Pfifltriggi

The **Pfifltriggi** (singular **pfifltrigg**) are a Malacandrian species of hnau. They have tapir-like heads (with a bulge at the back implying a large brain) and frog-like bodies; they lean their elbows on the ground when at rest, and sometimes when working with their hands. Their movements are quick and insectlike.

## Description

Ransom is somewhat biased at first by their appearance, much like that of the Séroni:

"*Its build was distinctly that of a frog... part of its fore-limbs on which it was supported was really, in human terms, rather an elbow than a hand. It was broad and padded and clearly made to be walked on; but upwards from it … went the true fore-arms—thin, strong fore-arms, ending in... many-fingered hands.*"
A further description:

"*The tapping instantly stopped and a remarkable face appeared from behind a neighbouring monolith... It was hairless like a man's or a sorn's. It was long and pointed like a shrew's, yellow and shabby-looking, and so low in the forehead that but for the heavy development of the head at the back and behind the ears (like a bag-wig) it could not have been that of an intelligent creature. A moment later the whole of the thing came into view with a startling jump. Ransom guessed that it was a pfifltrigg – and was glad that he had not met one of this third race on his first arrival in Malacandra. It was much more insect-like or reptilian than anything he had yet seen... It was rather like a grasshopper, rather like one of Arthur Rackham's dwarfs, rather like a frog, and rather like a little old taxidermist whom Ransom knew in London.*"

## Culture and homeland

The Pfiffltriggi are miners and artists; whose humour is described as "excelling in practical jokes and personal abuse". They are expert craftsmen and architects who delight in technology and the visual arts. They have their own language which they use when among themselves. In particular, their names do not resemble Old Solar.

Augray the Sorn says

*"The Pfifltriggi like making things... It is true they like best the making of things that are only good to look at and of no use. But sometimes when they are tired of that they will make things for us, things we have thought, provided they are difficult enough. They have not patience to make easy things however useful they would be.*"
Pfifltriggi are matriarchal, unlike the sorns, and hatch from eggs. They marry when they are about twenty.

They are the builders and technicians of Malacandra. They build houses and gadgets thought up by the séroni. They are miners who especially like to dig up "sun's blood" (gold) and other useful and beautiful minerals. Their sense of humour is "sharp and excelled in abuse" (Chap. 18).

Kanakaberaka says to Ransom, "*I wish you had come to our country. We do not live in holes like the sorns nor in bundles of weed like the hrossa. I could show you houses with a hundred pillars, one of suns' blood and the next of stars' milk, all the way ... and all the world painted on the walls*"

## Pop culture references

The hrossa, séroni, and pfifltriggi are several of the races living on Mars in Larry Niven's 1999 novel *Rainbow Mars*; they are referred to as the "Pious Ones" by the Barsoomian races. The hrossa are called the "Fishers", the pfifltriggi the "Smiths", and the séroni the "High Folk". The pfifltriggi are one of the races who chose to ride to Earth on Yggdrasil.

In *Scarlet Traces: The Great Game*, a hieroglyphics-filled chamber seems to show the hrossa, séroni, and pfifltriggi as the original races of Mars, that were wiped out by the arrival of the War of the Worlds Martians.

## Pfifltriggi

* Firikitekila
* Kalakaperi
* Kanakaberaka
* Parakataru
* Tafalakeruf

Source: Wikipedia

Gallery: