A garment covers the front of the body because there are vanes on the back. A hunter, surveying the country from the back of a large, rhinoceros-like onsar, sees quarry and glides towards it. Before domesticating onsars, Ramnuans were confined to forests and hills but now range across the large prairies and veldts.
The vanes are sense organs and are also used for body language like Ythrian feathers. A Ramunuan face is platyrrhine and prognathous. Ramnuans are carnivores but not obligate ones.
Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 1-188 AT VII, pp. 102-103.
Yewwl points with her ears. (p. 110) She snaps her vanes open and shut to show that she has stopped addressing a meeting. (p. 116)
For other information about Ramnu, see here.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Ugh! Just thinking of trying to move around on a planet with a gravity 7.5 times that of Terra makes me tired! And humans can only do so for short times despite taking medicines for high gravity and using machines. And I assume the ultra dense atmosphere of a high gravity world is what enabled Ramnuans to glide.
If a Ramnuan ever visited Hermes or Terra, the gravity would probably not only feel amazingly light but might endanger his health, over longer times.
Sean
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