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hereafter; but for that service you must slay Jor the High Chief and bring terror
and confusion to his followers.'
"Now, when my father heard this, he was angry; but he was also afraid--afraid for
me, who am cosata-lo. He called me to him and told me what he had heard,
pointing out two ways in which we might frustrate Du-seen. The first was that I
go to Du-seen as his mate, after which he would be loath to give me into the
hands of the Wieroo or to further abide by the wicked compact he had made--a
compact which would doom his own offspring, who would doubtless be as am I,
their mother. The alternative was flight until Du-seen should have been
overcome and punished. I chose the latter and fled toward the south. Beyond
the confines of the Galu country is little danger from the Wieroo, who seek
ordinarily only Galus of the highest orders. There are two excellent reasons for
this: One is that from the beginning of time jealousy had existed between the
Wieroo and the Galus as to which would eventually dominate the world. It seems
generally conceded that that race which first reaches a point of evolution which
permits them to produce young of their own species and of both sexes must
dominate all other creatures. The Wieroo first began to produce their own kind--
after which evolution from Galu to Wieroo ceased gradually until now it is
unknown; but the Wieroo produce only males--which is why they steal our female
young, and by stealing cos-ata-lo they increase their own chances of eventually
reproducing both sexes and at the same time lessen ours. Already the Galus
produce both male and female; but so carefully do the Wieroo watch us that few
of the males ever grow to manhood, while even fewer are the females that are not
stolen away. It is indeed a strange condition, for while our greatest enemies hate
and fear us, they dare not exterminate us, knowing that they too would become
extinct but for us.
"
Ah, but could we once get a start, I am sure that when all were true cos-ata-lo
there would have been evolved at last the true dominant race before which all the
world would be forced to bow."
Ajor always spoke of the world as though nothing existed beyond Caspak. She
could not seem to grasp the truth of my origin or the fact that there were
countless other peoples outside her stern barrier-cliffs. She apparently felt that I
came from an entirely different world. Where it was and how I came to Caspak
from it were matters quite beyond her with which she refused to trouble her
pretty head.
"
Well," she continued, "and so I ran away to hide, intending to pass the cliffs to
the south of Galu and find a retreat in the Kro-lu country. It would be
dangerous, but there seemed no other way.
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