Chapter L: Concerning the Province of Zardandan

When you have left Carajan and have travelled five days westward, you find a province called ZARDANDAN. The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan. The capital city is called VOCHAN.{1}

The people of this country all have their teeth gilt; or rather every man covers his teeth with a sort of golden case made to fit them, both the upper teeth and the under. The men do this, but not the women.{2} [The men also are wont to gird their arms and legs with bands or fillets pricked in black, and it is done thus; they take five needles joined together, and with these they prick the flesh till the blood comes, and then they rub in a certain black colouring stuff, and this is perfectly indelible. It is considered a piece of elegance and the sign of gentility to have this black band.] The men are all gentlemen in their fashion, and do nothing but go to the wars, or go hunting and hawking. The ladies do all the business, aided by the slaves who have been taken in war.{3}

And when one of their wives has been delivered of a child, the infant is washed and swathed, and then the woman gets up and goes about her household affairs, whilst the husband takes to bed with the child by his side, and so keeps his bed for 40 days; and all the kith and kin come to visit him and keep up a great festivity. They do this because, say they, the woman has had a hard bout of it, and ’tis but fair the man should have his share of suffering.{4}

They eat all kinds of meat, both raw and cooked, and they eat rice with their cooked meat as their fashion is. Their drink is wine made of rice and spices, and excellent it is. Their money is gold, and for small change they use pig-shells. And I can tell you they give one weight of gold for only five of silver; for there is no silver-mine within five months’ journey. And this induces merchants to go thither carrying a large supply of silver to change among that people. And as they have only five weights of silver to give for one of fine gold, they make immense profits by their exchange business in that country.{5}

These people have neither idols nor churches, but worship the progenitor of their family, “for ’tis he,” say they, “from whom we have all sprung.”{6} They have no letters or writing; and ’tis no wonder, for the country is wild and hard of access, full of great woods and mountains which ’tis impossible to pass, the air in summer is so impure and bad; and any foreigners attempting it would die for certain.{7} When these people have any business transactions with one another, they take a piece of stick, round or square, and split it, each taking half. And on either half they cut two or three notches. And when the account is settled the debtor receives back the other half of the stick from the creditor.{8}

And let me tell you that in all those three provinces that I have been speaking of, to wit Carajan, Vochan, and Yachi, there is never a leech. But when any one is ill they send for their magicians, that is to say the Devil-conjurors and those who are the keepers of the idols. When these are come the sick man tells what ails him, and then the conjurors incontinently begin playing on their instruments and singing and dancing; and the conjurors dance to such a pitch that at last one of them shall fall to the ground lifeless, like a dead man. And then the devil entereth into his body. And when his comrades see him in this plight they begin to put questions to him about the sick man’s ailment. And he will reply: “Such or such a spirit hath been meddling with the man,{9} for that he hath angered the spirit and done it some despite.” Then they say: “We pray thee to pardon him, and to take of his blood or of his goods what thou wilt in consideration of thus restoring him to health.” And when they have so prayed, the malignant spirit that is in the body of the prostrate man will (mayhap) answer: “The sick man hath also done great despite unto such another spirit, and that one is so ill-disposed that it will not pardon him on any account;”—this at least is the answer they get, an the patient be like to die. But if he is to get better the answer will be that they are to bring two sheep, or may be three; and to brew ten or twelve jars of drink, very costly and abundantly spiced.{10} Moreover it shall be announced that the sheep must be all black-faced, or of some other particular colour as it may hap; and then all those things are to be offered in sacrifice to such and such a spirit whose name is given.{11} And they are to bring so many conjurors, and so many ladies, and the business is to be done with a great singing of lauds, and with many lights, and store of good perfumes. That is the sort of answer they get if the patient is to get well. And then the kinsfolk of the sick man go and procure all that has been commanded, and do as has been bidden, and the conjuror who had uttered all that gets on his legs again.

So they fetch the sheep of the colour prescribed, and slaughter them, and sprinkle the blood over such places as have been enjoined, in honour and propitiation of the spirit. And the conjurors come, and the ladies, in the number that was ordered, and when all are assembled and everything is ready, they begin to dance and play and sing in honour of the spirit. And they take flesh-broth and drink and lign-aloes, and a great number of lights, and go about hither and thither, scattering the broth and the drink and the meat also. And when they have done this for a while, again shall one of the conjurors fall flat and wallow there foaming at the mouth, and then the others will ask if he have yet pardoned the sick man? And sometimes he shall answer yea! and sometimes he shall answer no! And if the answer be _no_, they shall be told that something or other has to be done all over again, and then he will be pardoned; so this they do. And when all that the spirit has commanded has been done with great ceremony, then it shall be announced that the man is pardoned and shall be speedily cured. So when they at length receive such a reply, they announce that it is all made up with the spirit, and that he is propitiated, and they fall to eating and drinking with great joy and mirth, and he who had been lying lifeless on the ground gets up and takes his share. So when they have all eaten and drunken, every man departs home. And presently the sick man gets sound and well.{12}

Now that I have told you of the customs and naughty ways of that people, we will have done talking of them and their province, and I will tell you about others, all in regular order and succession.

