country. There has
not been a man among us for two thousand years."

Her look was clear and truthful and she did not advance this astonishing
statement as if it was astonishing, but quite as a matter of fact.

"But--the people--the children," he protested, not believing her in the
least, but not wishing to say so.

"Oh yes," she smiled. "I do not wonder you are puzzled. We are
mothers--all of us--but there are no fathers. We thought you would ask
about that long ago--why have you not?" Her look was as frankly kind as
always, her tone quite simple.

Terry explained that we had not felt sufficiently used to the language,
making rather a mess of it, I thought, but Jeff was franker.

"Will you excuse us all," he said, "if we admit that we find it hard to
believe? There is no such--possibility--in the rest of the world."

"Have you no kind of life where it is possible?" asked Zava.

"Why, yes--some low forms, of course."

"How low--or how high, rather?"

"Well--there are some rather high forms of insect life in which it
occurs. Parthenogenesis, we call it--that means virgin birth."

She could not follow him.

"BIRTH, we know, of course; but what is VIRGIN?"

Terry looked uncomfortable, but Jeff met the question quite calmly.
"Among mating animals, the term VIRGIN is applied to the female who has
not mated," he answered.

"Oh, I see. And does it apply to the male also? Or is there a different
term for him?"

He passed this over rather hurriedly, saying that the same term would
apply, but was seldom used.

"No?" she said. "But one cannot mate without the other surely. Is not
each then--virgin--before mating? And, tell me, have you any forms of
life in which there is birth from a father only?"

"I know of none," he answered, and I inquired seriously.

"You ask us to believe that for two thousand years there have been only
women here, and only girl babies born?"

"Exactly," answered Somel, nodding gravely. "Of course we know that
among other animals it is not so, that there are fathers as well as
mothers; and we see that you are fathers, that you come from a people
who are of both kinds. We have been waiting, you see, for you to be able
to speak freely with us, and teach us about your country and the rest of
the world. You know so much, you see, and we know only our own land."

In the course of our previous studies we had been at some pains to tell
them about the big world outside, to draw sketches, maps,