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Suriname folk-lore (1936)

Suriname folk-lore

(1936)–Melville J. Herskovits, Frances S. Herskovits–rechtenstatus Auteursrecht onbekend

Vorige Volgende

7. Birth-Customs and the Dangers of Early Childhood

When a woman finds herself with child, she guards against black magic by going to a practitioner for what she calls ‘luck’ for the child in her womb. From him she obtains a liquid in a bottle. This bottle is hung above the door of her cabin, and is held to be invisible to all but the woman who has placed it there. What causes it to be invisible is the spirit inside the bottle, placed there by the practitioner to serve as guardian for the woman. When put in place, it constitutes a protection against the entrance of a bakru, or some other messenger of evil that might be sent to cause a premature birth, or the delivery of a dead or a misshapen child. A full discussion of the bakru, one of the most important carriers of black magic, is reserved for treatment in the section on magic.2 It need only be noted at this point that the bakru are ‘little people’ fashioned by sorcerers and made animate by injecting into each the soul of some dead person, who usually manifest themselves in the shape of two- or three-year-old children. The spirits which animate these creatures can also be injected by the practiced sorcerer into any object, or any living thing, though a fowl constitutes the carrying medium most frequently employed when the ‘little people’ are not resorted to. Any fowl not recognised as be-

longing to a given yard is identified as a bakru, and if discovered in a yard where a pregnant woman lives, is understood to be on a fatal errand to the woman herself or her unborn child. The invisible watchman over the door, however, sees to it that such an emissary does not enter the woman's cabin.

When going out to market, or to work, the woman may either sprinkle some of the liquid in the bottle over certain portions of her body, as directed by the seller of this magic, or she may have yet another charm against bakru on her person. This may be tied about an ankle, or below the knee, or about the waist, - any of these places serving equally well. If, however, the woman had previously experienced normal deliveries, she may rely upon her akra (her soul), and the magic which she wears to keep it strong, to watch over her and her unborn child.

Once the safety of the woman and the developing foetus are assured by magical means, the next care of the woman is to add to her own food taboos those of her husband. It is well, at this point, to digress and explain the concept which governs the food taboos, known either as kina1 or trefu.2 At birth a child falls heir to two things, a personal soul, and personal trefu. A trefu is a prohibition against performing an act that is hateful to some supernatural agent with which the destiny of the individual is associated, and most of the prohibitions demand abstinence from eating certain foods. These trefu, - and each individual inherits several things which are his trefu - come to the child from his father, and they represent the dominant trefu to be observed by him during the entire course of his life. In addition to these inherited trefu, each person adds others as he grows older. Some come to him when he acquires his god, or gods, - for just as each individual has his personal trefu, so each deity has his trefu, and the worshipper of any deity takes over its tabooed foods. Other taboos come to him in association with magical charms, each of which is differentiated for the individual purchaser by the trefu that govern his behavior toward it, but these last are only binding as long as the charms are used, and for many of them only when the charms are used. The trefu, whether they be inherited or acquired, may require abstinence from eating

some kind of fish, from a special kind of meat, from some vegetable. Yet it is seldom that among the things forbidden are found such staple foods as rice or yams or peanuts or corn. The foods which most often are not to be eaten are milk, mutton, beef, and shell-fish. If the father is one of a pair of twins, the woman has to abstain from eating the monkey and the sloth,1 as well as all creatures that live in the trees, since these are sacred to twins. During pregnancy, a woman need abstain, however, only from violating the husband's inherited trefu, but not those acquired by him later in life.

The institution of trefu is dealt with here because of the bearing it has on the relationship of a child to his father. In spite of the child's close attachment to the mother's family, we observe here, as we shall observe when we discuss the concept of the soul and how it is acquired by the individual, that the spiritual relationship between a child and his father is governed by binding supernatural sanctions.2 A child learns his trefu from his mother, who knows what are the things her husband must not eat, and sees to it that her child abstains from them. Indeed, failure to do this is considered one of the most reprehensible acts a Paramaribo mother can be guilty of, for the penalty exacted for failure to observe the inherited trefu, is a severe one, and inescapable, since it is imposed by supernatural powers which cannot be controlled by any means known to man. This penalty takes the form of punishment with skin-disease; a mild form of eczema at first, which, if neglected and aggravated by continued disregard of the inherited trefu, develops into leprosy.3 The trefu also serves as a social check on unfaithfulness on the part of the wife. For if a woman bears a child who later is troubled by persistent skin eruptions in spite of his observing the trefu of the husband of his mother, this is regarded as prima facie evidence that the woman has had this child by a man other than her husband. The resulting social stigma is not, however, caused by her infidelity, but comes rather from the fact that she had not learned the other man's trefu, or, if she knows it, has not taken care that her child, first by her own efforts, and later through his own, should know the food-taboos of his real father.