NOTE 1.—[Baber writes (_Travels_, p. 171) when arriving to the
Lan-tsang kiang (Mekong River): “We were now on the border-line
between Carajan and Zardandan: ‘When you have travelled five days
you find a province called Zardandan,’ says Messer Marco, precisely
the actual number of stages from Tali-fu to the present boundary
of Yung-ch’ang. That this river must have been the demarcation
between the two provinces is obvious; one glance into that deep
rift, the only exit from which is by painful worked artificial
zigzags which, under the most favourable conditions, cannot be
called safe, will satisfy the most sceptical geographer. The exact
statement of distance is a proof that Marco entered the territory
of Yung-ch’ang.” Captain Gill says (II. p. 343–344) that the five
marches of Marco Polo “would be very long ones. Our journey was
eight days, but it might easily have been done in seven, as the
first march to Hsia-Kuan was not worthy of the name. The Grosvenor
expedition made eleven marches with one day’s halt—twelve days
altogether, and Mr. Margary was nine or ten days on the journey.
It is true that, by camping out every night, the marches might be
longer; and, as Polo refers to the crackling of the bamboos in the
fires, it is highly probable that he found no ‘_fine hostelries_’
on this route. This is the way the traders still travel in Tibet;
they march until they are tired, or until they find a nice grassy
spot; they then off saddles, turn their animals loose, light a
fire under some adjacent tree, and halt for the night; thus the
longest possible distance can be performed every day, and the
five days from Ta-li to Yung-Ch’ang would not be by any means an
impossibility.”—H. C.]

NOTE 2.—Ramusio says that both men and women use this gold case.
There can be no better instance of the accuracy with which Polo is
generally found to have represented Oriental names, when we recover
his _real_ representation of them, than this name _Zardandan_. In
the old Latin editions the name appeared as _Ardandan_, _Arcladam_,
etc.; in Ramusio as _Cardandan_, correctly enough, only the first
letter should have been printed Ç. Marsden, carrying out his
systematic conversion of the Ramusian spelling, made this into
_Kardandan_, and thus the name became irrecognizable. Klaproth,
I believe, first showed that the word was simply the Persian
ZĂR-DANDÁN, “Gold-Teeth,” and produced quotations from Rashiduddin
mentioning the people in question by that identical name. Indeed
that historian mentions them several times. Thus: “North-west of
China is the frontier of Tibet, and of the ZARDANDAN, who lie
between Tibet and Karájáng. These people cover their teeth with
a gold case, which they take off when they eat.” They are also
frequently mentioned in the Chinese annals about this period under
the same name, viz. _Kin-Chi_, “Gold-Teeth,” and some years after
Polo’s departure from the East they originated a revolt against the
Mongol yoke, in which a great number of the imperial troops were
massacred. (_De Mailla_, IX. 478–479.)

[Baber writes (p. 159): “In Western Yünnan the betel-nut is chewed
with prepared lime, colouring the teeth red, and causing a profuse
expectoration. We first met with the practice near Tali-fu.

“Is it not possible that the red colour imparted to the teeth by
the practice of chewing betel with lime may go some way to account
for the ancient name of this region, ‘Zar-dandan,’ ‘Chin-Ch’ih,’
or ‘Golden-Teeth’? Betel-chewing is, of course, common all over
China; but the use of lime is almost unknown and the teeth are not
necessarily discoloured.

“In the neighbourhood of Tali, one comes suddenly upon a
lime-chewing people, and is at once struck with the strange
red hue of their teeth and gums. That some of the natives used
formerly to cover their teeth with plates of gold (from which
practice, mentioned by Marco Polo, and confirmed elsewhere, the
name is generally derived) can scarcely be considered a myth; but
the peculiarity remarked by ourselves would have been equally
noticeable by the early Chinese invaders, and seems not altogether
unworthy of consideration. It is interesting to find the name
‘Chin-Ch’ih’ still in use.

“When Tu Wên-hsiu sent his ‘Panthay’ mission to England with
tributary boxes of rock from the Tali Mountains, he described
himself in his letter ‘as a humble native of the golden-teeth
country.’”—H. C.]

