Note 29 — RELIGION

For the next six days in the case of a boy, or five days in the case of a girl, the parents must not speak to any strangers, nor may any strangers come to the house.29 Freshly killed meat too must not be brought into the house. For these days the child is regarded as in a sense still in the process of being born. The custom until recently was to regard a mother who died during this time as having died in childbirth,30 and abandon the house and all its contents. At the end of five or six days as the case may be the ceremony of first carrying the child is performed. Into the hands of a son the father puts a miniature “madhu chunga” and wooden dao and says, “If I go on the warpath, if I go hunting, if I go fishing, I will take you with me. Grow up a strong, famous man.” He then places the child for a moment in a carrying cloth on the back of the first “carrier” (Ngaromuchung), who must be a boy for a male child and a girl for a female child, but may be of any clan. For a daughter the father puts into her hands a miniature weaving sword and belt and says, “If I go to the fields, if I go to pick leaves in the jungle, I will take you with me. Grow up quickly and be strong.” She is then given to the Ngaromuchung to carry for a minute. For the rest of that day the Ngaromuchung must avoid going down the path by which the spirits of the dead leave the village, in case he or she should unwittingly carry the child’s soul (omon) with her. After the child has been carried by the Ngaromuchung the lobes of the child’s ears are pierced with a sharp bamboo needle. The Oshangessi usually does this, but if she is old and her hand unsteady the father drives the needle through at the place indicated by her. A little plug of cotton wool is put in to prevent the hole closing up.