Glade and Ivory Ch. 24

Glade had no idea what these people's spiritual views, but she could see that they were held both deeply and profoundly. She didn't know whether they worshipped the spirits of the forest or the spirits of their ancestors. Did they worship deities much more diverse as did Demure's tribe? There was no physical representation of what they worshipped. Perhaps it was something immanent, omnipresent and mystical. But whatever it was, they expressed their spiritual faith by meditation and contemplation.

Initially what Glade thought was most characteristic of her saviours was their pale skin, but later she discovered that virtually everyone in the North had a similarly anaemic complexion. What was truly distinct about the Red Haired People was their spiritual calm. And it was the associated virtues of patience, forbearance and contemplation that Glade remembered so fondly in these people but practiced so poorly herself that Chief Cave Lion would have benefited from when he and his hunters first stumbled across the Cave Painters.

Had he done so then subsequent events might well have gone rather better.