If a pregnant woman is thin and ailing they think a boy will be born;
but if fat and well that it will be a girl. In order to divine the sex
of a coming child they pour a little oil on the stomach of the woman;
if the oil flows straight down it is thought that a boy will be born
and if crooked a girl. Similarly if the hair on the front of her body
grows straight they think the child will be a boy, but if crooked a
girl; and if the swelling of pregnancy is more apparent on the right
side a boy is portended, but if on the left side a girl. If delivery
is retarded they go to a gunmaker and obtain from him a gun which
has been discharged and the soiling of the barrel left uncleaned;
some water is put into the barrel and shaken up and then poured into
a vessel and given to the woman to drink, and it is thought that the
quality of swift movement appertaining to the bullet which soiled
the barrel will be communicated to the woman and cause the swift
expulsion of the child from her womb.