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slanting-ways and far off. He was so surprised he stood quite still upon
the edge, sniffing the novel odour of burning bracken, and wondering
whether the dawn was coming up in the wrong place.
He was the lord of the rocks and caves, was the cave bear, as his
slighter brother, the grizzly, was lord of the thick woods below, and as
the dappled lion--the lion of those days was dappled--was lord of the
thorn-thickets, reed-beds, and open plains. He was the greatest of all
meat-eaters; he knew no fear, none preyed on him, and none gave him
battle; only the rhinoceros was beyond his strength. Even the mammoth
shunned his country. This invasion perplexed him. He noticed these new
beasts were shaped like monkeys, and sparsely hairy like young pigs.
"Monkey and young pig," said the cave bear. "It might not be so bad. But
that red thing that jumps, and the black thing jumping with it yonder!
Never in my life have I seen such things before!"
He came slowly along the brow of the cliff towards them, stopping thrice
to sniff and peer, and the reek of the fire grew stronger. A couple of
hyænas also were so intent upon the thing below that Andoo, coming soft
and easy, was close upon them before they knew of him or he of them.
They started guiltily and went lurching off. Coming round in a wheel, a
hundred yards off, they began yelling and calling him names to revenge
themselves for the start they had had. "Ya-ha!" they cried. "Who can't
grub his own burrow? Who eats roots like a pig?... Ya-ha!" for even in
those days the hyæna's manners were just as offensive as they are now.
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