204 EARLY REMINISCENCES husband as to how he felt, and as to what he wanted. It is strange how widely spread this custom is or was. It is found in Asia, Africa and among the Red Indians. The widow's remark in Sir Hudibras is true in a wider geographical sense than she supposed : " For though Chineses go to bed And lie-in in their ladies' stead." But actually the couvade or " hatching " is not known among the Chines^. Those whom Marco Polo found practising it in 1275 were some of the savage races that had been subdued by the Chinese. The latest instance recorded took place near Hasparen, at La Bastide Clairance. It was attested by the mayor : "I, the undersigned Jacques Lafourchade, landed-proprietor, mayor of La Bastide Clairance, have heard M. Etchecopari, schoolmaster, now dead, who occupied his office during forty years in the commune of Hyherre (adjoining) state : 4 In a family of the parish of Hyherre every time that the wife was confined, the husband went to bed as if ill, and received the cares comporting with the situation of his wife ; he received the compliments suitable to the occasion.' M. Etchecopari went on to say that custom required it in that family, which was one in easy circumstances. A fowl was killed, and the broth was given to the wife, but the man had the bird, which he consumed in bed. M. Etchecopari asserted that this had taken place a dozen times in his presence, between 1844 and 1858." The mayor of Hyherre also wrote : " I, J. P. Londaits, have often heard that the husband of Mme L. went to bed each time that his wife was confined, and that Mme L. has had several children, from twelve to fourteen. One lives still with her. I have myself related the fact to M. Carmes, Secretary of the Council of the Revision." These statements attracted so much attention, and provoked such comment, and drew so many visitors to the place, that it was deemed expedient for the fact, if fact it was, to be denied by the son of the woman about whom it was related. There was a case whilst we were at Bayonne, in 1851, in some Basque village, the unpronounceable name of which I do not remember. It was the talk of the neighbourhood, and numerous
