There was a chance that the Galus would receive me; but even Ajor
could not say definitely whether they would or not, and even provided
that they would, could I retrace my steps from the beginning, after
failing to find my own people, and return to the far northern land
of Galus? I doubted it. However, I was learning from Ajor, who
was more or less of a fatalist, a philosophy which was as necessary
in Caspak to peace of mind as is faith to the devout Christian of
the outer world.
Chapter 5
We were sitting before a little fire inside a safe grotto one
night shortly after we had quit the cliff-dwellings of the Band-lu,
when So-al raised a question which it had never occurred to me to
propound to Ajor. She asked her why she had left her own people
and how she had come so far south as the country of the Alus, where
I had found her.
At first Ajor hesitated to explain; but at last she consented,
and for the first time I heard the complete story of her origin
and experiences. For my benefit she entered into greater detail
of explanation than would have been necessary had I been a native
Caspakian.
"I am a cos-ata-lo," commenced Ajor, and then she turned toward
me. "A cos-ata-lo, my Tom, is a woman" (lo) "who did not come from
an egg and thus on up from the beginning." (Cor sva jo.
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