Garstang stated the purpose of the visit. “We are pilgrims who must journey across the Silver Desert, and wish to hire pack-beasts. We number fifty or more, and anticipate a journey of twenty days in each direction with perhaps five days spent at our devotions: let this information be a guide in your thinking. Naturally we expect only the staunchest, most industrious and amenable beasts at your disposal.”

“All this is very well,” stated the keeper, “but my price for hire is identical to my price for sale, so you might as well have the full benefit of your money, in the form of( title to the beasts concerned in the transaction.”

“And the price?” inquired Casmyre.

“This depends upon your choice; each beast commands a different value.”

Garstang, who had been surveying the compound, shook his head ruefully. “I confess to puzzlement. Each beast is of a different sort, and none seem to fit any well-defined categories.”

The keeper admitted that such was the case. “If you care to listen, I can explain all. The tale is of a continuing fascination, and will assist you in the management of your beasts.”

“We will doubly profit to hear you, then,” said Garstang gracefully, though Cugel was making motions of impatience.

The keeper went to a shelf and took forth a leather-bound folio. “In a past eon Mad King Kutt ordained a menagerie like none before, for his private amazement and the stupefaction of the world. His wizard, Follinense, therefore produced a group of beasts and teratoids unique, combining the wildest variety of plasms; to the result that you see.”

“The menagerie has persisted so long?” asked Garstang in wonder.

“Indeed not. Nothing of Mad King Kutt is extant save the legend, and a casebook of the wizard Follinense” — here he tapped the leather folio — “Vhich describes his bizarre systemology. For instance—” He opened the folio. “Well ... hmmm. Here is a statement, somewhat less explicit than others, in which he analyzes the half-men, little more than a brief set of notes:

‘Gid: hybrid of man, gargoyle, whorl, leaping insect.
Deodand: wolverine, basilisk, man.
Erb: bear, man, lank-lizard, demon,
Grue: man, ocular bat, the unusual hoon.
Leucomorph: unknown
Bazil: felinodore, man, (wasp?).’”

Casmyra clapped his hands in astonishment. “Did Follinense then create these creatures, to the subsequent disadvantage of humanity?”

“Surely not,” said Garstang. “It seems more an exercise in idle musing. Twice he admits to wonder.”

“Such is my opinion, in this present case,” stated the keeper, “though elsewhere he is less dubious.”

“How are the creatures before us then connected with the menagerie?” inquired Casmyre.

The keeper shrugged. “Another of the Mad King's jocularities. He loosed the entire assemblage upon the countryside, to the general disturbance. The creatures, endowed with an eclectic fecundity, became more rather than less bizarre, and now they roam the Plain of Oparona and Blanwalt Forest in great numbers.”

“So then, what of us?” demanded Cugel. “We wish pack-animals, docile and frugal of habit, rather than freaks and curiosities, no matter how edifying.”