Few lines of Mononoke soushi...

[fevrier]

So, this manga is bizarre, just gonna warn you, but anyway, there's these two panels I can't figure out.

The first one's pretty straightforward if I can just figure out what this one word means:

昔ロベらしでこの山に捨てられた子供らさ
They're children who were abandoned on this mountain in the past to reduce the number of mouths to feed in their village.

My problem is with “ロベらし”　which as far I could gather, means something along the lines of "infanticide for the sake of preventing hunger" but I'm not really sure... and if that is right, where in the world does that word come from anyway??

I'm really having more problems with the second one, which is:

そんな前のこっちゃねえほんの数年の昔さ

The grammar is killing me on this one, and the contraction... I think she's saying something like "customs like this are years in the past" because the next line she corrects herself and says that sort of thing happens now too, but I really don't know what that verb is... help?

page:

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg229/Quercus_sapiens/072.jpg

[cmertb]

My problem is with “ロベらし”　which as far I could gather, means something along the lines of "infanticide for the sake of preventing hunger" but I'm not really sure... and if that is right, where in the world does that word come from anyway??
That would likely be 口 + 減らす = "decreasing the number of mouths".


そんな前のこっちゃねえほんの数年の昔さ

I'm not sure about this either. Probably would be best if someone else answered. In any case, I think this sentence is only slightly contracted. Should be そんな前のこっちは　ねえ　ほんの数年の昔さ. The meaning seems to be something along the lines of "That took place in the past, but it was only a few years ago."

[DrCoke]

そんな前のこっちゃねえほんの数年の昔さ is the contraction of そんな前の事ではない、ほんの数年の昔さ which translates as "It wasn't that long ago, it was only a few years in the past."

I pretty sure you and cmertb is right about the ロベらし part.

[mikkih]

口=mouth=number of people who eat
減らす=decrease

[YAMIshin]

Kuchiberashi is actually a term in Japanese to refer to the act of the family to "dump" their children to some public service because of the family's economical situation being rough (thus by dumping their child, they will have less mouth to be fed - and hopefully they can sustain their economy)

Hope that's help ^^

[Asian Cait Sith]

口べらし

What the others have wrote before me is correct.
It means to reduce mouths to feed. In the past it usually only applies to girls. When a girl reaches 7 or 8, (poor rural farming communities) family would send them off to who knows what.

Nowadays, it seems to be applied more to older people.
btw, when leaving and old woman to die, it is called 「姥捨て」

Also, there is a novel 楢山節考（ならやまぶしこう） that has this scene.
Its a story based in a rural small town in northern mainland.
HIGHLY disturbing novel.



こっちゃねえ
is just a contraction of

[事ではない] (not about ~)

たしかにリンカーンだけど、車のこっちゃねぇ！
[Thats Lincoln too, but im not talking about the car!]

something like that...