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I
I
BooK
IV.
Royal
Commentariet.
CH AP.
XII.
That
they
educated their Children without
any
tender–
nefs.
A
s
Well
the
/ncM,
as
the Commonalty, both rich and poor, bred
Up
their
Children with the leafi: of tendernefs and delicacy that was poffible: for
fo
foon as an Infant was born, they wafhed it
in
cold water, before they fwached
it
in
its
Mantles· and then every morning they bathed it in cold water , and fome–
times expofed 'it
to
the dew of the night; perhaps the
Moth~r
would
fometi~es
out of rendernefs
f
pirt the water out of her mourh on the Child, and fo wafh
it;
but aenerally they had an opinion , that cold and exercife did corroborate and
firenichen the Body and Limbs:
their Armes they kept
f
wathed, and bound
down for three months, upon fuppofition, that
to
loofe diem fooner, would wea–
ken them; they kept them always in their Cradles, which was a pitifull kind of
a frame fet on four legs, one of which was fhorter than the refr, for convenience
. of rocking
7
the Bed was made of a fort ofcourfe knitting, which was fomething
more foft than the bare boards, and with a firing of this knitting they bound up
theChild on one fide, and the other,
to
keep it from falling out.
When they gave them fuck they never took them into their Lap or
Armes,
for if they had ufed them
in
that manner, they_ believed that they would never
leave crying, and would always exRett to be
in
Armes, and not lie quiet
in
their Cradles; . and therefore the Mother would lean over the Child, and reach
it
the Breafi, which they did three times a day, that
is,
at morning, noon and night,
and unlefs
it
were at thofe times, they never gave it fuck; for they faid, that not
accufioming
it
to (et hours, would caufe it
to
expett fuckling the whole day, and
be never quiet, but when the Breafr was at the Mouth; which caufes frequent
vomits and pewkings, and made them when they were grown Men, robe glut–
tons, and drunkards; for we fee, faid tbey, in other Creatures, that they admini–
frer their Dugs and Nipples to their Young at certain hours and feafons. The
Mother always nurfed lier own Child, for though fhe were a Lady of the highell:
degree, fhe would never fuffer her Infant to be nourifhed with the milk ofanother,
unlefs in the cafe of ficknefs, or fome other infirmity; and during the time of
their nurGng, they abfi:ained from the Bed of their Husbands, a that which would
curdle their milk, and make the Child a Changeling. Such as were thus transferred
to firanger Nurfe, were called
Ayufaa,
which
is
a participle of the preterperfett ren[e,
and
is
as much as to fay, one denied, or renounced, or changed by
its
Parents; and
by
way of Metaphor the younger fort would reproach one the od1er with that
word, intimating that his Miftrefs fhew'd more favour to his Rival than to him–
felf; to utter that word
to
a married man were a high affront, being one of thofe
five words that are fcandalous, and will bear an Aetion.
I knew once a
Palla
or
Lady of the Bloud Royal, who was forced to give her Daughter to be fuckled by
another; the faithlefs Nurfe proving with Child, her Fofter-child fell into a Con–
furnption and Convulfions, and became nothing but Skin and Bones; the Mother
finding her Daughter in this manner made
Ayufca,
at the end of eight months after
when ilie had almofr dried up her milk, fhe refiored her Infant to her own narurai
Breafis, which fetched down her milk again, and applying an Unguent of Herbs
to the Shoulders, the Infant recovered, which was before given over
as
in a de–
fperate
co~~ition;
fuch is"' the virtue of the Mother's Milli:, that
the~e
is nothing
more medicmal, and nothmg more refrorative than that natural fuftenance.
If_the Mother had a
fuffi~ient fi~ck
of
Milk, the Child never received any other
nounfhment than that, unull the time it was weaned ; for they were of opinion;
~hat
all ?ther forts <?f food created nothing but crudities and indigeftions.
When
it
~as
time to take 1t out of :he
Cr~dle,
they made a little pit for
it
in the floor,
which reached to the Breaft, m which they put
it,
with fome old clouts co m!ke
-
it
Ill
\.