47 "What you say," muttered Brown Goat, "makes no
sense at all. Your children can bear yours and your mate's blood, but
how can the other children bear his blood, if they're not born of some
other woman? And a man cannot know a man and still be honorable, he can
only know a woman and be....OH, MY LORDS!"
48 Brown Goat got up from his seat and turned around. "It can't be!" he
gasped. "They're NOT his children because he fathered them, they're HIS
children because he mothered them! The other man has known no shame because he has known him as a woman! Are you telling
me that he's a man that can father your children, and, a woman that can
bear a man's?"
49 The woman nodded. "Yes, Lord. He is more of a man than any of my
brothers, yet as much of a woman as any of my sisters."
50 Brown Goat paced back and forth. "How?" he continued, "How can it
be?"
51 "Beneath his manhood, Lord, is a womanhood, the same as mine. When
he was born, there was a crease there, and with each shedding it grew
deeper. Many men have such creases. Nothing was thought of it.
52 But then, when he was a little over ten seasons old, and playing
with his friends, he felt it split. He paid it little heed, thinking it
had merely deepened, but then, when he shed his skin, its shape
changed. And when it shed again, there was no question what it was. And
even before that, he had burned for the first time.
53 Now, for a girl the first burning can be bad enough, but for him it
was horror. A girl could go to her mother, and a mother could teach her
to do things that would help her, but he could go to no one. If any