_Vochan_ seems undoubtedly to be, as Martini pointed out, the city
called by the Chinese YUNG-CH’ANG-FU. Some of the old printed
editions read _Unciam_, _i.e._ Uncham or Unchan, and it is probable
that either this or _Võcian_, _i.e._ VONCHAN, was the true reading,
coming very close to the proper name, which is WUNCHEN. (See
_J. A. S. B._ VI. 547.) [In an itinerary from Ava to Peking, we
read on the 10th September, 1833: “Slept at the city Wun-tsheng
(Chinese Yongtchang fú and Burmese _Wun-zen_).” (_Chin. Rep._ IX.
p. 474.)—Mr. F. W. K. Müller in a study on the Pa-yi language
from a Chinese manuscript entitled _Hwa-i-yi-yü_ found by Dr. F.
Hirth in China, and belonging now to the Berlin Royal Library,
says the proper orthography of the word is _Wan-chang_ in Pa-yi.
(_T’oung Pao_, III. p. 20.) This helps to find the origin of the
name _Vochan_.—H. C.] This city has been a Chinese one for several
centuries, and previous to the late Mahomedan revolt its population
was almost exclusively Chinese, with only a small mixture of Shans.
It is now noted for the remarkable beauty and fairness of the
women. But it is mentioned by Chinese authors as having been in the
Middle Ages the capital of the Gold-Teeth. These people, according
to Martini, dwelt chiefly to the north of the city. They used to
go to worship a huge stone, 100 feet high, at Nan-ngan, and cover
it annually with gold-leaf. Some additional particulars about the
Kin-Chi, in the time of the Mongols, will be found in Pauthier’s
notes (p. 398).

[In 1274, the Burmese attacked Yung ch’ang, whose inhabitants were
known under the name of _Kin-Chi_ (Golden-Teeth). (_E. Rocher,
Princes du Yun-nan_, p. 71.) From the Annals of Momein, translated
by Mr. E. H. Parker (_China Review_, XX. p. 345), we learn that:
“In the year 1271, the General of Ta-li was sent on a mission to
procure the submission of the Burmese, and managed to bring a
Burmese envoy named Kiai-poh back with him. Four years later Fu
A-pih, Chief of the Golden-Teeth, was utilised as a guide, which
so angered the Burmese that they detained Fu A-pih and attacked
Golden-Teeth: but he managed to bribe himself free. A-ho, Governor
of the Golden-Teeth, was now sent as a spy, which caused the
Burmese to advance to the attack once more, but they were driven
back by Twan Sin-cha-jih. These events led to the Burmese war,”
which lasted till 1301.

According to the _Hwang-tsing Chi-kung t’u_ (quoted by Devéria,
_Front._ p. 130), the _Pei-jen_ were _Kin-chi_, of Pa-y race, and
were surnamed Min-kia-tzŭ; the Min-kia, according to F. Garnier,
say that they come from Nan-king, but this is certainly an error
for the Pei-jen. From another Chinese work, Devéria (p. 169) gives
this information: The Piao are the Kin-Chi; they submitted to the
Mongols in the 13th century; they are descended from the people of
Chu-po or Piao Kwo (Kingdom of Piao), ancient Pegu; P’u-p’iao, in
a little valley between the Mekong and the Salwen Rivers, was the
place through which the P’u and the Piao entered China.

The Chinese geographical work _Fang-yu-ki-yao_ mentions the name
of Kin-Chi Ch’eng, or city of Kin-Chi, as the ancient denomination
of Yung-ch’ang. A Chinese Pa-y vocabulary, belonging to Professor
Devéria, translates Kin-Chi by Wan-Chang (Yung-ch’ang). (_Devéria,
Front._ p. 128.)—H. C.]

It has not been determined who are the representatives of these
Gold-Teeth, who were evidently distinct from the Shans, not
Buddhist, and without literature. I should think it probable that
they were _Kakhyens_ or _Singphos_, who, excluding Shans, appear
to form the greatest body in that quarter, and are closely akin to
each other, indeed essentially identical in race.[1] The Singphos
have now extended widely to the west of the Upper Irawadi and
northward into Assam, but their traditions bring them from the
borders of Yunnan. The original and still most populous seat of
the Kakhyen or Singpho race is pointed out by Colonel Hannay in
the Gulansigung Mountains and the valley of the eastern source of
the Irawadi. This agrees with Martini’s indication of the seat of
the Kin-Chi as north of Yung-ch’ang. One of Hannay’s notices of
Singpho customs should also be compared with the interpolation from
Ramusio about tattooing: “The men tattoo their limbs slightly, and
all married females are tattooed on both legs from the ankle to
the knee, in broad horizontal circular bands. Both sexes also wear
rings below the knee of fine shreds of rattan varnished black” (p.
18). These rings appear on the Kakhyen woman in our cut.

The only other wild tribe spoken of by Major Sladen as attending
the markets on the frontier is that of the _Lissus_, already
mentioned by Lieutenant Garnier (_supra_, ch. xlvii. note 6), and
who are said to be the most savage and indomitable of the tribes
in that quarter. Garnier also mentions the Mossos, who are alleged
once to have formed an independent kingdom about Li-kiang fu.
Possibly, however, the Gold-Teeth may have become entirely absorbed
in the Chinese and Shan population.

