Denial

The Night Face, VII.

According to Tolteca on p. 612, "apes" are anthropoid animals common on terrestroid planets because of parallel evolution. But we do not see them on any other planet in the Technic History.

If the mountain apes are the cause of the occasional violence during Bale Time, then they can easily be exterminated or rounded up and isolated on a distant plateau. But, when Raven suggests this, Elfavy is horrified:

"'Can you not understand? The Night Faces must be!'" (p. 609)

Yes, the dark side of life, death and so on, must be but how would preventing violence from a few apes interfere with the dark side of life, its Night Face? It would not. But Elfavy's psyche knows something else. Investigating the mountain apes would reveal that they are not the cause of the violence. Then further investigation would disclose that the Gwydiona themselves are the cause of the violence. Despite their claimed acceptance of the Night Faces, their own periodic insanity is something that their usually sunny selves cannot face.