am the child of thy wife, Miami, and after I was born she hid me that
I might not be cast into the river. I have been living with grandmamma,
who nursed me, and by the number of banana-stalks in her garden thou
mayest tell the number of the seasons that have passed since my birth.
One day she told me the time had come, and she sent me to seek my
father; and I embarked in the canoe with four servants, and the river
bore me to this land."

"Well," said Gumbi, "when I return home I shall question Miami, and I
shall soon discover the truth of thy story; but meantime, what must I do
for thee?"

"My grandmamma said that thou must sacrifice a goat to the meeting of
the daughter with the father," she replied.

Then the king requested her to step on the shore, and when he saw the
flash of her yellow feet, and the gleams of her body, which were like
shining bright gum, and gazed on the clear, smooth features, and looked
into the wondrous black eyes, Gumbi's heart melted and he was filled
with pride that such a surpassingly beautiful creature should be his own
daughter.

But she refused to set her feet on the shore until another goat had been
sacrificed, for her grandmother had said ill-luck would befall her if
these ceremonies were neglected.

Therefore the king commanded that two goats should be slain, one for the
meeting with his daughter, and one to drive away ill-luck from before
her in the land where she would first rest her feet.

When this had been done, she said, "Now, father, it is not meet that thy
recovered daughter should soil her feet on the path to her father's
house. Thou must lay a grass-cloth along the ground all the way to my
mother's door."

The king thereupon ordered a grass-cloth to be spread along the path
towards the women's quarters, but he did not mention to which doorway.
His daughter then moved forward, the king by her side, until they came
in view of all the king's wives, and then Gumbi cried out to them--"One
of you, I am told, is the mother of this girl. Look on her, and be not
ashamed to own her, for she is as perfect as the egg. At the first
sight of her I felt like a man filled with pleasantness, so let the
mother come forward and claim her, and let her not destroy herself with
a lie."

Now all the women bent forward and longed to say, "She is mine, she is
mine!" but Miami, who was ill and weak, sat at the door, and said--

"Continue the matting to my doorway, for as I feel my heart