Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Nay, More, They Affirm That Two Children Born At The Same Time
Cannot Belong To The Same Father.
This is an axiom of physiology among
the Salives; and in every zone, and in different states of society,
when the vulgar seize upon an axiom, they adhere to it with more
stedfastness than the better-informed men by whom it was first
hazarded.
To avoid the disturbance of conjugal tranquillity, the old
female relations of the mother take care, that when twins are born one
of them shall disappear. If a new-born infant, though not a twin, have
any physical deformity, the father instantly puts it to death. They
will have none but robust and well-made children, for deformities
indicate some influence of the evil spirit Ioloquiamo, or the bird
Tikitiki, the enemy of the human race. Sometimes children of a feeble
constitution undergo the same fate. When the father is asked what is
become of one of his sons, he will pretend that he has lost him by a
natural death. He will disavow an action that appears to him
blameable, but not criminal. "The poor boy," he will tell you, "could
not follow us; we must have waited for him every moment; he has not
been seen again; he did not come to sleep where we passed the night."
Such is the candour and simplicity of manners - such the boasted
happiness - of man in the state of nature! He kills his son to escape
the ridicule of having twins, or to avoid journeying more slowly; in
fact, to avoid a little inconvenience.
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