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190
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JULY, 1911.
AN ENQUIRY INTO THE BIRTH AND MARRIAGE CUSTOMS OF THE KHASIYAS
AND THE BHOTIYAS OF ALMORA DISTRICT, U.P. BY PANNA LALL, M.A., B.Sc., LL.B., 1.C.S.
Birth Customs. From the commencement of the sixth month of pregnancy, a woman is supposed to become unclean. Her relations would not eat food cooked by her (probably intended to lighten her domestic work during this difficult time).
In the eighth month there is a pre-natal ceremony. The husband and the wife sit together and worship the family gods, a Brahman priest officiating.
There are a number of methods employed to lighten the labour: (a) the busband bas to go stark naked and fetch water from the junction of two streams. He must take care, when filling the bucket or other vessel with the water, to move it in the water downwards, i.e., in the direction of the carrent. This water, if sprinkled over the lady, would ease the delivery of the child. So will also any of the following: (b) a weapon, that has committed some bloody deed (e.g., a sword or a dagger that has tasted human blood), is kept in the patient's bed; (c) or a piece of a rope, which has been used to hang a man; hence a demand for bits of the bangman's rope from the jail; (d) or the genital organ of a bear kept under the pillow; a man must steal the iron head-piece of a moosal (a big wooden pestle) on a Somarati Amavasya. From this iron, rings sbould be made, which, if worn by the woman, would ease her pain; () a man must first untie the knot of his chos (pig-tail), then pick some grass which he must tie with three strands of cotton. These, tied to a woman's waist, are of great effect.
The child's name is determined by the priest according to astrological considerations, though the parents, if so inclined, may give another name of their own selection. This ceremony is usually performed on the eleventh day. The people of the bradri and friends are invited. They bring presents and are feasted.
The umbilical cord is not buried, but is placed outside the house on the top of the door (above the lintel). In some parts of the district it is so placed on the top of the door of the Raja's house (Tahsil, Deputy Commissioner's office, and so forth).
A child dying during infancy is buried, the term infancy being interpreted variously. Some would bury a child if it died before his Yajnoparit investiture with the sacred thread). Others only if it had not eaten any grain (see below). Others again would cremato (not bury) a child if it had grown a tooth.
A woman during child-birth is isolated ; but it seems to be due now not to any idea that it is she who is at that time specially susceptible to infection (as it must have been once) but that she herself is in a state of pollution and untouchable. To protect her, however, from the harmful visits of evil spirits, a fire must be kept alive in her room all the time, and in some places a sword or a dagger kept there as well.
A woman who is enceinte must not eaturd-ki-dal or green vegetables.. Cayenne-pepper and meat are prohibited too. And she must eat only sparingly of salt. After child-birth, too, she may drink only medicated water, and eat panjri, a sweet preparation, or boiled rice by itself.
A woman who has given birth to a chill must bathe on the 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th, and 22nd days of the delivery. Only then will her relations take food or water that has been touched by her. Up to the eleventh-day bath, indeed, even her touch causes pollution ; this extreme strictness is however relaxed after the eleventh day, though none inay eat things touched by ber until the twenty-second day. The sixth day is however an exception-on that day her touch causes no pollution to men or food. The original reason of these may have been to give a woman absolute rest for eleven days and no task for twenty-two days.
