During her monthly impurity a woman stays apart and may not cook
for herself nor touch anybody nor sleep on a bed made of cotton
thread. As soon as she is in this condition she will untie the cotton
threads confining her hair and throw them away, letting her hair hang
down. This is because they have become impure. But if there is no
other woman in the house and she must continue to do the household
work herself, she does not throw them away until the last day. [29]
Similarly she must not sleep on a cotton sheet or mattress during
this time because she would defile it, but she may sleep on a woollen
blanket as wool is a holy material and is not defiled. At the end of
the period she proceeds to a stream and purifies herself by bathing
and washing her head with earth. When a woman is with child for the
first time her women friends come and give her new green clothes and
bangles in the seventh month; they then put her into a swing and sing
songs. While she is pregnant she is made to work in the house so as
not to be inactive. After the birth of a child the mother remains
impure for twelve days. A woman of the Mang or Mahar caste acts as
midwife, and always breaks her bangles and puts on new ones after she
has assisted at a birth. If delivery is prolonged the woman is given
hot water and sugar or camphor wrapped in a betel-leaf, or they put
a few grains of gram into her hand and then someone takes and feeds
them to a mare, as it is thought that the woman's pregnancy has been
prolonged by her having walked behind the tethering-ropes of a mare,
which is twelve months in foal. Or she is given water to drink in
which a Sulaimani onyx or a rupee of Akbar's time has been washed;
in the former case the idea is perhaps that a passage will be made
for the child like the hole through the bead, while the virtue of the
rupee probably consists in its being a silver coin and having the image
or device of a powerful king like Akbar. Or it may be thought that as
the coin has passed from hand to hand for so long, it will facilitate
the passage of the child from the womb. A pregnant woman must not
look on a dead body or her child may be still-born, and she must not
see an eclipse or the child may be born maimed. Some believe that if
a child is born during an eclipse it will suffer from lung-disease;
so they make a silver model of the moon while the eclipse lasts and
hang it round the child's neck as a charm. Sometimes when delivery
is delayed they take a folded flower and place it in a pot of water
and believe that as its petals unfold so the womb will be opened
and the child born; or they seat the woman on a wooden bench and
pour oil on her head, her forehead being afterwards rubbed with it
in the belief that as the oil falls so the child will be born. If a
child is a long time before learning to speak they give it leaves of
the pipal tree to eat, because the leaves of this tree make a noise
by rustling in the wind; or a root which is very light in weight,
because they think that the tongue is heavy and the quality of
lightness will thus be communicated to it. Or the mother, when she
has kneaded dough and washed her hands afterwards, will pour a drop
or two of the water down the child's throat. And the water which
made her hands clean and smooth will similarly clear the child's
throat of the obstruction which prevented it from speaking. If a
child's neck is weak and its head rolls about they make it look at a
crow perching on the house and think this will make its neck strong
like the crow's. If he cannot walk they make a little triangle on
wheels with a pole called _ghurghuri_, and make him walk holding on
to the pole. The first teeth of the child are thrown on to the roof
of the house, because the rats, who have especially good and sharp
teeth, live there, and it is hoped that the child's second teeth may
grow like theirs. A few grains of rice are also thrown so that the
teeth may be hard and pointed like the rice; the same word, _kani_,
being used for the end of a grain of rice and the tip of a tooth. Or
the teeth are placed under a water-pot in the hope that the child's
second teeth may grow as fast as the grass does under water-pots. If
a child is lean some people take it to a place where asses have lain
down and rolled in ashes; they roll the child in the ashes similarly
and believe that it will get fat like the asses are. Or they may lay
the child in a pigsty with the same idea. People who want to injure
a child get hold of its coat and lay it out in the sun to dry, in
the belief that the child's body will dry up in a similar manner. In
order to avert the evil eye they burn some turmeric and juari flour
and hold the newly-born child in the smoke. It is also branded on
the stomach with a burning piece of turmeric, perhaps to keep off
cold. For the first day or two after birth a child is given cow's
milk mixed with water or honey and a little castor oil, and after
this it is suckled by the mother. But if she is unable to nourish it
a wet-nurse is called in, who may be a woman of low caste or even a
Muhammadan. The mother is given no regular food for the first two days,
but only some sugar and spices. Until the child is six months old its
head and body are oiled every second or third day and the body is well
hand-rubbed and bathed. The rubbing is meant to make the limbs supple
and the oil to render the child less susceptible to cold. If a child
when sitting soon after birth looks down through its legs they think
it is looking for its companions whom it has left behind and that more
children will be born. It is considered a bad sign if a child bites
its upper teeth on its underlip; this is thought to prognosticate
illness and the child is prevented from doing so as far as possible.