Mr. Tylor Writes To Me That He "Did Not Quite Begin The Use Of This Good
French Word In The Sense Of The 'man-Child-Bed' As They Call It In
Germany.
It occurs in Rochefort, Iles Antilles, and though Dr.
Murray, of the English Dictionary, maintains that it is spurious,
If so,
it is better than any genuine word I know of." - H.C.] "In certain valleys
of Biscay," says Francisque-Michel, "in which the popular usages carry us
back to the infancy of society, the woman immediately after her delivery
gets up and attends to the cares of the household, whilst the husband
takes to bed with the tender fledgeling in his arms, and so receives the
compliments of his neighbours."
The nearest people to the Zardandan of whom I find this custom elsewhere
recorded, is one called Langszi,[2] a small tribe of aborigines in
the department of Wei-ning, in Kweichau, but close to the border of
Yun-nan: "Their manners and customs are very extraordinary. For example,
when the wife has given birth to a child, the husband remains in the house
and holds it in his arms for a whole month, not once going out of doors.
The wife in the mean time does all the work in doors and out, and provides
and serves up both food and drink for the husband, she only giving suck to
the child." I am informed also that, among the Miris on the Upper Assam
border, the husband on such occasions confines himself strictly to the
house for forty days after the event.
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