Note 2 — Chapter XIV · BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD CEREMONIES

The woman throws the parskuti into the bushes, this procedure being called tapi kûrs vutpimi, “bushes stick throw we,” and then makes a little roll of threads which is called pashti, puts it in the fire and burns herself with the roll in four places, two on each hand, once on the prominence formed by the carpo-metacarpal joint of the thumb, and once on the prominence formed by the styloid process of the radius. The burning is sometimes done for her by the woman who is to stay in the puzhars with her2 during her period of seclusion. When the ceremony is over, the woman goes into the hut with her companion and stays there for nearly a month, till three or four days before the next new moon. While in the seclusion-hut, the woman is visited by relatives and friends, who do not, however, come near the hut, but stand some way off and say kaitütudpatia? (“Have you had hand-burning?”) They leave a present of rice for the woman and go to the people of the village, by whom they are entertained.