At child-birth they make a little separate hut for the mother near the
river where they are encamped, and she remains in it for two days and a
half. During this time her husband does no work; he stays a few paces
distant from his wife's hut and prepares her food but does not go to
the hut or touch her, and he kindles a fire between them. During the
first two days the woman gets three handfuls of rice boiled thin in
water, and on the third day she receives nothing until the evening,
when the Sendia or head of the sept takes a little cowdung, gold and
silver in his hand, and pouring water over this gives her of it to
drink as many times as the number of gods worshipped by her family
up to seven. Then she is pure. On this day the father sacrifices a
chicken and gives a meal with liquor to the caste and names the child,
calling it after one of his ancestors who is dead. Then an old woman
beats on a brass plate and calls out the name which has been given in
a loud voice to the whole camp so that they may all know the child's
name. In Bilaspur the Sonjharas observe the custom of the Couvade,
and for six days after the birth of a child the husband lies prone
in his house, while the wife gets up and goes to work, coming home to
give suck to the child when necessary. The man takes no food for three
days and on the fourth is given ginger and raw sugar, thus undergoing
the ordinary treatment of a woman after childbirth. This is supposed
by them to be a sort of compensation for the labours sustained by
the woman in bearing the child. The custom obtains among some other
primitive races, but is now rapidly being abandoned by the Sonjharas.