When a woman is about to be delivered, she is attended by several experienced women who have borne children. Usually they are old, and include the woman's maternal grandmother, or her mother, or a maternal aunt, as well as some elderly neighbor. The woman is seated on the floor on some old cloths, or at times, following a practice peculiar to some families, on a bed of leaves. One of the old women, - the grandmother, if she is present - takes a new calabash with water in it, and with her hand sprinkles water in front of the seated woman and behind her,1 calling her soul by name. Thus, if a woman was born on a Friday, she calls, ‘Akra Afi, mi dɛ bɛgi fō yu kąn meki ala sani wroko bǫn. - Affi (Friday) soul, I pray you to see to it that all goes well.’ If this is a first pregnancy, food is also given to the Grǫn Mama, the earth spirit of the yard, and a prayer is offered up to her and to any other god or gods, or special ancestor that the diviner who had been consulted suggests.

While the woman is in labor she is given a drink of stewed herbs called smeri-wiri2 from time to time. Parturition is hastened by tying a cloth tightly about the woman's abdomen, and tightening it still more, if necessary, or by pressing down on the muscles of the abdomen, hips and buttocks. In all normal births it is not unusual to see the woman washing the soiled cloths several hours after delivery, and to find her about the yard performing her household tasks the following day. Those that are difficult have medical care, and in addition are helped by consultation with a diviner who informs the family whether the difficulty is the result of black magic, of an angered god or soul, or of dissatisfied ancestors, and who supplies remedies.

A woman who dies in childbirth is buried safri-safri, - ‘softly, softly’.3 She has a perfunctory wake, at which only members of the immediate family and some old people are present, or no wake at all is given for her. If a hexagonal coffin is used for the honorable burial, her's is a flat box, and mention of the death is not made to women of child-bearing age or to young girls. The mourning period, if observed at all, is considerably shortened. A stillborn child is buried without a cloth over it, and the parents do not show any signs of mourning. In fact, there is little mourning at the death

of any child before puberty, ‘Because the neighbors talk too much if they make a big funeral for a child.’

Once the child is born, and the placenta has come normally, or has been forced out, the woman in charge of the delivery cuts the umbilical cord with a small knife, leaving from four to six inches of cord which she ties with thread. She then stanches the blood with freshly charred herbs reduced to a powder. Mother and child are bathed, the mother in very hot water in which the leaves and twigs of the aneisi bush1 have been stewed for many hours, and the child is washed in some of this mixture and then rubbed over with oil, or else is washed in oil only. The head and face, however, are bathed in cool rainwater, and this washing is continued for six weeks or longer. The magical charms that the mother has on hand for the child are then put on. These may be bits of cord on which a caury-shell is strung, to be worn on wrists or ankles; or may consist of a larger cord to be fastened about the child's waist, or some mixture in a bottle to be sprinkled on certain portions of its body, any of these acting as preventives against evil magic, a mischievous ghost, an unfriendly god, and vampires. In the native idiom these serve as tapu against wisi, a bad Yɔrka, a bad wɩnti, and the azemąn. If there is any abnormality of birth, like an umbilicus twisted about the neck of the child or a caul, these are preserved, the former in part, and the latter wholly, in order that they may be converted into magical charms for the child. One form of using them is to dry them in the sun or in smoke, and reduce them to powder, sewing this powder into a small sack to be worn by the owner.

When a child is two weeks old, the mother cooks seven spiders in boiling water, and gives the child some of the broth. This is done on two or three separate occasions, to insure against death caused by convulsions, for it is held that if a spider circles the place where a baby lies, the child imitates the movements of the spider and dies of trąŋgamąn (strangulation). Only spiders that are found about the house and yard are used for this broth, since bush spiders are not seen by a child. Another remedy for convulsions is a drink containing the powdered scrapings from the horns of a deer. This mixture is called dia-tu', - ‘deer's horn’. This drink may be given on the third day after birth, and any time thereafter. The Bush-Negroes are said to have many other remedies against an attack of trąŋgamąn, something that is especially feared by the Paramaribo Negroes, since such attacks are said to cause more fatalities among children than any other illness. It is not believed that European doctors have a cure for these attacks.

