Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/58

 46 The Indians of the hsd-Japiird Disti'ict.

Should several unfortunate births occur at any time it would certainly lead to war, as the tribe would attribute the evil to the hostile magic of some foe. After bathing, the mother and infant return to the inaloka, and the father retires to his hammock' to play the part of interesting invalid. In no part of my district is the couvade carried out with the rigour described b}' Dr. Crevaux and Sir Everard im Thurn. The Boro, who are in every way more punctilious than the Witoto, observe it most strictly ; but the \\oxo father is not put to torture. He lies in his hammock for some three weeks, and till the child's navel is^ healed he must not hunt, nor even touch a weapon, and must not partake of foods that were previously tabu to his wife, (that is to say, he may not eat the tlesh of any hunted animal, and so must practicalU' forego his share in the famil}' hot-pot). The penalty for int'ringement of the tabu on the part of father or mother is that the infant will be either deformed or malignant. The mother goes back next day to her work in the plantation, only returning to feed the baby at night; while the father receives congratulatory visits from his friends, talks, drinks, and licks tobacco with them. Tobacco, I may note here, is never smoked by these peoples, though they quickly learnt to smoke mine. This seems a curious point, for the tribes to the north smoke the leaf in the form of cigars, and those further south use pipes. A decoction, like raw treacle in appearance, is made from the leaf, and this is licked ceremonially between friends, to ratif)- a contract, and in tribal palaver.

When the medicine-man has arrived, and given his opinion on the new-born infant, it will be named, on the eighth da}-, by the medicine-man and the family, with cere- monial tobacco taking. Boys are generally called by the name of a bird or animal, usually the name of their father's father. Girls are given the names of plants or flowers.. This name is never used in speaking. Witoto men address one another as tanynbe (brother), or iero (father): Boro