Lesotho -- Social life and customs; Sotho (African people)
Sometimes rather strange complications arise. For instance, numbers of
Basuto leave the country every year to find work in the mines and on the
railways. Many of them are married men with young children. Suppose one
man left a wife and baby of a few months old behind him, his wife must
on no account wean the child until her husband returns. The result is,
that now and then one comes across quite big children, able to run about
and talk quite intelligently, still unweaned, and, when asked the
reason, the mother will reply: "My husband has not yet returned."
Occasionally he never comes back.
When the birth of a child is momentarily expected, as many women and old
men (the latter being regarded as "old women") crowd into the hut as it
will conveniently hold. As soon as the child is born, an appropriate
name is suggested, such as "Thibello" (waited for or long expected),
"Siluane" (tear-drop), etc., and by this name the child is in future
known, the mother taking the name "Ma-Thibello" (mother of waiting), or
"Ma" (mother of), whichever name is given to the child.
Should a woman die while her child is still too young to be fed with a
spoon, a sheep or goat is killed, and the windpipe, thoroughly cleansed,
is used as a feeding-tube, down which the milk is slowly poured into
the child's mouth. If it is not expedient to kill an animal, a female
goat in milk is procured, and the child taught to drink from the goat's
udder. In these cases the goats become more attached to their "foster
children" than to their own offspring, and will return at regular
intervals to the hut to suckle the child. It is a strange sight to see a
goat run bleating to the hut out of which crawls a fat brown baby, over
whom the animal rejoices as if it were her own, lying down contentedly
to allow it to drink, until, thoroughly satisfied, the child retires to
sleep, and the goat trots off to pasture, returning again to her charge
in a few hours.
Amongst Christian families Sesuto names are always given to the children
at the time of their birth, although, when old enough, they are taken to
the missionary to be baptized, the name then chosen being generally a
Biblical one. The Basuto also bestow what they consider suitable Sesuto
names upon the Europeans and their children living in the country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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