Dr. Tylor, In The Third Edition Of His Valuable Early
History Of Mankind, Published In 1878 (Murray), Since The Last Edition Of
The Book Of Ser Marco Polo, Has Added (Pp.
291 seqq.) many more proofs
to support what he had already said on the subject.
There may be some strong doubts as to the couvade in the south of
France, and the authors who speak of it in Bearn and the Basque Countries
seem to have copied one another, but there is not the slightest doubt of
its having been and of its being actually practised in South America.
There is a very curious account of it in the Voyage dans le Nord du
Bresil made by Father Yves d'Evreux in 1613 and 1614 (see pp. 88-89 of
the reprint, Paris, 1864, and the note of the learned Ferdinand Denis, pp.
411-412). Compare with Durch Central-Brasilien ... im Jahre 1884 von
K.v. den Steinen. But the following extract from Among the Indians of
Guiana.... By Everard im Thurn (1883), will settle, I think, the
question:
"Turning from the story of the day to the story of the life, we may begin
at the beginning, that is, at the birth of the children. And here, at
once, we meet with, perhaps, the most curious point in the habits of the
Indians; the couvade or male child-bed. This custom, which is common to
the uncivilized people of many parts of the world, is probably among the
strangest ever invented by the human brain. Even before the child is born,
the father abstains for a time from certain kinds of animal food. The
woman works as usual up to a few hours before the birth of the child. At
last she retires alone, or accompanied only by some other women, to the
forest, where she ties up her hammock; and then the child is born. Then in
a few hours - often less than a day - the woman, who, like all women living
in a very unartificial condition, suffers but little, gets up and resumes
her ordinary work. According to Schomburgk, the mother, at any rate among
the Macusis, remains in her hammock for some time, and the father hangs
his hammock, and lies in it, by her side; but in all cases where the
matter came under my notice, the mother left her hammock almost at once.
In any case, no sooner is the child born than the father takes to his
hammock and, abstaining from every sort of work, from meat and all other
food, except weak gruel of cassava meal, from smoking, from washing
himself, and, above all, from touching weapons of any sort, is nursed and
cared for by all the women of the place. One other regulation, mentioned
by Schomburgk, is certainly quaint; the interesting father may not scratch
himself with his finger-nails, but he may use for this purpose a splinter,
specially provided, from the mid-rib of a cokerite palm. This continues
for many days, and sometimes even weeks.
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