128 Origin of tic American Nations, 



choofe rather to remove to a diftance, and to leave to the rel- 

 iefs fpirit the whole hut, in which they imagine it refides, or 

 eli'e they deftroy it. The very thought, therefore, of a de- 

 ceafed perfon is difagreeable to thefe people; his name is 

 never uttered ; and if any perfon of the tribe has the fame 

 name, he is obliged to lay it afide, and to aftume another. In 

 this manner, a deceafed perfon among them is like one who 

 never was in the world ; his hiftory and genealogy cannot, 

 therefore, be far extended. 



5. Hujhand affuming the Place of bis Wife when delivered 

 of a Child, 



We are told by Strabo, that the men in the northern part 

 of Spain, after the delivery of their wives, went to bed, and 

 fufTered themfelves to be nurfed by them. This cuftom ftil! 

 exifts in fome of the provinces of France bordering on Spain, 

 where it is called making a couvade. The fame thing is re- 

 lated by Diodorus Siculus of the Corficans, and by Apollo- 

 nius Rhodius of the Tibarenes, a people inhabiting the coafl: 

 of the Pontus Euxinus, in Afia Minor. Marco Polo, fpeak- 

 ing of a province which in the French tranflation is called 

 Arcladam or Ardandam, fays that the women left their bed 

 as foon after delivery as poilible, and that the men then took 

 their place, where they remained for forty days, and nurfed 

 the new-born child. This cuftom is faid to be ufual, alfo, 

 among the Japanefe. 



When the Carib women in Guiana are delivered, the men 

 bind up their head and place themfelves in bed, as if feized 

 with the pains of labour. They are then vifited by their 

 neighbours, who confole them by all thofe means ufual 

 among thefe people. This cuftom muft: always be ftrictly 

 obferved ; for, even when engaged in war, as foon as they 

 hear of the delivery of their wives they muft return home. 

 We are told by Labat, that the father of the child, on this 

 occafion, muft: obferve a ftric~t fafl for thirty or forty days j 

 but he adds, that this ceremony is praclifed only in regard to 

 the firft-born, otherwife, fays he, the poor hufbands, who 

 have five or fix wives, would be obliged to keep more fafts 

 than the Capuchins. This account is confirmed by Fermin 

 in his defcription of Surinam, but he fays nothing of the ftrict 

 fading which muft be obferved by the father of the child. 

 Pifo, a Dutch phyfician, fays, that the women among the 

 Brazilian favages, when they find the pains of labour ap- 

 proaching, go out into the woods to cut the umbilical cord of 

 the child with a (hell, which they boil and eat; and that the 

 hufbands, in the mean time, go to bed and ufe the belt food 



they 