Circumcision is commonly practiced, and takes place when a boy is about two months old. The operation is held to be a protection against venereal diseases (it has no religious significance), and is

performed either by native specialists, or by a European doctor. When speaking of circumcision, the phrase, ‘Mi gō ɛnt 'a boi̯, - I am going to circumcise the boy’, is used.

Since the Paramaribo Negroes are, in the main, professing Christians, they baptise their children as soon as they can afford the proper clothing in which to take the child to church. Some observations made to us regarding baptism indicate the attitudes of worshippers of the wɩnti toward it. One woman said, ‘When he come big, he can do what he like. Now we does it for him. When he come big, he can go to wɩnti-dances like me, or go to church, what he like.’ Another said, ‘We baptise him so he can get into a school.’ And another, ‘When a man is big and goes for work, they asks him if he was baptise. If he say no, he don' catch work.’

Though social pressure to have children is such that a woman who has not conceived takes all possible measures to have offspring, abortion is practised. One way of bringing on an abortion is to drink the contents of a heated bottle of stout, to which has been added a heaping tablespoon of salt. The mixture must be swallowed all at once. This serves as a violent cathartic, and is followed by several days illness. However, after this ‘it is finished’. Lime juice may be added to the salt, or substituted for it. Another method is to use a leaf called bita,1 which is put into the stout. These remedies are thought to be effective only for the first and second month of pregnancy. After the second month, the women try to bring on a miscarriage by more violent means. In one case which came to our attention, for example, the woman threw herself from a stepladder, but experience has not shown this to be an effective measure. Infanticide is said to be practiced only rarely, and ‘by the girls who wear hats’, - that is to say, by those who have become so Europeanised that they have discarded not only traditional dress, but also the traditional fear of the ancestors and the ancestral spirits, to whom infanticide is one of the most abhorrent practices that can be perpetrated. Those who do not ‘wear hats’ may have recourse to some magical means which they believe destroys unwanted children after these have been conceived. The most common of these methods is to get a bakru from a sorcerer, for since the bakru are especially jealous of children, the child is killed in the womb without any overt act on the part of the mother.

These bakru also figure as one of the explanations why a woman is barren, for when a woman who wishes a child does not conceive, it is assumed that a bakru has been sent by an enemy to make her womb infertile. This conclusion is not reached immediately, however. The woman's first thought is that the fault lies with her husband, and she sees to it that this hypothesis is tested secretly with other men. It is only after several trials of this nature that

the explanation of black magic comes as a natural second hypothesis. The procedure next in order is to go to a sorcerer to have him exorcise the bakru. If his power is not strong enough to accomplish this, she tries others, until she is persuaded there is no remedy.

It sometimes happens that a woman conceives and bears children, and each dies within a year of birth. When this has occurred two or three times, the woman goes to a diviner when she again conceives.1 The diviner may be either a man or a woman, but usually men are preferred because their souls are stronger than the souls of women. The child may be ‘bought’ from the 'kra, or from a wɩnti who is jealous of the child. The necessary ceremony is held any time during pregnancy, or a few days after the child is born. Holding a ceremonial bead, or a gold chain, which had been given to the mother's 'kra as a gift when she became nubile, the wɩntimąn draws it three times diagonally across the body of the woman, from a point above each breast to the vagina. While this is being done, an old woman throws water out of a new calabash in front, in back and at the sides of the woman who is being treated.

The diviner says, ‘Mama fō dɔti, yu na mama fō pikin. Koru watra mi dɛ gi yu. Meki fa na watra koru, na so yu muso koru na sɩkin nąŋga ala sani gi yu pikin. Nąŋga saka fasi, mi dɛ bɛgi, Akra A...2 Mi dɛ bɛgi yu tu, nąŋga nem fō tata, mi dɛ bɛgi yu, so wi dɛ bai̯ na pikin. Ɛfi na mąn pikin, ɛfi na umą pikin, yu muso meki ala sani waka nąŋga bǫn. - Mother of the Earth, you are the mother of children. I give you cold water. Just as the water is cold, so you must cool the body of your child with all the means at your disposal. Prostrating myself, I beg you, soul of A... I beg you also, in the name of the father, I beg you so we can buy the child. Whether the child be a boy or a girl, you must see to it that all things go well.’

The reason given for addressing the akra, and for ‘buying’ a child from it, is that the mother may have a wɩnti of whom she does not know, who is jealous of children. The akra is therefore invoked to take the child under its special protection. If the mother knows of a wɩnti that she has, and suspects that this spirit is the cause of the death of her children, she goes to a papa fō wɩnti,3 a priest, to wash her. This washing is done with water in which herbs sacred to the wɩnti have been placed, and may occur once or several times during the pregnancy, as the priest directs. It is always best to have this done at the beginning of a pregnancy, so that the wɩnti does not harm the foetus. In order to negotiate with the spirit, the wɩnti-priest calls the wɩnti and interrogates it as to why it had

killed the other children born to this woman, and ascertains the nature of its demands for refraining from killing the one to be born.

