Pr?*tan

The Pr?*tans are an extraterrestrial race featured in "The High Crusade", a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson. The characters in the race's name arise from the book's narrator, Brother Parvus, substituting a question mark and an asterisk for a whistle and a grunt, respectively.

Originally Finlandised by the Wersgorix Empire, the Pr?*tans ally themselves with the lost humans from Earth, led by Sir Roger, Baron de Tourneville.

They are from a hot planet poisonous to Humans and to all other species in the book and appear to refer to themselves collectively as "The Hives". Their ships are described as "Boxy". The one Pr?*tan given center stage in the book is apparently titled something like Tertiary Eggmaster of the Northwest Hive, and is referred to as "Ethlebert" by the Human narrator. He opens negotiations with the useful phrase: "I cannot commit the Hives to any policy, I can only send a recommendation. However, since our people have minds less individualistic than average, I may add that my recommendation will carry great weight. At the same time, I am corresponding hard to convince".