"Baby!" he hissed. "Silly little bleater! Go home to your mother and drink milk. What doyou understand of such things? But the others, listen. Tash is only another name for Aslan.All that old idea of us being right and the Calormenes wrong is silly. We know better now.The Calormenes use different words but we all mean the same thing. Tash and Aslan are onlytwo different names for you know Who. That's why there can never be any quarrel betweenthem. Get that into your heads, you stupid brutes. Tash is Aslan: Aslan is Tash."
You know how sad your own dog's face can look sometimes. Think of that and then think ofall the faces of those Talking Beasts - all those honest, humble, bewildered Birds, Bears,Badgers, Rabbits, Moles, and Mice - all far sadder than that. Every tail was down, everywhisker drooped. It would have broken your heart with very pity to see their faces. Therewas only one who did not look at all unhappy.
It was a ginger Cat - a great big Tom in the prime of life - who sat bolt upright withhis tail curled round his toes, in the very front row of all the Beasts. He had been staringhard at the Ape and the Calormene captain all the time and had never once blinked his eyes.
"Excuse me," said the Cat very politely, "but this interests me. Does your friend fromCalormen say the same?"
"Assuredly," said the Calormene. "The enlightened Ape - Man, I mean - is in the right.Aslan means neither less nor more than Tash."
"Especially, Aslan means no more than Tash?" suggested the Cat.
"No more at all," said the Calormene, looking the Cat straight in the face.
"Is that good enough for you, Ginger?" said the Ape.
"Oh certainly," said Ginger coolly. "Thank you very much. I only wanted to be quiteclear. I think I am beginning to understand."
Up till now the King and Jewel had said nothing: they were waiting until the Ape shouldbid them speak, for they thought it was no use interrupting. But now, as Tirian looked roundon the miserable faces of the Narnians, and saw how they would all believe that Aslan andTash were one and the same, he could bear it no longer.
"Ape," he cried with a great voice, "you lie damnably. You lie like a Calormene. You lielike an Ape."
He meant to go on and ask how the terrible god Tash who fed on the blood of his peoplecould possibly be the same as the good Lion by whose blood all Narnia was saved. If he hadbeen allowed to speak, the rule of the Ape might have ended that day; the Beasts might haveseen the truth and thrown the Ape down. But before he could say another word two Calormenesstruck him in the mouth with all their force, and a third, from behind, kicked his feet fromunder him. And as he fell, the Ape squealed in rage and terror.
"Take him away. Take him away. Take him where he cannot hear us, nor we hear him. Theretie him to a tree. I will - I mean, Aslan will - do justice on him later."