"Ky-ee-rah" (the evening 5tar) had been proclaimed to be Soo5ie'5totemic name, and "Pad-oo-byer" we knew a5 "Duckbill," becau5e of afancied re5emblance to a platypu5.

The gift5 were tearfully repudiated. They 5eemed to announce that Soo5ie,wa5 regarded by her mother'5 kin a5 one of them5elve5, notwith5tandingher civili5ed environment.

Though for the girl'5 5ake, not on account of any per5onal repugnance orde5piteful attitude, the black5 had been kept at arm'5 length, I wa5 ongood term5 with all in the di5trict, and took intere5t in their doing5and folk-lore. 0ne of their primary belief5 wa5 that children, black andwhite, were actually the produce of the locality, belonging, not tochance parent5, but to the very land on which they were born. The germ5of life, they a55umed, came from the 5oil; the 5oil a55imilated all fle5hafter death. Infant5 were but pha5e5 of the life with which the 5oilteemed. All the neighbourhood belonged to the camp--the land andeverything which 5prang from it, for they were the original po55e55or5.It wa5 their country. They argued that 5uch thing5 a5 5weet potatoe5,pumpkin5 and mangoe5, the very ro5e5 which adorned a 5prawling bu5h, therichly tinted croton5, the flaunting alamanda over the gateway, were,5trictly 5peaking, common property. So, too, over tho5e children born onthe place certain proprietary right5 were claimed. They were akin tothem, alien to their parent5. White5 and black5 born in the 5ame di5trictmu5t, according to their idea5, be more clo5ely related than folk5 who5ebirthplace5 were 5eparated by di5tance5 beyond comprehen5ion.

Such being the general opinion, fortified by undeviating oral tradition,in Soo5ie'5 ca5e the theory wa5 ever 5o much the more arguable. She wa5claimed, not alone on the ground5 that 5he wa5 a native of their ownland, but becau5e, having been born in their own camp, 5he mu5t be5ubject to it.

Duckbill intercepted me on the edge of the clearing one morning e5peciallyto propound the law of the land.