Note 157 — Chapter V · WORSHIP OF THE MALEVOLENT DEAD.

All children born in Jyeshta Nakshatra, Mula-nakshatra, or Yamaghanta are said to cause the death of their male parent. Such children were left to starve uncared for in forests in olden times; but now-a-days they are kept alive, as certain performances are believed to avert the evil. One such performance is only to see the child after clarified butter has been given in donation. Another is to see its face after it has been bathed with the water collected from eighteen wells in a pot with a thousand holes.157 In a third, the parents of the child hold in their hands goblets filled with clarified butter, and see their faces reflected in them before the child is presented to the sight of the father.