ery long lives, no disease, and a social lubrication
that left little to desire--from their viewpoint, anyway.

The government was, nominally, a monarchy. The Kings were elected by
the people and were a different species than the group each ruled.
Ssassaror ruled Human, and vice versa, each assisted by
foster-brothers and sisters of the race over which they reigned. These
were the so-called Dukes and Duchesses.

The Chamber of Deputies--_L'Syawp t' Tapfuti_--was half Human and half
Ssassaror. The so-called Kings took turns presiding over the Chamber
for forty day intervals. The Deputies were elected for ten-year terms
by constituents who could not be deceived about their representatives'
purposes because of the sensitive Skins which allowed them to
determine their true feelings and worth.

In one custom alone did the ex-Terrans differ from their neighbors.
This was in carrying arms. In the beginning, the Ssassaror had allowed
the Men to wear their short rapiers, so they would feel safe even
though in the midst of aliens.

As time went on, only the King's mucketeers--and members of the
official underground--were allowed to carry epees. These men, it might
be noticed, were the congenital adventurers, men who needed to
swashbuckle and revel in the name of individualist.

Like the egg-stealers, they needed an institution in which they could
work off anti-social steam.

From the beginning the Amphibians had been a little separate from the
Ssassaror and when the Earthmen came they did not get any more
neighborly. Nevertheless, they preserved excellent relations and they,
too, participated in the Changeling-custom.

This Changeling-custom was another social device set up millennia ago
to keep a mutual understanding between all species on the planet. It
was a peculiar institution, one that the Earthmen had found hard to
understand and ever more difficult to adopt. Nevertheless, once the
Skins had been accepted they had changed their attitude, forgot their
speculations about its origin and threw themselves into the custom of
stealing babies--or eggs--from another race and raising the children
as their own.

_You rob my cradle; I'll rob yours._ Such was their motto, and it
worked.

A Guild of Egg Stealers was formed. The Human branch of it guaranteed,
for a price, to bring you a Ssassaror child to replace the one that
had been stolen from you. Or, if you lived on the sea-shore, and an
Amphibian had crept into your nur