If a child is born at an unlucky season, they take two winnowing-fans
and tie the baby between them with a thread wound many times round
about. A cow is brought and made to lick the child, which is thus
supposed to have been born again from it as a calf, the evil omen of
the first birth being removed. The father performs the fire sacrifice,
and a human figure is made from cooked rice and worshipped. A
burning wick is placed in its stomach and it is taken out and left
at cross-roads, this being probably a substitute for the member of
the family whose death was presaged by the untimely birth of the
child. Similarly if any one dies at the astronomical period known as
Panchak, they make five figures of wheat-flour and burn or bury them
with the body, as it is thought that otherwise five members of the
family would die.