Praise of a Child.

A child is like a rare bird
A child is precious like coral
A child is precious like brass
You cannot buy a child on the market
Not for all the money in the world
The child you can buy for money is a slave.
We may have twenty slaves
We may have thirty labourers
Only a child brings us joy
One's child is one's child
The buttocks of our child are not so flat
That we should tie the beads on another child's hips
It may have a watery head or a square head.
One's child is one's child
It is better to leave behind a child
Then let the slave inherit one's house
One must not rejoice too soon over a child
Only the one who is burried by the child
Is the one who has truly borne a child
On the day of our death, our hand cannot hold a single cowry
We need a child to inherit our belongings.

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