As we became better acquainted with the cave dwellers we found that they
were by no means as savage as they looked. Their appearance was certainly
grotesque, and even unaccountable. Why, for instance, should their heads
have been covered with coarse black disordered hair while their bodies,
from the neck down, were almost beautiful with a natural raiment of
golden white, as soft as silk and as brilliant as floss? I never could
explain it, and Edmund was no less puzzled by this peculiarity. The
immense size of their eyes did not seem astonishing after we began to
reflect upon the consequences of the relative lack of light in their
world. It was but a natural adjustment to their environment; with such
eyes they could see in the dark better than cats. Their feet were bare
and covered on the soles with thick soft skin, while the insides of their
long hands were almost as white and delicate as those of a human being.
Their intelligence was sufficiently demonstrated by the construction of
the hundreds of rocky steps leading from the caverns to the surface of
the ground, and by their employment of fire, and manufacture of the
metallic braziers which contained it.
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