Note 69 — G

Birth ceremonies. 12. When a woman is ascertained to be pregnant, they invoke the marriage god Dulha Deo in the words—“If you cause the woman’s child to be born without trouble, we will give you an offering.” The offering to him is a goat and a red cock. The woman is delivered on the ground facing east. When the child is born the Chamâin midwife is called in, and she cuts the cord and buries it in the place the child was born, over which she lights a fire into which she puts a bit of iron and copper to keep off evil spirits. While the cord is being cut, the women of the clan sing the Sohar or song of rejoicing. For three days the mother gets nothing but a decoction of herbs.69 On the third day she is given a decoction of the root of the Khajûr palm (Phœnix dactylifera) and of the sarpat grass (Saccharum procerum) mixed up in a ball with some of the mangrail seed (nigella indica), ginger (sonth), coarse sugar, and the long pepper (pipal). Part of this dose is drunk by the husband, probably a survival of the couvade. On the sixth day (chhathi) the midwife bathes the mother and child, and the barber’s wife cuts the nails of all the women in the family, and colours their feet with lac dye (mahâwar). The Dhobi takes all the clothes to the wash, and the barber shaves all the men. On that day the husband’s sister (nanad) cleans the delivery room (saur) and receives a present, generally a calf, for her trouble. On the twelfth day is the barahi: the child’s head is shaved, the mother is bathed by her sister-in-law, and the barber’s wife cuts her nails and colours her feet with lac dye. She puts on clean clothes and she cooks for the household and a few clansmen.