During her periodical impurity, which lasts for four or five days, a
woman should not sleep on a cot. She must not walk across the shadow
of any man not her husband, because it is thought that if she does
so her next child will be like that man. Formerly she did not see
her husband's face for all these days, but this rule was too irksome
and has been abandoned. She should eat the same kind of food for the
whole period, and therefore must take nothing special on one day which
she cannot get on other days. At this time she will let her hair hang
loose, taking out all the cotton strings by which it is tied up. [61]
These strings, being cotton, have become impure, and must be thrown
away. But if there is no other woman to do the household work and she
has to do it herself, she will keep her hair tied up for convenience,
and only throw away the strings on the last day when she bathes. All
cotton things are rendered impure by her at this time, and any cloth
or other article which she touches must be washed before it can be
touched by anybody else; but woollen cloth, being sacred, is not
rendered impure, and she can sleep on a woollen blanket without its
thereby becoming a defilement to other persons. When bathing at the
end of the period a woman should see no other face but her husband's;
but as her husband is usually not present, she wears a ring with a
tiny mirror and looks at her own face in this as a substitute.
If a woman desires to procure a miscarriage she eats a raw _papaya_
fruit, and drinks a mixture of ginger, sugar, bamboo leaves and milk
boiled together. She then has her abdomen well rubbed by a professional
_masseuse_, who comes at a time when she can escape observation. After
a prolonged course of this treatment it is said that a miscarriage is
obtained. It would seem that the rubbing is the only treatment which
is directly effective. The _papaya_, which is a very digestible fruit,
can hardly be of assistance, but may be eaten from some magical idea of
its resemblance to a foetus. The mixture drunk is perhaps designed to
be a tonic to the stomach against the painful effects of the massage.