He acknowledges that he is responsible for all physical blemishes and
deficiencies which may render him answerable to the laws of his country;
that his parents have nothing whatever to do with any of these things;
and that they have a right to kill him at once if they be so minded,
though he entreats them to show their marvellous goodness and clemency by
sparing his life. If they will do this, he promises to be their most
obedient and abject creature during his earlier years, and indeed all his
life, unless they should see fit in their abundant generosity to remit
some portion of his service hereafter. And so the formula continues,
going sometimes into very minute details, according to the fancies of
family lawyers, who will not make it any shorter than they can help.
The deed being thus prepared, on the third or fourth day after the birth
of the child, or as they call it, the "final importunity," the friends
gather together, and there is a feast held, where they are all very
melancholy--as a general rule, I believe, quite truly so--and make
presents to the father and mother of the child in order to console them
for the injury which has just been done them by the unborn.
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