breasts, and so far ae resembled a man. But the bones were so flat
and angular that aer flesh presented something of the character of a
crystal, having plane surfaces in place of curves. The body looked
as if it had not been ground down by the sea of ages into smooth and
rounded regularity but had sprung together in angles and facets as
the result of a single, sudden idea. The face too was broken and
irregular. With his racial prejudices, Maskull found little beauty
in it, yet beauty there was, though neither of a masculine nor of a
feminine type, for it had the three essentials of beauty: character,
intelligence, and repose. The skin was copper-coloured and strangely
luminous, as if lighted from within. The face was beardless, but the
hair of the head was as long as a woman's, and, dressed in a single
plait, fell down behind as far as the ankles. Ae possessed only two
eyes. That part of the turban which went across the forehead
protruded so far in front that it evidently concealed some organ.

Maskull found it impossible to compute aer age. The frame appeared
active, vigorous, and healthy, the skin was clear and glowing; the
eyes were powerful and alert--ae might well be in early youth.
Nevertheless, the longer Maskull gazed, the more an impression of
unbelievable ancientness came upon him--aer real youth seemed as far
away as the view observed through a reversed telescope.

At last he addressed the stranger, though it was just as if he were
conversing with a dream. "To what sex do you belong?" he asked.

The voice in which the reply came was neither manly nor womanly, but
was oddly suggestive of a mystical forest horn, heard from a great
distance.