Note 434.2 — Chapter XV · THE COUVADE AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE STRENGTH OF THE BLOOD-TIE—CONCLUSION OF THE INQUIRY INTO THE THEORY OF THE LIFE-TOKEN.

The rite of healing in which the kin are required to join is found in every quarter of the globe. A common form is the slaughter of a beast or fowl, or perhaps of several, as a sacrifice, followed of course by a feast. Peoples as far apart in locality as they are in race are recorded to have practised this mode of cure. It has been witnessed alike among the Yakuts of Siberia, the Peguenches of Southern Chili, the islanders of Luçon and Mindanos in the East Indies, the heathen Dinkas of Central Africa and the Mohammedan inhabitants of Timbuctoo.434.2 At Ballyvorney in county Cork less than two centuries ago an image of wood about two feet high, carved and painted like a woman, was kept by one of the family of the O’Herlehys; and, we are told, “when any one is sick of the small-pox they send for it, sacrifice a sheep to it, and wrap the skin about the sick person, and the family [that is, as I understand it, the family of the sick person] eat the sheep. But this idol hath now much lost its reputation, because two of the O’Herlehys died lately of the small-pox.”435.1 An analogous rite is found in China. Ten men of ten different families of the patient’s relatives and friends (formerly, doubtless, of his kin only) become “security” for him. Each family contributes one hundred cash, which go towards the expenses of the feast, the remainder being found by the patient’s own family. The feast is spread in a temple, when the food is first presented to the idol, and the names of the “sureties” are written on a piece of paper and burned before the god. Among other ceremonies, after the feast the representative of the family carries home some of the rice, which is made into congee for the sick man to eat.435.2