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outside of the lid. The tears vary in number from two to fifteen or
sixteen, according to degree of intimacy or relationship; and people
sometimes find it a nice point of etiquette to know the exact number
which they ought to send. Strange as it may appear, this attention is
highly valued, and its omission by those from whom it might be expected
is keenly felt. These tears were formerly stuck with adhesive plaster to
the cheeks of the bereaved, and were worn in public for a few months
after the death of a relative; they were then banished to the hat or
bonnet, and are now no longer worn.

The birth of a child is looked upon as a painful subject on which it is
kinder not to touch: the illness of the mother is carefully concealed
until the necessity for signing the birth-formula (of which hereafter)
renders further secrecy impossible, and for some months before the event
the family live in retirement, seeing very little company. When the
offence is over and done with, it is condoned by the common want of
logic; for this merciful provision of nature, this buffer against
collisions, this friction which upsets our calculations but without which
existence would be intolerable, this crowning glory of human invention
whereby we can be blind and see at one and the same moment, this blessed
inconsistency, exists here as elsewhere; and though the strictest writers
on morality have maintained that it is wicked for a woman to have
children at all, inasmuch as it is wrong to be out of health that good
may come, yet the necessity of the case has caused a general feeling in
favour of passing over such events in silence, and of assuming their non-
existence except in such flagrant cases as force themselves on the public
notice. Against these the condemnation of society is inexorable, and if
it is believed that the illness has been dangerous and protracted, it is
almost impossible for a woman to recover her former position in society.

The above conventions struck me as arbitrary and cruel, but they put a
stop to many fancied ailments; for the situation, so far from being
considered interesting, is looked upon as savouring more or less
distinctly of a very reprehensible condition of things, and the ladies
take care to conceal it as long as they can even from their own husbands,
in anticipation of a severe scolding as soon as the misdemeanour is
discovered. Also the baby is kept out of sight, except on the day of
signing the birth-formula, until it can walk and talk. Should the child
unhappily die, a coroner's inquest is inevitable, but in order to avoid
disgracing a family which may have been hitherto respected, it is almost
invariably found that the child was over seventy-five years old, and died
from the decay of nature.




CHAPTER XIV: MAHAINA


I continued my sojourn with the Nosnibors. In a few days Mr. Nosnibor
had recovered from his flogging, and was looking forward with glee to the

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