e, the mother left her hammock almost at once.
In any case, no sooner is the child born than the father takes to his
hammock and, abstaining from every sort of work, from meat and all other
food, except weak gruel of cassava meal, from smoking, from washing
himself, and, above all, from touching weapons of any sort, is nursed and
cared for by all the women of the place. One other regulation, mentioned
by Schomburgk, is certainly quaint; the interesting father may not scratch
himself with his finger-nails, but he may use for this purpose a splinter,
specially provided, from the mid-rib of a cokerite palm. This continues
for many days, and sometimes even weeks. _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 disc