Couvade Is Such A Wide-Spread
Institution, That I Had Often Read And Wondered At It; But It Was Not
Until I saw it practised around me, and found that I was often suddenly
deprived of the services of my
Best hunters or boat-hands, by the
necessity which they felt, and which nothing could persuade them to
disregard, of observing couvade, that I realized its full strangeness.
No satisfactory explanation of its origin seems attainable. It appears
based on a belief in the existence of a mysterious connection between the
child and its father-far closer than that which exists between the child
and its mother, - and of such a nature that if the father infringes any of
the rules of the couvade, for a time after the birth of the child, the
latter suffers. For instance, if he eats the flesh of a water-haas
(Capybara), a large rodent with very protruding teeth, the teeth of the
child will grow as those of the animal; or if he eats the flesh of the
spotted-skinned labba, the child's skin will become spotted. Apparently
there is also some idea that for the father to eat strong food, to wash,
to smoke, or to handle weapons, would have the same result as if the
new-born babe ate such food, washed, smoked, or played with edged tools"
(pp. 217-219.)
I have to thank Dr. Edward B. Tylor for the valuable notes he kindly sent
me. - H.C.]
NOTE 5. - "The abundance of gold in Yun-nan is proverbial in China, so
that if a man lives very extravagantly they ask if his father is governor
of Yun-nan." (Martini, p. 140.)
Polo has told us that in Eastern Yun-nan the exchange was 8 of silver for
one of gold (ch. xlviii.); in the Western division of the province 6 of
silver for one of gold (ch. xlix.); and now, still nearer the borders of
Ava, only 5 of silver for one of gold. Such discrepancies within 15 days'
journey would be inconceivable, but that in both the latter instances at
least he appears to speak of the rates at which the gold was purchased
from secluded, ignorant, and uncivilised tribes. It is difficult to
reconcile with other facts the reason which he assigns for the high value
put on silver at Vochan, viz., that there was no silver-mine within five
months' journey. In later days, at least, Martini speaks of many
silver-mines in Yun-nan, and the "Great Silver Mine" (Bau-dwen gyi of the
Burmese) or group of mines, which affords a chief supply to Burma in modern
times, is not far from the territory of our Traveller's Zardandan.
Garnier's map shows several argentiferous sites in the Valley of the
Lan-t'sang.
In another work[3] I have remarked at some length on the relative values
of gold and silver about this time. In Western Europe these seem to have
been as 12 to 1, and I have shown grounds for believing that in India, and
generally over civilised Asia, the ratio was 10 to 1.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 101 of 701
Words from 51872 to 52392
of 370046