The characteristic of casing the teeth in gold should identify the
tribe did it still exist. But I can learn nothing of the continued
existence of such a custom among any tribe of the Indo-Chinese
continent. The insertion of gold studs or spots, which Bürck
confounds with it, is common enough among Indo-Chinese races,
but that is quite a different thing. The actual practice of the
Zardandan is, however, followed by some of the people of Sumatra,
as both Marsden and Raffles testify: “The great men sometimes
set their teeth in gold, by casing with a plate of that metal
the under row ... it is sometimes indented to the shape of the
teeth, but more usually quite plain. They do not remove it either
to eat or sleep.” The like custom is mentioned by old travellers
at Macassar, and with the substitution of _silver_ for gold by
a modern traveller as existing in Timor; but in both, probably,
it was a practice of Malay tribes, as in Sumatra. (_Marsden’s
Sumatra_, 3rd ed., p. 52; _Raffles’s Java_, I. 105; _Bickmore’s
Ind. Archipelago_.)

[In his second volume of _The River of Golden Sand_, Captain Gill
has two chapters (viii. and ix.) with the title: _In the footsteps
of Marco Polo and of Augustus Margary_ devoted to _The Land of the
Gold-Teeth_ and _The Marches of the Kingdom of Mien_.—H. C.]

NOTE 3.—This is precisely the account which Lieutenant Garnier
gives of the people of Laos: “The Laos people are very indolent,
and when they are not rich enough to possess slaves they make
over to their women the greatest part of the business of the
day; and ’tis these latter who not only do all the work of the
house, but who husk the rice, work in the fields, and paddle the
canoes. Hunting and fishing are almost the only occupations which
pertain exclusively to the stronger sex.” (_Notice sur le Voyage
d’Exploration_, etc., p. 34.)

NOTE 4.—This highly eccentric practice has been ably illustrated
and explained by Mr. Tylor, under the name of the _Couvade_, or
“Hatching,” by which it is known in some of the Béarn districts of
the Pyrenees, where it formerly existed, as it does still or did
recently, in some Basque districts of Spain. [In a paper on _La
Couvade chez les Basques_, published in the _République Française_,
of 19th January, 1877, and reprinted in _Études de Linguistique et
d’Ethnographie par A. Hovelacque et Julien Vinson_, Paris, 1878,
Prof. Vinson quotes the following curious passage from the poem
in ten cantos, _Luciniade_, by Sacombe, of Carcassonne (Paris and
Nîmes, 1790):

“En Amérique, en Corse, et chez l’Ibérien,
En France même encor chez le Vénarnien,
Au pays Navarrois, lorsqu’une femme accouche,
L’épouse sort du lit et le mari se couche;
Et, quoiqu’il soit très sain et d’esprit et de corps,
Contre un mal qu’il n’a point l’art unit ses efforts.
On le met au régime, et notre faux malade,
Soigné par l’accouchée, en son lit fait _couvade_:
On ferme avec grand soin portes, volets, rideaux;
Immobile, on l’oblige à rester sur le dos,
Pour étouffer son lait, qui gêné dans sa course,
Pourrait en l’étouffant remonter vers sa source.
Un mari, dans sa couche, au médecin soumis,
Reçoit, en cet état, parents, voisins, amis,
Qui viennent l’exhorter à prendre patience
Et font des vœux au ciel pour sa convalescence.”

Professor Vinson, who is an authority on the subject, comes to the
conclusion that it is not possible to ascribe to the Basques the
custom of the _couvade_.

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.

The custom of the Couvade has especially and widely prevailed in
South America, not only among the Carib races of Guiana, of the
Spanish Main, and (where still surviving) of the West Indies, but
among many tribes of Brazil and its borders from the Amazons to
the Plate, and among the Abipones of Paraguay; it also exists or
has existed among the aborigines of California, in West Africa,
in Bouro, one of the Moluccas, and among a wandering tribe of the
Telugu-speaking districts of Southern India. According to Diodorus
it prevailed in ancient Corsica, according to Strabo among the
Iberians of Northern Spain (where we have seen it has lingered to
recent times), according to Apollonius Rhodius among the Tibareni
of Pontus. Modified traces of a like practice, not carried to the
same extent of oddity, are also found in a variety of countries
besides those that have been named, as in Borneo, in Kamtchatka,
and in Greenland. In nearly all cases some particular diet, or
abstinence from certain kinds of food and drink, and from exertion,
is prescribed to the father; in some, more positive and trying
penances are inflicted.

Butler had no doubt our Traveller’s story in his head when he made
the widow in _Hudibras_ allude in a ribald speech to the supposed
fact that

————“Chineses go to bed
And lie in, in their ladies’ stead.”

The custom is humorously introduced, as Pauthier has noticed, in
the Mediæval Fabliau of _Aucassin and Nicolete_. Aucassin arriving
at the castle of Torelore asks for the king and is told he is in
child-bed. Where then is his wife? She is gone to the wars and has
taken all the people with her. Aucassin, greatly astonished, enters
the palace, and wanders through it till he comes to the chamber
where the king lay:—

“En le canbre entre Aucassins
Li cortois et li gentis;
Il est venus dusqu’au lit
Alec ú li Rois se gist.
Pardevant lui s’arestit
Si parla, Oès que dist;
Diva fau, que fais-tu ci?
Dist le Rois, Je gis d’un fil,
Quant mes mois sera complis,
Et ge serai bien garis,
Dont irai le messe oïr
Si comme mes ancessor fist,” etc.

