"Those who are unlike us smote those who are like us and drove them back when they would have taken and slain us.

Why is it not better to remain with them than to go to our kind who would destroy us ?" "They would not," he said "If you gave them--her." He thrust a long thumb backward toward sleeping Ruth.

"Cherkis would forgive much for her.

And why should you not?
She is only a woman." He spat--in a way that made me want to kill him.
"Besides," he ended, "have you no arts to amuse him ?" "Cherkis ?" I asked.
"Cherkis," he whined.

"Is Yuruk a fool not to know that in the world without, new things have arisen since long ago we fled from Iskander into the secret valley?
What have you to beguile Cherkis beyond this woman flesh?
Much, I think.