These are not the only dangers which threaten a child. It is believed there are others that have their being in the quarrels between father and mother, and that imperil the soul of the child both before and after birth. This belief, subsumed under the native term fiofio,1 makes it imperative for the well-being of the child, in the womb as well as after it is born, that there be no enmity between the parents, especially as that enmity arises out of recriminations having to do with the pregnancy of the woman, or the question of the legitimacy of the child.

Twins, and the child born after twins, who is called Dosu,2 and children born feet foremost, are in a category by themselves, and they are often spoken of as ɔgri3 - ‘bad’. It is said, for example, ‘Tweling wis' den srefi, - twins work black magic against each other,’ and the statement made by a man about his twin sister was that while he was not certain whether he and his sister shared but one soul, he knew that the two souls were closely attuned, so that if a wɩnti wished to come to his sister, and his soul refused to allow it to come, it could not do so. ‘Ɛf' mi 'kra no gi na wɩnti pasi, a no mąŋ kɔ̨', - If my soul does not give the wɩnti permission, it cannot come.’ He also told that when she was about to marry, he was consulted about his feelings for the man chosen, for had he disliked the man, his soul could have caused them to separate, and even at this very day he can cause trouble between them if he chooses. Parents of twins, and of those others who belong to the twin category, must take care, therefore, not to arouse the jealousy of one of these children.4

Another danger to the child is an ailment which results from the evil eye. One remedy is to bring the child to a Jewish rabbi and have him read Hebrew words out of a book.5 This is followed by a

series of purifying baths in water in which washing blue, salt, urine, and sibi-wiri have been placed. The invocation in this case is, ‘Pikin fō mama, mi na mama fō yu. Mi 'ɛ was' yu fō yu sɩkin mu lɛkti. Na sisibi mu sisibi ala 'ɛbi. - Mother's child, I am your mother. I wash you that your body may lighten. The broom must sweep away all heaviness (i.e., the load you are bearing).’ Not only must children be guarded against this danger of the evil eye, but grown-ups as well, for though less susceptible, they are not immune to the ill effects of the evil eye, especially if their souls are not strong enough to resist the machinations of those who wish to harm them.1

The gravest supernatural threat of all, particularly to children, is that of the vampire, the azemąn.2 These creatures are thought to be women, who, at night, shed their skins, change into animal form, and drink the blood of human beings. Protection against the azemąn is had by scattering rice or abongra (sesame), or red pepper, in the room near the door of the sleeping-place, or by placing a broom against the door. It is held that a vampire cannot leave until she has picked up every grain that lies there, or counted the separate straws, and so is caught. Another way is to wait until a vampire sheds her skin, and then to rub pepper on it, so that when she returns to convert herself into human form, she will be unable to step into her skin again and will stay in recognisable form until daybreak, when she will be caught.3 Should a woman be suspected of being an azemąn, she will be driven out of the colony; in olden times, she would have been killed.

No marked ceremonialism attends the attainment of puberty. If a girl's maternal grandmother, or an aunt, or older sister lives on a plantation, she may be sent away from the city for the duration of the first menstrual period. The members of her immediate family are all informed, and they make her small gifts if they can afford them. The girl's parents may, in addition to the kerchief they buy her, and the dress they also get her, if their means allow, purchase a gold chain for her akra, and if she is not in good health, care is taken to give the girl's soul a feast, or a gift sometime during the year. When the succeeding periods come, she sleeps away from the men of the family, and never thereafter shares a mat with her brothers, for ‘a trǫn bɩgi suma kaba, - she has changed into a full grown person already.’4 In the case of a boy, the ‘medicine’

made of the manatee which had been given him for ‘strength’ since childhood is discontinued when he reaches puberty so as not to superinduce sexual excitation, though he may supply himself with other ‘medicines’ for virility, if his sexual appetites are developed at an early age. All illnesses or maladjustments which occur at adolescence are interpreted as being either maladies of an angered soul, or as originating from wɩnti who wish to make a devotee of a girl or boy. We shall see in our discussion of the soul and the gods how health is restored in the first instance by gratifying the akra with some coveted attention, - the individual acts, of course, as the soul's agent - and in the second by pacifying the wɩnti with dancing.


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