Note 19 — Chapter XIV · BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD CEREMONIES

While in the seclusion-hut with its mother and for some time after, the child has its face covered, and no one except the mother is allowed to see it. At the end of the third month19 the face of the child is uncovered, and this ceremony is called mokh mûtâr terithti, “child outside he opens,” or, more shortly, mûtâr terthpimi. If the child is a boy, he is taken by his father early in the morning to the front of the dairy, and both father and child bow down at the threshold of the dairy (pavnersatiti), the child being put down by his father so that his forehead touches the threshold. The child is then taken to the place where the buffaloes are standing, and there the face is uncovered, the child being held so that he looks towards the sun when the covering is removed.