The
Alus are all bearded, but among the Bo-lu the beard disappears in
the women. The Sto-lu men show a sparse beard, the Band-lu none;
and there is little hair upon the bodies of their women.
The members of the tribe showed great interest in me, especially
in my clothing, the like of which, of course, they never had seen.
They pulled and hauled upon me, and some of them struck me; but for
the most part they were not inclined to brutality. It was only the
hairier ones, who most closely resembled the Sto-lu, who maltreated
me. At last my captors led me into a great cave in the mouth
of which a fire was burning. The floor was littered with filth,
including the bones of many animals, and the atmosphere reeked
with the stench of human bodies and putrefying flesh. Here they
fed me, releasing my arms, and I ate of half-cooked aurochs steak
and a stew which may have been made of snakes, for many of the
long, round pieces of meat suggested them most nauseatingly.
The meal completed, they led me well within the cavern, which they
lighted with torches stuck in various crevices in the light of
which I saw, to my astonishment, that the walls were covered with
paintings and etchings. There were aurochs, red deer, saber-tooth
tiger, cave-bear, hyaenadon and many other examples of the fauna of
Caspak done in colors, usually of four shades of brown, or scratched
upon the surface of the rock.
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