apathy until aroused by a new occasion-

by a baptism, a wedding, or other happen- ing of the kind. Directly a child was born the parents made it their first care to perform over the little one every ceremony prescribed by decorum, and then to follow up the christening with a banquet. There- after the child's bringing up began accord- ing to a system dictated by the mother and the nurse for his healthy development, and for his protection from cold, from the evil eye, and from sundry other inimical influ- ences. Indeed, no pains were spared to keep the youngster in good appetite and spirits. Also as soon as he was able to fend for himself, and a nurse had become a superfluity, his mother would be seized with a desire to procure for him a helpmeet as strong and as ruddy as himself ; whereupon there would ensue a further epoch of rites and feastings, until eventually a marriage had been arranged. Always this consum- mation represented the epitome of life's inci- dents, and as soon as it was reached there began a repetition of births, rites, and banquets, until, finally, a funeral ceremony interrupted the festivities though not for long, since other faces would appear to succeed the old ones, and children would