Note 72 — Chapter IV · WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS AND SAINTS.
Reading edition
In celebrating the Simānt or first pregnancy ceremony of a woman, the pregnant woman is taken for a bath to a dung-hill or to a distance of about thirty yards behind the house. After the bath is over, she returns home walking over sheets of cloth spread on her way. On this occasion her company is coveted by barren women for the purpose of tearing off unseen a piece of her upper garment, as this is believed to bring about conception. It is said that if a woman succeeds in doing this, she conceives, while the victim has a miscarriage.72