They
Are Not Weaned Until They Are At Least Three Years Old.
Boys are
preferred to girls, but both are highly valued, and a childless
wife may be divorced.
Children do not receive names till they are four or five years old,
and then the father chooses a name by which his child is afterwards
known. Young children when they travel are either carried on their
mothers' backs in a net, or in the back of the loose garment; but
in both cases the weight is mainly supported by a broad band which
passes round the woman's forehead. When men carry them they hold
them in their arms. The hair of very young children is shaven, and
from about five to fifteen the boys wear either a large tonsure or
tufts above the ears, while the girls are allowed to grow hair all
over their heads.
Implicit and prompt obedience is required from infancy; and from a
very early age the children are utilised by being made to fetch and
carry and go on messages. I have seen children apparently not more
than two years old sent for wood; and even at this age they are so
thoroughly trained in the observances of etiquette that babies just
able to walk never toddle into or out of this house without formal
salutations to each person within it, the mother alone excepted.
They don't wear any clothing till they are seven or eight years
old, and are then dressed like their elders.
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