As soon as an infant is able to walk it is permitted to
run about with great freedom.
The mother is not over solicitous to
preserve it from slight falls and other trifling accidents. A
little practice soon enables a child to take care of itself, and
experience acts the part of a nurse. As they advance in life the
girls are taught to spin cotton and to beat corn, and are instructed
in other domestic duties; and the boys are employed in the labours
of the field. Both sexes, whether bushreens or kafirs, on attaining
the age of puberty, are circumcised. This painful operation is not
considered by the kafirs so much in the light of a religious
ceremony as a matter of convenience and utility. They have, indeed,
a superstitious notion that it contributes to render the marriage
state prolific. The operation is performed upon several young
people at the same time, all of whom are exempted from every sort of
labour for two months afterwards. During this period they form a
society called solimana. They visit the towns and villages in the
neighbourhood, where they dance and sing, and are well treated by
the inhabitants. I had frequently, in the course of my journey,
observed parties of this description, but they were all males. I
had, however, an opportunity of seeing a female solimana at Kamalia.
In the course of this celebration it frequently happens that some of
the young women get married.
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