The Negro Women Suckle Their Children Until They Are Able To Walk Of
Themselves.
Three years nursing is not uncommon; and during this period
the husband devotes his whole attention to his other wives.
To this
practice it is owing, I presume, that the family of each wife is seldom
very numerous. Few women have more than five or six children. 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 the
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
_Solimanu_. 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 294 of 546
Words from 80029 to 80306
of 148366
