The children of Madagascar / by Herbert F. Standing.

  • Herbert Standing
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The children of Madagascar / by Herbert F. Standing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ( V ) CHAPTER II. BABYHOOD. ' Hail ! God has blessed you ! God has given you a successor, so we are come to bring you a little money to buy shrimps for the baby's mother.' This is the salutation with which the friends and neighbours greet the father and mother of a new-born baby in Madagascar. The baby's friends reply: ' May you live long, may you long be protected from witchcraft, may you too have babies born to you ! and as for the money you have brought, what is that to us ? It is your coming to visit us that makes us glad ; but since it is customary, we thank you ; may God bless you !' None of these visitors who come crowding into the house when a baby is born ask to look at the little new-comer; that would be considered quite improper; but after asking whether it is a boy or a girl they sit and chat for awhile, and then take their leave, the women often carrying off a quantity of dried beef in their lamba, a present from the baby's father. While the baby is still little, the bed on which his mother lies is hung with large rush mats above and round about, as a protection from draughts, and sometimes even a fire is kindled under the bedstead itself, so that the poor mother is nearly suffocated with the smoke. Usually, however, a fire is kept lighted very near the bed, and from this fact the mother is called the mpifclna, i.e. ' the one who is being warmed ;' and the little presents of money brought by friends are often said to be 'to buy firewood for the one who is being