SOME REMARKABLE CUSTOMS. 289 



lieve suflfers no less ttan if he were burnt alive ; however^ he 

 must not utter a single word if lie will not pass for a coward 

 and a wretch. This ceremony finished, they bring him back 

 to his bed, where he remains some days more, and the rest go 

 and make good cheer in the house at his expense. Nor is this 

 all, for through the space of six whole months he eats neither 

 birds nor fish, firmly believing that this would injure the child's 

 stomach, and that it would participate in the natural faults of 

 the animals on which its father had fed ; for example, if the 

 father ate turtle, the child would be deaf and have no brains 

 like this animal, if he ate manati, the child would have little 

 round eyes like this creature, and so on with the rest.^'^ 



The Abate Gilij, after mentioning the wide prevalence of 

 the fasting of the father on the birth of the child, among the 

 tribes of the east side of South America, goes on as follows : — 

 " But I know not if the cause is equally well known, why the 

 Indians fast in such manner. I in the very beginning of my 

 stay among them had the opportunity of discovering it, and 

 this was how it happened. A fortified house having to be 

 built for the soldiers to live in, as was usual for the defence 

 not of the missionaries alone, but also of the reduced Indians, 

 the Tamanacs, they being still gentiles, were summoned by 

 the corporal Ermengildo Leale to work at it, and it was noticed 

 that a certain Maracajuri, when the work was done, went away 

 fasting, without even tasting a mouthful. ' What, has he no 

 appetite ?' asked Leale in surprise. ' To be sure he has,' re- 

 joined the other Indians, ' but his wife has had a child to-day, 

 so he must not make use of these victuals, for the little boy 

 would die.' ' But when our wives are brought to bed,' said 

 the corporal, ' we eat more abundantly and more joyously than 

 usual, and our children do not die of it.' ' But you are Span- 

 iards,' the fools replied, ' and if your eating does no harm to 

 your babies, you may be sure, nevertheless, that it is most 

 hurtful to ours.' It may be easily imagined what laughter 



' Du Tertre, Hist. Gen. des Antilles habitees par les Fran^ais ; Paris, 1667, 

 Tol. ii. p. 371, etc. See Eochefort, Hist. Nat. et Mor. des lies des Antilles ; Rot- 

 terdam, 1665, 2nd ed. p. 550. It seems from his account that the very severe 

 fasting was only for the first child, that for the others being slight. 



U 



