Note 83 — Chapter IV · WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS AND SAINTS.
Reading edition
About a month and a quarter after the delivery of a woman, a ceremony called zarmān zarvān is performed, when the woman goes to a neighbouring stream or well to fetch water for the first time after her delivery. Near the stream or well five small heaps of sand are made and daubed with red lead. Next, a lamp fed with ghi is lighted, and seven small betelnuts are offered to the stream or well. A cocoanut is then broken, and a part of it is thrown into the water as an offering. Next, the woman fills a jar with the water of the stream or well and returns home, taking with her six out of the seven betelnuts offered to the stream or well. On her way home she is approached by barren women who request to be favoured with one of the betelnuts, as it is believed that swallowing such a betelnut causes conception.83