Aucassin pulls all the clothes off him, and cudgels him soundly,
making him promise that never a man shall lie in again in his
country.

This strange custom, if it were unique, would look like a coarse
practical joke, but appearing as it does among so many different
races and in every quarter of the world, it must have its root
somewhere deep in the psychology of the uncivilised man. I must
refer to Mr. Tylor’s interesting remarks on the rationale of the
custom, for they do not bear abridgment. Professor Max Müller
humorously suggests that “the treatment which a husband receives
among ourselves at the time of his wife’s confinement, not only
from mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, and other female relations,
but from nurses, and from every consequential maid-servant in the
house,” is but a “survival,” as Mr. Tylor would call it, of the
_couvade_; or at least represents the same feeling which among
those many uncivilised nations thus drove the husband to his
bed, and sometimes (as among the Caribs) put him when there to
systematic torture.

(_Tylor_, _Researches_, 288–296; _Michel, Le Pays Basque_, p. 201;
_Sketches of the Meau-tsze_, transl. by _Bridgman_ in _J. of North
China Br. of R. As. Soc._, p. 277; _Hudibras_, Pt. III., canto
I. 707; _Fabliaus et Contes par Barbazan, éd. Méon_, I. 408–409;
_Indian Antiq._ III. 151; _Müller’s Chips_, II. 227 _seqq._; many
other references in TYLOR, and in a capital monograph by Dr. H. H.
Ploss of Leipzig, received during revision of this sheet: ‘_Das
Männerkindbett_.’ What a notable example of the German power of
compounding is that title!)

[This custom seems to be considered generally as a survival of
the matriarchate in a society with a patriarchal régime. We may
add to the list of authorities on this subject: _E. Westermarck,
Hist. of Human Marriage_, 106, _seqq._; _G. A. Wilken, De Couvade
bij de Volken v.d. Indischen Archipel, Bijdr. Ind. Inst._, 5th
ser., iv. p. 250. Dr. Ernest Martin, late physician of the French
Legation at Peking, in an article on _La Couvade en Chine_ (_Revue
Scientifique_, 24th March, 1894), gave a drawing representing the
couvade from a sketch by a native artist.

In the _China Review_ (XI. pp. 401–402), “Lao Kwang-tung” notes
these interesting facts: “The Chinese believe that certain
actions performed by the husband during the pregnancy of his wife
will affect the child. If a dish of food on the table is raised
by putting another dish, or anything else below it, it is not
considered proper for a husband, who is expecting the birth of a
child, to partake of it, for fear the two dishes should cause the
child to have two tongues. It is extraordinary that the caution
thus exercised by the Chinese has not prevented many of them from
being double-tongued. This result, it is supposed, however, will
only happen if the food so raised is eaten in the house in which
the future mother happens to be. It is thought that the pasting
up of the red papers containing antithetical and felicitous
sentences on them, as at New Year’s time, by a man under similar
circumstances, and this whether the future mother sees the action
performed or not, will cause the child to have red marks on the
face or any part of the body. The causes producing _naevi materni_
have probably been the origin of such marks, rather than the idea
entertained by the Chinese that the father, having performed an
action by some occult mode, influences the child yet unborn. A
case is said to have occurred in which ill effects were obviated,
or rather obliterated, by the red papers being torn down, after
the birth of the infant, and soaked in water, when as the red
disappeared from the paper, so the child’s face assumed a natural
hue. Lord Avebury also speaks of _la couvade_ as existing among the
Chinese of West Yun-Nan. (_Origin of Civilisation and Primitive
Condition of Man_, p. 18).”

Dr. J. A. H. Murray, editor of the _New English Dictionary_,
wrote, in _The Academy_, of 29th October, 1892, a letter with the
heading of _Couvade, The Genesis of an Anthropological Term_, which
elicited an answer from Dr. E. B. Tylor (_Academy_, 5th November):
“Wanting a general term for such customs,” writes Dr. Tylor, “and
finding statements in books that this male lying-in lasted on
till modern times, in the south of France, and was there called
_couvade_, that is brooding or hatching (_couver_), I adopted this
word for the set of customs, and it has since become established in
English.” The discussion was carried on in _The Academy_, 12th and
19th November, 10th and 17th December; Mr. A. L. Mayhew wrote (12th
November): “There is no doubt whatever that Dr. Tylor and Professor
Max Müller (in a review of Dr. Tylor’s book) share the glory of
having given a new technical sense to an old provincial French
word, and of seeing it accepted in France, and safely enshrined in
the great Dictionary of Littré.”

