Boys and Girls.
"Sons shall be born to him; they will be put to sleep on couches;
They will be clothed in robes; they will have scepters to play with;
Their cry will be loud.
They will be (hereafter) resplendent with red knee-covers,
The (future) king, the princes of the land.
Daughters will be born to him. They will be put to sleep on the ground;
They will be clothed with wrappers; they will have tiles to play with.
It will be theirs neither to do wrong nor to do good.
Only about the spirits and the food will they have to think,
And to cause no sorrow to their parents."[85]
The baby boy was greatly welcomed upon his arrival into the family, while the baby girl might not only be unwelcomed but very greatly undesired. This was mostly because girls counted for so little as they would marry and then no longer belong to their family but entirely to the family of their husband. Boys would not only become the support of their family but they might have opportunity to acquire learning and thus add dignity and honor to their family. Too, there was great need of sons to carry on the ancestral worship and if not born into the family they must be procured through adoption or by means of concubines. Without a son a man would live without honor and would die unhappy. No matter how good or how beautiful a girl might become, she could never equal the very poorest and weakest boy.