The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-DayChamberlain, Alexander Francis
Science
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day
Chamberlain, Alexander Francis
Child rearing; Children -- Folklore; Folklore and children
"Before they were born, the babes consulted to consider how they had
best enter the world. And Glooskap said: 'I will be born as others are.'
But the evil Malumsis thought himself too great to be brought forth in
such a manner, and declared that he would burst through his mother's
side. And, as they planned it, so it came to pass. Glooskap as first
came quietly to light, while Malumsis kept his word, killing his
mother." Another version of the same story runs: "In the old time, far
before men knew themselves in the light before the sun, Glooskap and his
brother were as yet unborn. They waited for the day to appear. Then they
talked together, and the youngest said: 'Why should I wait? I will go
into the world and begin my life at once;' when the elder said: 'Not so,
for this were a great evil.' But the younger gave no heed to any wisdom;
in his wickedness he broke through his mother's side, he rent the wall;
his beginning of life was his mother's death" (488. 106). Very similar
is the Iroquois myth of the "Good Mind" and the "Bad Mind," and variants
of this American hero-myth may be read in the exhaustive treatise of Dr.
Brinton.
Very interesting is the Maya story of the twins Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque,
sons of the virgin Xquiq, who, fleeing from her father, escaped to the
upper world, where the birth took place. Of these children we are told
"they grew in strength, and performed various deeds of prowess, which
are related at length in the Popul Vuh [the folk-chronicle of the
Quiches of Guatemala], and were at last invited by the lords of the
underworld to visit them." The chiefs of the underworld intended to slay
the youths, as they had previously slain their father and uncle, but
through their oracular and magic power the two brothers pretended to be
burned, and, when their ashes were thrown into the river, they rose from
its waters and slew the lords of the nether world. At this the
inhabitants of Hades fled in terror and the twins "released the
prisoners and restored to life those who had been slain. The latter rose
to the sky to become the countless stars, while Hunhun-Ahpu and
Vukub-Hun-Ahpu [father and uncle of the twins] ascended to dwell, the
one in the sun, the other in the moon" (411. 124).
Born of a virgin mother were also Quetzalcoatl, the culture-hero of
Mexico, and other similar characters whose lives and deeds may be read
in Dr. Brinton's _American Hero-Myths_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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