Now as to the origin of the word; we have seen above that
Rochefort was the first to use the expression _faire la couvade_.
This author, or at least the author (see _Barbier, Ouvrages
anonymes_) of the _Histoire naturelle ... des Iles Antilles_, which
was published for the first time at Rotterdam, in 1658, 4to.,
writes: “C’est qu’au méme tems que la femme est delivrée le mary
se met au lit, pour s’y plaindre et y faire l’acouchée: coutume,
qui bien que Sauvage et ridicule, se trouve neantmoins à ce que
l’on dit, parmy les paysans d’vne certaine Province de France. Et
ils appellent cela _faire la couvade_. Mais ce qui est de fâcheus
pour le pauvre Caraïbe, qui s’est mis au lit au lieu de l’acouchée,
c’est qu’on luy fait faire diéte dix ou douze jours de suite, ne
luy donnant rien par jour qu’vn petit morceau de Cassave, et vn peu
d’eau dans la quelle on a aussi fait boüillir un peu de ce pain de
racine.... Mais ils ne font ce grand jeusne qu’à la naissance de
leur premier enfant....” (II. pp. 607–608).

Lafitau (_Mœurs des Sauvages Ameriquains_, I. pp. 49–50) says on
the authority of Rochefort: “Je la trouve chez les Ibériens ou les
premiers Peuples d’Espagne ... elle est aujourd’hui dans quelques
unes de nos Provinces d’Espagne.”

The word _couvade_, forgotten in the sense of lying-in-bed,
recalled by Sacombe, has been renovated in a happy manner by Dr.
Tylor.

As to the custom itself, there can be no doubt of its existence,
in spite of some denials. Dr. Tylor, in the third edition of his
valuable _Early History of Mankind_, published in 1878 (Murray),
since the last edition of _The Book of Ser Marco Polo_, has added
(pp. 291 _seqq._) many more proofs to support what he had already
said on the subject.

There may be some strong doubts as to the _couvade_ in the south
of France, and the authors who speak of it in Béarn and the Basque
Countries seem to have copied one another, but there is not the
slightest doubt of its having been and of its being actually
practised in South America. There is a very curious account of it
in the _Voyage dans le Nord du Brésil_ made by Father Yves d’Evreux
in 1613 and 1614 (see pp. 88–89 of the reprint, Paris, 1864, and
the note of the learned Ferdinand Denis, pp. 411–412). Compare with
_Durch Central-Brasilien ... im Jahre_ 1884 _von K.v. den Steinen_.
But the following extract from _Among the Indians of Guiana_....
_By Everard im Thurn_ (1883), will settle, I think, the question:

“Turning from the story of the day to the story of the life, we may
begin at the beginning, that is, at the birth of the children. And
here, at once, we meet with, perhaps, the most curious point in
the habits of the Indians; the _couvade_ or male child-bed. This
custom, which is common to the uncivilized people of many parts of
the world, is probably among the strangest ever invented by the
human brain. Even before the child is born, the father abstains
for a time from certain kinds of animal food. The woman works as
usual up to a few hours before the birth of the child. At last she
retires alone, or accompanied only by some other women, to the
forest, where she ties up her hammock; and then the child is born.
Then in a few hours—often less than a day—the woman, who, like all
women living in a very unartificial condition, suffers but little,
gets up and resumes her ordinary work. According to Schomburgk, the
mother, at any rate among the Macusis, remains in her hammock for
some time, and the father hangs his hammock, and lies in it, by her
side; but in all cases where the matter came under my notice, 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 discrepancies within 15 days’ journey would be inconceivable,
but that in both the latter instances at least he appears to
speak of the rates at which the gold was purchased from secluded,
ignorant, and uncivilised tribes. It is difficult to reconcile with
other facts the reason which he assigns for the high value put
on silver at Vochan, viz., that there was no silver-mine within
five months’ journey. In later days, at least, Martini speaks
of many silver-mines in Yun-nan, and the “Great Silver Mine”
(_Bau-dwen gyi_ of the Burmese) or group of mines, which affords
a chief supply to Burma in modern times, is not far from the
territory of our Traveller’s Zardandan. Garnier’s map shows several
argentiferous sites in the Valley of the Lan-t’sang.

In another work[3] I have remarked at some length on the relative
values of gold and silver about this time. In Western Europe
these seem to have been as 12 to 1, and I have shown grounds for
believing that in India, and generally over civilised Asia, the
ratio was 10 to 1. In Pauthier’s extracts from the _Yuen-shi_ or
Annals of the Mongol Dynasty, there is an incidental but precise
confirmation of this, of which I was not then aware. This states
(p. 321) that on the issue of the paper currency of 1287 the
official instructions to the local treasuries were to issue notes
of the nominal value of two strings, _i.e._ 2000 _wen_ or cash, for
every ounce of flowered silver, and 20,000 cash for every ounce of
gold. Ten to 1 must have continued to be the relation in China down
to about the end of the 17th century if we may believe Lecomte; but
when Milburne states the same value in the beginning of the 19th he
must have fallen into some great error. In 1781 Sonnerat tells us
that _formerly_ gold had been exported from China with a profit of
25 per cent., but at that time a profit of 18 to 20 per cent. was
made by _importing_ it. At present[4] the relative values are about
the same as in Europe, viz. 1 to 15½ or 1 to 16; but in Canton,
in 1844, they were 1 to 17; and Timkowski states that at Peking
in 1821 the finest gold was valued at 18 to 1. And as regards the
precise territory of which this chapter speaks I find in Lieutenant
Bower’s Commercial Report on Sladen’s Mission that the price of
pure gold at Momein in 1868 was 13 times its weight in silver (p.
122); whilst M. Garnier mentions that the exchange at Ta-li in 1869
was 12 to 1 (I. 522).

