Page:Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.djvu/303

Rh would injure the child's stomach, and that it would participate in the natural faults of the animals on which its father had fed; for example, if the father ate turtle, the child would he deaf and have no brains like this animal, if he ate manati, the child would have little round eyes like this creature, and so on with the rest."

The Abate Gilij, after mentioning the wide prevalence of the fasting of the father on the birth of the child, among the tribes of the east side of South America, goes on as follows:—"But I know not if the cause is equally well known, why the Indians fast in such manner. I in the very beginning of my stay among them had the opportunity of discovering it, and this was how it happened. A fortified house having to be built for the soldiers to live in, as was usual for the defence not of the missionaries alone, but also of the reduced Indians, the Tamanacs, they being still gentiles, were summoned by the corporal Ermengildo Leale to work at it, and it was noticed that a certain Maracajùri, when the work was done, went away fasting, without even tasting a mouthful. 'What, has he no appetite?' asked Leale in surprise. 'To be sure he has,' rejoined the other Indians, 'but his wife has had a child to-day, so he must not make use of these victuals, for the little boy would die.' 'But when our wives are brought to bed,' said the corporal, 'we eat more abundantly and more joyously than usual, and our children do not die of it.' 'But you are Spaniards,' the fools replied, 'and if your eating does no harm to your babies, you may be sure, nevertheless, that it is most hurtful to ours.' It may be easily imagined what laughter there was at this absurd notion. 'But not only the father's food,' the Tamanacs went on to say, 'but even killing fish or any other animal on such days, would do harm to the children.' When I knew of this nonsense, I set myself to work to seek out the motive of it, and taking aside one of the most reasonable of the savages: 'tell me,' I said, 'as the Spaniards do not fast at the birth of their children, for what