On the sixth day after birth they believe that Chhathi or Satwai Devi,
the Sixth-day Goddess, comes at midnight and writes on the child's
forehead its fate in life, which writing, it is said, may be seen
on a man's skull when the flesh has come off it after death. On this
night the women of the family stay awake all night singing songs and
eating sweetmeats. A picture of the goddess is drawn with turmeric
and vermilion over the mother's bed. The door of the birth-room is
left open, and at midnight she comes. Sometimes a Sunar is employed
to make a small image of Chhathi Devi, for which he is paid Rs. 1-4,
and it is hung round the child's neck. On this day the mother is
given to eat all kinds of grain, and among flesh-eating castes the
soup of fish and meat, because it is thought that every kind of food
which the mother eats this day will be easily digested by the child
throughout its life. On this day the mother is given a second bath,
the first being on the day of the birth, and she must not bathe in
between. Sometimes after childbirth a woman buys several bottles of
liquor and has a bath in it; the stimulating effect of the spirit is
supposed to remedy the distension of the body caused by the birth. If
the child is a boy it is named on the twelfth and if a girl on the
thirteenth day. On the twelfth day the mother's bangles are thrown
away and new ones put on. The Kunbis are very kind to their children,
and never harsh or quick-tempered, but this may perhaps be partly due
to their constitutional lethargy. They seldom refuse a child anything,
but taking advantage of its innocence will by dissimulation make it
forget what it wanted. The time arrives when this course of conduct
is useless, and then the child learns to mistrust the word of its
parents. Minute quantities of opium are generally administered to
children as a narcotic.