Does not Shakspeare indicate at least a memory of 10 to 1 as the
traditional relation of gold to silver when he makes the Prince of
Morocco, balancing over Portia’s caskets, argue:—

“Or shall I think in silver she’s immured,
Being ten times undervalued to tried gold?
O sinful thought!”

In Japan, at the time trade was opened, we know from Sir R.
Alcock’s work the extraordinary fact that the proportionate value
set upon gold and silver currency by authority was as 3 to 1.

(_Cathay_, etc., p. ccl. and p. 442; _Lecomte_, II. 91; _Milburne’s
Oriental Commerce_, II. 510; _Sonnerat_, II. 17; _Hedde, Etude,
Pratique_, etc., p. 14; _Williams, Chinese Commercial Guide_, p.
129; _Timkowski_, II. 202; _Alcock_, I. 281; II. 411, etc.)

NOTE 6.—Mr. Lay cites from a Chinese authority a notice of a tribe
of “Western Miautsze,” who “in the middle of autumn sacrifice to
the Great Ancestor or Founder of their Race.” (_The Chinese as they
are_, p. 321.)

NOTE 7.—Dr. Anderson confirms the depressing and unhealthy
character of the summer climate at Momein, though standing between
5000 and 6000 feet above the sea (p. 41).

NOTE 8.—“Whereas before,” says Jack Cade to Lord Say, “our
forefathers had no books but score and tally, thou hast caused
printing to be used.” The use of such tallies for the record of
contracts among the aboriginal tribes of Kweichau is mentioned by
Chinese authorities, and the French missionaries of Bonga speak of
the same as in use among the simple tribes in that vicinity. But,
as Marsden notes, the use of such rude records was to be found in
his day in higher places and much nearer home. They continued to be
employed as records of receipts in the British Exchequer till 1834,
“and it is worthy of recollection that the fire by which the Houses
of Parliament were destroyed was supposed to have originated in the
over-heating of the flues in which the discarded tallies were being
burnt.” I remember often, when a child, to have seen the tallies of
the colliers in Scotland, and possibly among that class they may
survive. They appear to be still used by bakers in various parts
of England and France, in the Canterbury hop-gardens, and locally
in some other trades. (_Martini_, 135; _Bridgman_, 259, 262; _Eng.
Cyclop._ sub v. _Tally_; _Notes and Queries_, 1st ser. X. 485.)

[According to Father Crabouillet (_Missions Cath._ 1873, p. 105),
the Lolos use tallies for their contracts; Dr. Harmand mentions
(_Tour du Monde_, 1877, No. VII.) the same fact among the Khas of
Central Laos; and M. Pierre Lefèvre-Pontalis (_Populations du nord
de l’Indo-Chine_, 1892, p. 22, from the _J. As._) says he saw these
tallies among the Khas of Luang-Prabang.—H. C.]

“In Illustration of this custom I have to relate what follows. In
the year 1863 the Tsaubwa (or Prince) of a Shan Province adjoining
Yun-nan was in rebellion against the Burmese Government. He wished
to enter into communication with the British Government. He sent
a messenger to a British Officer with a letter tendering his
allegiance, and accompanying this letter was a piece of bamboo
about five inches long. This had been split down the middle, so
that the two pieces fitted closely together, forming a tube in
the original shape of the bamboo. A notch at one end included
the edges of both pieces, showing that they were a pair. The
messenger said that if the reply were favourable one of the pieces
was to be returned and the other kept. I need hardly say the
messenger received no written reply, and both pieces of bamboo were
retained.” (_MS. Note by Sir Arthur Phayre._)

NOTE 9.—Compare Mr. Hodgson’s account of the sub-Himalayan Bodos
and Dhimals: “All diseases are ascribed to supernatural agency.
The sick man is supposed to be possessed by one of the deities,
who racks him with pain as a punishment for impiety or neglect of
the god in question. Hence not the mediciner, but the exorcist, is
summoned to the sick man’s aid.” (_J. A. S. B._ XVIII. 728.)

NOTE 10.—Mr. Hodgson again: “Libations of fermented liquor always
accompany sacrifice—_because_, to confess the whole truth,
sacrifice and feast are commutable words, and feasts need to be
crowned with copious potations.” (_Ibid._)

NOTE 11.—And again: “The god in question is asked what sacrifice
he requires? a buffalo, a hog, a fowl, or a duck, to spare the
sufferer; ... anxious as I am fully to illustrate the topic, I will
not try the patience of my readers by describing all that vast
variety of black victims and white, of red victims and blue, which
each particular deity is alleged to prefer.” (_Ibid._ and p. 732.)

