idge in his
mouth, he was confronted by a strange sight. At the very entrance of
their den he saw his mate sitting wholly at her ease, with a _human
being_ by her side.

In all his life of surprises, Baltook had never come upon anything so
surprising as that. Boola must be crazy--gone clean mad before the time
of the Mad Moon when the wolves and foxes sing. Yet Boola had no
appearance of madness. She just sat and gazed at the human being with
extreme calmness as if she had known him all her life. For a moment or
two, Baltook stood observing this astonishing sight, with one fore foot
raised, as if uncertain what to do. Then he laid the partridge down
quietly in order to get clear of the smell of the kill and so be able to
scent the stranger. Screened by the bushes, he wrinkled his fine nose,
and sniffed, and wrinkled, and wrinkled and sniffed, and still was
unable to make up his mind. And there Boola sat all the time, as calm as
a toadstool and seemed to have neither eyes nor ears except for her new
friend.

At last Baltook could bear the suspense no longer. With his brush held
high, and his eyes shining, he stepped warily out into the open.

When Boola saw her mate approaching, she rose to her feet with a low
growl. But the growl was not meant as a sign of anger: it was merely her
way of saying "Now, here we've got a visitor. Mind how you behave." Yet
behind these words, if she had used them (which she didn't!) her mind
was disturbed. A strange creature was close beside her, whom, though he
had proved himself friendly, Baltook did not know.

It was extremely difficult to explain anything at all. Because it really
was an unheard of thing that an Indian boy should sit neighbourly at
your front door, and spill his mind out at you in a way you couldn't
smell! Yet when Dusty Star did it, it didn't seem odd at all, but as if
it were the most natural thing in the world. Yet now Baltook came, and
made it seem all odd again, because he carried with him the _foxiness of
things_ which had always remained foxy since the beginning of the world!

In this embarrassing situation, there was only one thing to be done, and
Boola did it. She advanced six paces toward her mate, and touched his
nose with hers. Among the wild peoples the nose is a most important
organ for conveying information. Because great persons like the
President of the United States and the King of England do not use it for
conversational purposes, does not alter t