I would go back into the valley and I would tell them, in order to remove the fear, that I had killed the strange animal. But I would also tell them that his body had gone into the river and I had not been able to identify it. For I knew now. Mankind needs its strange animals, its myths and legends and old tales, in order to objectify man’s fears outside of himself where he can fight them with man’s courage and man’s hope. For man is the strangest animal of all.
