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ARTHUR
Yes!
SOLDIER
You're using coconuts!
ARTHUR
...What?
SOLDIER
You've got two empty halves of coconuts and you're banging them together.
ARTHUR (Scornfully)
So? We have ridden since the snows of winter
covered this land, through the kingdom of Mercea.
SOLDIER
Where did you get the coconuts?
ARTHUR
Through ... We found them.
SOLDIER
Found them? In Mercea. The coconut's tropical!
ARTHUR
What do you mean?
SOLDIER
Well, this is a temperate zone.
ARTHUR
The swallow may fly south with the sun, or the house martin or
the plover seek warmer hot lands in winter, yet these are not
strangers to our land.
SOLDIER
Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
ARTHUR
Not at all. They could be carried.
SOLDIER
What? A swallow carrying a coconut?
| ARTHUR
| Why not?
|
| SOLDIER
| I'll tell you why not ... because a swallow is about eight inches long and
| weighs five ounces, and you'd be lucky to find a coconut under a pound.
|
ARTHUR
It could grip it by the husk ...
SOLDIER
It's not a question of where he grips it, It's a simple matter
of weight - ratios ... A five-ounce bird could not hold a a one pound
coconut.
ARTHUR
Well, it doesn't matter. Go and tell your master that Arthur
from the Court of Camelot is here.
A Slight pause. Swirling mist. Silence.
SOLDIER
Look! To maintain Velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings
four hundred and ninety three times every second. right?
ARTHUR
(irritated)
Please!
SOLDIER
Am I right?
ARTHUR
I'm not interested.
SECOND SOLDIER
(who has loomed up on the battlements)
It could be carried by an African swallow!
FIRST SOLDIER
Oh yes! An African swallow maybe ... but not a European
swallow. that's my point.
SECOND SOLDIER
Oh yes, I agree there ...
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