"We have pride enough in our work."
"Then why not in your children?" urged Jeff.
"But we have! We're magnificently proud of them," she insisted.
"Then why not sign 'em?" said Terry triumphantly.
Moadine turned to him with her slightly quizzical smile.
"Because the finished product is not a private one. When they are
babies, we do speak of them, at times, as `Essa's Lato,' or `Novine's
Amel'; but that is merely descriptive and conversational. In the records,
of course, the child stands in her own line of mothers; but in dealing
with it personally it is Lato, or Amel, without dragging in its ancestors."
"But have you names enough to give a new one to each child?"
"Assuredly we have, for each living generation."
Then they asked about our methods, and found first that
"we" did so and so, and then that other nations did differently.
Upon which they wanted to know which method has been
proved best--and we had to admit that so far as we knew there
had been no attempt at comparison, each people pursuing its own
custom in the fond conviction of superiority, and either despising
or quite ignoring the others.
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