A daur has a branch with petals instead of a head, tendrils below the branch and three eyes in the middle of its body. It bleeds thin ichor. Dauri eat plants and small animals that "mortals" cannot. They trill and squeal. When Arnanak, uniquely, helped and possibly befriended a daur, he and it managed to exchange only a few "'...signs and noises.'" (p. 55) Arnanak did not learn which pronoun was appropriate for the daur. Dauri uses tools of stone or bone but not metal. Nearly always, "mortals" and dauri live in different regions of Ishtar with the former rarely seeing the former and then regarding them as supernatural. This sounds peculiar. I remember from previous readings that the explanation is that the dauri have come to Ishtar from another planet although this still has not emerged at the present stage of the narrative. However, extraplanetary origin is sufficient to explain the total dissimilarity in body shapes and chemistries. They can neither digest nor poison each other. They are mutually alien. Thus, Ishtarians interact with dauri and Terrestrials while at the same time Terrestrials fight Naqsa and formerly fought Aleriona. Terrestrials have also colonized Gea which has native inhabitants. This fictional galaxy is becoming crowded.
(On Talwin in the Technic History, one intelligent species regards the other as supernatural.)
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