After the birth of a child among the Indians of South America the father would eat no regular cooked food, not suitable for children, as he feared that if he did this his child would die.

[130] "Among the Arawaks of Surinam for some time after the birth of a child the father must fell no tree, fire no gun, hunt no large game; he may stay near home, shoot little birds with a bow and arrow, and angle for little fish; but his time hanging heavy on his hands the only comfortable thing he can do is to lounge in his hammock." [131] On another occasion a savage who had lately become a father, refused snuff, of which he was very fond, because his sneezing would endanger the life of his newly-born child.

They believed that any intemperance or carelessness of the father, such as drinking, eating large quantities of meat, swimming in cold weather, riding till he was tired and sweated, would endanger the child's life, and if the child died, the father was bitterly reproached with having caused its death by some such indiscretion.

[132] Here the idea clearly seems to be that the father's and child's life are one, the latter being derived from and part of the former.

The custom of the Couvade may therefore perhaps be assigned to the early patriarchal stage.