and who call themselves ‘men.’

“Yes, Grandfather, yes, just that. Tell me about those ‘men-beings,’ a little more in detail. I should like to know more about them,” concluded Hassein.

Then Beelzebub said: “About them I could tell you a great deal, for I often visited that planet and existed among them for a long time and even made friends with many of those terrestrial three-brained beings.