Ishtar, like several planets in Anderson's Technic History (see here), is inhabited by more than one intelligent species. Anderson helps us to imagine coexistence of different rational species as a norm of life.
"...Larreka glimpsed a small flyer parked in a shed. Ng-ng, we've got a human visitor, he thought. I wonder who." (p. 137)
"The room was chiefly floor space, a long table, mattresses strewn about, some chairs for occasional humans." (p. 138)
"Presently he was sprawled on a mattress beside Meroa, his pipe alight, a mug of hot spiced jackfruit cider to hand. A couple of family elders lay nearby." (p. 140)
(Quadrupeds smoke pipes and drink cider but lie on mattresses instead of sitting on chairs.)
"'Who's our human guest?' he asked.
"'Jill Conway,' Meroa said." (ibid.)
Larreka knows Jill and so do we. She has been a viewpoint character but now is discussed by Ishtarians. Human lives are so short that an Ishtarian must befriend a human bloodline rather than a single individual.
A man from Earth is surprised that the Ishtarians have not exterminated the semi-intelligent species, their equivalent of Australopithecus, but Jill tells him that:
"'Ishtarians wouldn't. Not even the most warlike barbarians have our casual human bloodthirstiness. For instance, nobody has ever tortured prisoners for fun or massacred them for convenience. You probably think of the Gathering of Sehala as a sort of empire. It isn't. Civilization has developed without any need for the state. After all, the Ishtarians are a more advanced form of life than us.'" (p. 82) See here, here and here.
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