Consider Her Ways by Frederick Philip Grove

The first notice I received of the presence of man in these parts came from reports given by Assa-ree; it consisted in no more than a casual mention of the fact that a small colony, comprising some 500 individuals, was located on a bold cliff overjutting the sea.

I commissioned Assa-ree to reconnoitre; and her second report was more detailed. The colony consisted of a number of dusky individuals whose integuments were scanty and bright in colour. They were given to rapid and incomprehensible chatterings resembling those of monkeys in our native woods. I had a curious suspicion that these chatterings might conceivably represent their method of communication; for the widely attested fact of a social life, with its division of labour, presupposed some such power. Among these darker men lived one individual differing markedly from the others, both in colour of facial skin and in integuments. The latter Assa-ree described as pure white in colour and fine in texture, apart from his hind-feet which were encased in an ectoskeleton of bright brown and of considerable hardness. He--it was a male--must have occupied a leading position among the rest; for a number of the dusky individuals seemed to wait on him much as certain adult workers of ours wait on Her Majesty. His abode consisted of a number of lofty and spacious chambers one of which contained large cases of a transparent, rock-like substance filled with glittering, uncanny-looking things of unknown purpose.