Baiel and I used our Haydens to curb their belligerence. The sight of red flame blasting their spears into dust awed them into a sullen kind of submission. But it was not until our second visit, when we took them a gift of bear meat, that we began to make any progress in communication. We watched curiously while the tribe wolfed the meat, crudely searing it over an open fire. As hungry as they obviously were, each of them nonetheless set aside a liberal portion which was later taken to a grizzled old man who never moved from the mouth of the cave. In response to our gestures, they made it clear to us that the old man was their equivalent of high priest. He apparently commanded the wind and the sun, and he had some sort of a terrifying blood relationship with the glacier. Comfortably fed, the tribe became cordial. Baiel and I had found a touchstone. Whenever we visited the village after that, we always took them food. In less than a week we knew their dialect. It was a very small vocabulary, built chiefly of denotative symbols. Baiel concentrated his attention upon the high priest; I stayed with the tribal Chief. It was a tactical error on my part, since Baiel already knew what he intended to do. I did not. I wasn't aware, then, that the conflict between us had already begun. * * * * * As our degree of communication improved, the various members of the tribe shyly began to express curiosity about us. Our Haydens aroused no interest, except for a vague and superstitious awe. The mechanism of the weapon was entirely beyond their comprehension; they wrote it off as a kind of magic closely allied to the mysteries practiced by their priest. Our garments were of greater significance. The tribe was irresistibly drawn to caress the sleek material, to hold it against their cheeks and chatter excitedly over its unexpected warmth. Once, as we sat in a circle around the fire, the Chief asked me the name of our tribe. "We are Earthmen." "The Earth tribe? I do not know it." "It is not a tribe, but a place." I picked up a handful of soil. "This is earth to you--everything that you see around you. We came from another place like this, a place in the sky." They stared at me blankly. Then one of the young hunters scooped up soil, as I had, and said brightly, "Earth. Yes, your name for the hunting ground. Earth! It is a good name." "No. We are Earthmen!" "Yes, Earthmen--all of us. Not beasts that howl by night and haunt the forest trails. Men. We are men. But also we have a tribe." I tried to make my explanation more explicit. "We came here in a sky carrier which is named the _Olympus_. It rests now up by the great ice wall. There are others like us, too, who may--" I stopped, because one by one they were rising and moving away from me. "You are wrong!" the Chief cried. "Your tribe cannot live by the glacier, on the tabooed ground!"