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They were approaching the campsite, perhaps a fewfro closer, they saw several young es, and froht they were mostly from the Fifth Cave Each one held a spear, and they were spaced out in a rough circle, in the y coat and two huge horns protruding from his snout

It was a woolly rhinoceros, a th and five feet high He was a ponderous beast, with short, thick, stubby legs to support his irasses, herbs, and brush of the steppes, as well as the twigs and branches of evergreens and s that lined the banks of the rivers His nostrils were partitioned, and his eyes were on the sides of his head He could not see well, especially in front, but his senses of s to ht

The front one of his two horns wasas it swept the ground in an arc from side to side In winter he could use it to sweep snoay and expose the dried, recuht grayish-brown fleece covered his body, with longer outer hair hanging down, nearly brushing the ground A wide distinctive band of fur around the ht, as though someone had covered hi such a tremendously powerful, unpredictable, soerous animal

The woolly rhinoceros pawed the ground, turning his head fro man that his sensitive nose told hiround until, at the very lasthorn of the rhinoceros barely missed him

“That looks dangerous,” Ayla said as they pulled up the horses a safe distance away

“That’s why they’re doing it,” Jondalar said “Woolly rhinos are difficult to hunt under any circumstances They are mean tempered and unpredictable”

“Like Broud,” Ayla said “The woolly rhino was his totem The Clan ?”

“They’re baiting hie, then they dodge ahen he co to see who can let the rhino come closest before they jump aside The bravest is the one who can feel the beast brush past as he charges It’s usually young men who like to hunt rhinoceros like that,” Jondalar explained

“If they kill one, they give the et lots of praise for it Then they share the other parts, but the one who gets credited with the kill gets first choice He will usually take the horn The horns are prized, they say, fortools, knife handles, and such, but more likely it’s for other reasons Probably because its shape reserinding up the horn and secretly giving it to a woave it to her,” Jondalar said with a smile

“The meat is not bad, and there’s a lot of fat under that heavy coat,” Ayla said “It’s rare to see one, though”

“Especially this time of year,” Jondalar said “Woolly rhinos are solitary animals most of the time, and usually scarce around here in suh they shed the soft fur under the long outer hair every spring It gets caught in bushes before they leaf out, and people like to go out and collect it, particularly weavers and basket-o

with my mother We did it several times a year She knohen all the animals shed, ibex and mouflon, musk-ox, even horses and lions, and of course, mammoths and woolly rhinos”

“Have you ever baited a rhinoceros, Jondalar?”

TheThey bait lots of animals like that, aurochs bulls and bison, but they like to bait rhinos best Some women do, too Jetamio did, the time I showed them how to hunt a rhino She was the Sharaood at it They didn’t usually hunt rhinos They hunted the huge sturgeon of the Great Mother River froh in the mountains, which are very hard to hunt, but they didn’t know the techniques to hunt woolly rhinos” He paused and looked sad “It was because of a rhino that we ored by one, and they saved his life”

They watched as the youngout in the open shouting and waving his are The animal’s usually keen sense of smell was confused by so many men arrayed around hihted eyes, he started in that direction, gaining speed as he drew closer to his antagonist For all his short legs, the animal could move remarkably fast He lowered his head a bit as he neared, preparing to ram his massive horn into a resistive mass It encountered air instead as the man deftly spun around and moved aside It took a e had been in vain and slow to a halt