They had built a cairn of
stones over her body, as they had done over the bodies of the two
children killed by the cold. But, after an examination to see what sort
of things they were, they had tumbled the bodies of the Hairy People
over the cliff. These had been too bestial to bury as befitted human
dead, but too manlike to skin and eat as game.
Since then, they had often found traces of the Hairy People, and when
they met with them, they killed them without mercy. These were great
shambling parodies of humanity, long-armed, short-legged, twice as heavy
as men, with close-set reddish eyes and heavy bone-crushing jaws. They
may have been incredibly debased humans, or perhaps beasts on the very
threshold of manhood. From what he had seen of conditions on this
planet, Kalvar Dard suspected the latter to be the case. In a million or
so years, they might evolve into something like humanity. Already, the
Hairy ones had learned the use of fire, and of chipped crude stone
implements--mostly heavy triangular choppers to be used in the hand,
without helves.
Twice, after that night, the Hairy People had attacked them--once while
they were on the march, and once in camp. Both assaults had been beaten
off without loss to themselves, but at cost of precious ammunition.
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