Note 64 — Chapter II · THE HEROIC AND VILLAGE GODLINGS.

Another of these divine mothers, Mâtâ Januvî or Janamî, the goddess of births, is a sort of Juno Lucina among the Râjputs, like the Greek Ilithyia, or the Carmenta of the Romans. Her power rests in a bead, and all over Northern India midwives carry as a charm to secure easy delivery a particular sort of bead, known as Kailâs Maura, or “the crown of the sacred mountain Kailâsa.” Difficult parturition is a disease caused by malignant spirits, and numerous are the devices to cure it. The ancient Britons, we are told,64 used to bind a magic girdle, impressed with numerous mystical figures, round the waist of the expectant mother, and the jewel named Aetites, found in the eagle’s nest, applied to the thigh of one in labour, eases pain and quickens delivery. Sir W. Scott65 had a small stone, called a toad-stone, which repelled demons from lying-in women.