Note 25 — The Cycle of Life

For a month succeeding the birth, the mother must follow a very strict set of rules. Each day she is bathed with water in which certain herbs and leaves, distasteful to evil spirits, are boiled.25 Beginning with the second day and until the tenth she must add one bath each day, at least one of which is in cold water. From the tenth to the twenty-fourth day she takes one hot and one cold bath, and from then to the end of the month she continues the one hot bath. Until these are completed, the family must keep a strip of ayabong bark burning beneath the house, in order to protect the baby from evil spirits. As an additional defence, a miniature bow and arrow, and a bamboo shield, with a leaf attached, as hung above the infant's head (Fig. 4, No. 1).