56 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



soul-bird with an egg. 1 So in the Murray Islands 

 women eat pigeons, females to get girls and males to 

 get boys. 2 



In England the belief in the consumption of certain 

 kinds of animal food as a cause of pregnancy seems to 

 have survived into modern times. I quote from a 

 letter written to me by a lady who has herself made 

 valuable contributions to anthropology : "Mrs. G., a 

 charwoman who worked for me in 1876, and who lived 

 with her husband in a street leading out of Theobald's 

 Row, W.C., told me that she and her husband had 

 been married for some years, and had given up all 

 hope of having children, when she, at the instance of 

 her husband's mother (who lived in the same house 

 with them), determined to try other than lawful means. 

 She went out one evening, and, at a butcher's shop 

 some long distance from where she lived, contrived to 

 steal two sausages, which she ate raw then and there in 

 a side-turning off the street, her mother-in-law keeping 

 guard for fear of detection, in fact keeping the butcher 

 in talk while her daughter-in-law stole and ate the 

 articles. This action was kept a profound secret from 

 the husband until the means adopted were found to be 

 effectual. A boy was born at the proper period of time, 

 or, as Mrs. G. said, that day nine months ; and he was 

 fat and roily like a sausage! Unfortunately he died 

 soon afterwards. Perhaps this was not surprising, as 

 he was given a small piece of sausage to eat after 

 his birth. The reason assigned for this was that he 

 might not be too fond of sausages as he grew up, 

 refuse other food, and so 'pine away.' His mother 



1 Skeat and Blagden, ii. 3, 4, 6, quoting Var^han -Stevens. 

 1 Haddon, Torres Sir Rep. vi. 105. 



