"I was frightened," replied Nat-ul—"yes; but I was more frightened by the dream I had after the shaking had stopped."
"What did you dream?" cried Ra-el, daughter of Kor—Kor who made the truest spear heads, with which a strong man could strike a flying reptile in mid-air.
"I dreamed that I was not Nat-ul," replied the girl. "I dreamed of a strange world and strange people. I was one of them. I was clothed in many garments that were not skin at all. I lived in a cave that was not a cave—it was built upon the ground of the stuff of which trees are made, only cut into thin slabs and fastened together. There were many caves in the one cave.
"There were men and women, and some of the men were black."
"Black!" echoed the other girls.
"Yes, black," insisted Nat-ul. "And they alone were garbed something as are our men. The white men wore strange garments and things upon their heads, and had no beards. They carried short spears that spit smoke and great noise out upon their enemies and the wild beasts, and slew them at a great distance."
"And was Nu, the son of Nu, there?" asked Ra-el, tittering behind her hand.
"He came and took me away," replied Nat-ul, gravely. "And at night the earth shook as we slept in the cave of Oo. And when I awoke I was here in the cave of Tha, my father."
"Nu has not returned," said Una.
Nat-ul looked at her inquiringly.