NOTE 12.—The same system of devil-dancing is prevalent among the
tribes on the Lu-kiang, as described by the R. C. Missionaries. The
conjurors are there called _Mumos_. (_Ann. de la Prop. de la Foi_,
XXXVI. 323, and XXXVII. 312–313.)

“Marco’s account of the exorcism of evil spirits in cases of
obstinate illness exactly resembles what is done in similar cases
by the Burmese, except that I never saw animals sacrificed on such
occasions.” (_Sir A. Phayre._)

Mouhot says of the wild people of Cambodia called _Stiens_: “When
any one is ill they say that the Evil Spirit torments him; and to
deliver him they set up about the patient a dreadful din which does
not cease night or day, until some one among the bystanders falls
down as if in a syncope, crying out, ‘I have him,—he is in me,—he
is strangling me!’ Then they question the person who has thus
become possessed. They ask him what remedies will save the patient;
what remedies does the Evil Spirit require that he may give up his
prey? Sometimes it is an ox or a pig; but too often it is a human
victim.” (_J. R. G. S._ XXXII. 147.)

See also the account of the Samoyede _Tadibeï_ or Devil-dancer in
Klaproth’s _Magasin Asiatique_ (II. 83).

In fact these strange rites of Shamanism, devil-dancing, or what
not, are found with wonderful identity of character among the
non-Caucasian races over parts of the earth most remote from one
another, not only among the vast variety of Indo-Chinese Tribes,
but among the Tamulian tribes of India, the Veddahs of Ceylon,
the races of Siberia, and the red nations of North and South
America. Hinduism has assimilated these “prior superstitions of the
sons of Tur” as Mr. Hodgson calls them, in the form of Tantrika
mysteries, whilst, in the wild performance of the Dancing Dervishes
at Constantinople, we see perhaps again the infection of Turanian
blood breaking out from the very heart of Mussulman orthodoxy.

Dr. Caldwell has given a striking account of the practice of
devil-dancing among the Shanars of Tinnevelly, which forms a
perfect parallel in modern language to our Traveller’s description
of a scene of which he also had manifestly been an eye-witness:
“When the preparations are completed and the devil-dance is about
to commence, the music is at first comparatively slow; the dancer
seems impassive and sullen, and he either stands still or moves
about in gloomy silence. Gradually, as the music becomes quicker
and louder, his excitement begins to rise. Sometimes, to help him
to work himself up into a frenzy, he uses medicated draughts, cuts
and lacerates himself till the blood flows, lashes himself with
a huge whip, presses a burning torch to his breast, drinks the
blood which flows from his own wounds, or drains the blood of the
sacrifice, putting the throat of the decapitated goat to his mouth.
Then, as if he had acquired new life, he begins to brandish his
staff of bells, and to dance with a quick but wild unsteady step.
Suddenly the afflatus descends; there is no mistaking that glare,
or those frantic leaps. He snorts, he stares, he gyrates. The demon
has now taken bodily possession of him, and though he retains the
power of utterance and motion, both are under the demon’s control,
and his separate consciousness is in abeyance. The bystanders
signalise the event by raising a long shout, attended with a
peculiar vibratory noise, caused by the motion of the hand and
tongue, or the tongue alone. The devil-dancer is now worshipped
as a present deity, and every bystander consults him respecting
his diseases, his wants, the welfare of his absent relatives, the
offerings to be made for the accomplishment of his wishes, and in
short everything for which superhuman knowledge is supposed to be
available.” (_Hodgson, J. R. As. Soc._ XVIII. 397; _The Tinnevelly
Shanars_, by the _Rev. R. Caldwell, B.A._, Madras, 1849, pp. 19–20.)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] “_Singpho_,” says Colonel Hannay, “signifies in the Kakhyen
language ‘a man,’ and all of this race who have settled in Hookong
or Assam are thus designated; the reason of their change of name I
could not ascertain, but so much importance seems to be attached
to it, that the Singphos, in talking of their eastern and southern
neighbours, call them Kakhyens or Kakoos, and consider it an
insult to be called so themselves.” (_Sketch of the Singphos, or
the Kakhyens of Burma_, Calcutta, 1847, pp. 3–4.) If, however,
the Kakhyens, or _Kachyens_ (as Major Sladen calls them), are
represented by the _Go-tchang_ of Pauthier’s Chinese extracts,
these seem to be distinguished from the Kin-Chi, though associated
with them. (See pp. 397, 411.)

[2] [Mr. E. H. Parker (_China Review_, XIV. p. 359) says that Colonel
Yule’s _Langszi_ are evidently the _Szilang_, one of the six
_Chao_, but turned upside down.—H. C.]

[3] _Cathay_, etc., pp. ccl. _seqq._ and p. 441.

[4] Written in 1870.