I have been told is common
in some parts of Wales. It is much safer than the other method, less
tiresome to the nurse, and the child has the advantage of sitting in a
less constrained posture: but the defensive armour of stays, and
offensive weapons called pins, might be some objection to the general
introduction of the fashion in England. The children are nursed but
little, not confined by any swathing or bandages, and, being suffered to
roll about the floor, soon learn to walk and shift for themselves. When
cradles are used they are swung suspended from the ceiling of the rooms.

AGE OF THE PEOPLE.

The country people can very seldom give an account of their age, being
entirely without any species of chronology. Among those country people
who profess themselves Mahometans to very few is the date of the Hejra
known; and even of those who in their writings make use of it not one in
ten can pronounce in what year of it he was born. After a few taun padi
(harvests) are elapsed they are bewildered in regard to the date of an
event, and only guess at it from some contemporary circumstance of
notoriety, as the appointment of a particular dupati, the incursion of a
certain enemy, or the like. As far as can be judged from observation it
would seem that not a great proportion of the men attain to the age of
fifty, and sixty years is accounted a long life.

NAMES.

The children among the Rejangs have generally a name given to them by
their parents soon after their birth, which is called namo daging. The
galar (cognomen), another species of name, or title, as we improperly
translate it, is bestowed at a subsequent, but not at any determinate,
period: sometimes as the lads rise to manhood, at an entertainment given
by the parent, on some particular occasion; and often at their marriage.
It is generally conferred by the old men of the neighbouring villages,
when assembled; but instances occur of its being irregularly assumed by
the persons themselves; and some never obtain any galar. It is also not
unusual, at a convention held on business of importance, to change the
galar of one or two of the principal personages to others of superior
estimation; though it is not easy to discover in what this pre-eminence
consists, the appellations being entirely arbitrary, at the fancy of
those who confer them: perhaps in the loftier sound, or more pompous
allusion in the sense, which latter is sometimes carried to an
extraordinary pitch of