經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第19章3
‘Don’t know. I’ve only ever heard it said, and that was by someone who had a mouthful of other people’s teeth. You remember I told you about Agrajag?’
“不知道，我只聽人說過一次，而且那傢伙還長滿了滿嘴別人的牙，我記得我跟你提過阿格拉加格吧。”
Ford thought for a moment. ‘You mean the guy who was convinced you were getting him killed over and over again?’
福特想了想，“你是說那個硬賴你害死他一次又一次的傢伙？”
‘Yes. One of the places he claimed I’d got him killed was Stavromula Beta. Someone tries to shoot me, it seems. I duck and Agrajag, or at least, one of his many reincarnations, gets hit. It seems that this has definitely happened at some point in time so, I suppose, I can’t get killed at least until after I’ve ducked on Stavromula Beta. Only no one’s ever heard of it.’
“對，據他說，其中一個我害死他的地方是斯達弗洛穆拉貝塔。有人想拿槍打我，好像是。我閃開了，結果阿格拉加格——或者至少是他投的某個胎——替我捱了槍子。這事情好像的的確確在某個時間點上發生了，所以，至少我不會在閃過斯達弗洛穆拉貝塔那一槍之前就嚥氣吧，我猜。可根本沒人聽說過那個地方。”
‘Hmm.’ Ford tried a few other searches of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide, but drew a blank.
“呃。”福特又在《銀河系漫遊指南》上試了幾回別的，不過什麼也沒找到。
‘Nothing,’ he said.
“什麼也沒有。”他說。
‘I was just… no, I’ve never heard of it,’ said Ford finally. He wondered why it was ringing a very, very faint bell, though.
“我好像……不，從沒聽說過。”福特最後說。其實他心裏正暗自奇怪，爲什麼自己會對這名字有那麼一點很淡很淡的印象。
‘OK,’ said Arthur. ‘I’ve seen the way the Lamuellan hunters trap Perfectly Normal Beasts. If you spear one in the herd it just gets trampled, so they have to lure them out one at a time for the kill. It’s very like the way a matador works, you know, with a brightly coloured cape. You get one to charge at you and then step aside and execute a rather elegant swing through with the cape. Have you got anything like a brightly coloured cape about you?’
“好吧。”阿瑟說，“我看過拉姆拉的獵人是怎麼套絕對正常獸的。如果你直接用長矛刺死一頭，那它的屍體只會被踩得稀爛，所以你得一次引誘出一頭再來動手。挺像鬥牛士，你知道，帶張顏色鮮豔的斗篷。你引一頭對你衝過來，然後往邊上走，挺優雅地拿斗篷一路舞過去。你身上帶着什麼類似鮮豔的斗篷的東西嗎？”
‘This do?’ said Ford, handing him his towel.
“這個如何？”福特把毛巾遞給他。
