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98
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
There are various rural methods ir vogue for the cure of barrenness.
One of these is for the barren woman to swallow the navel-string of a new-born child. Another is to partake of the preparation called katlan,1
There are two kinds of preparations which go by the name of katlàn. One is prepared from seven pieces of dry ginger.2 The other is a mixture of suva,* sunth (dry ginger), gundar (gum arabic), gol (molasses) etc.3 In order to secure the desired effect, the katlan must be eaten seven times every Sunday or Tuesday seated on the cot of a woman in child-b'ed.*
The longing for a child is also believed to be satisfied by partaking of the food served to a woman, in confinement, sitting on her bed, either on a Sunday or Tuesday."
There is also another preparation which is believed to cause conception. It consists of a mixture of pitpàpdo (Glossocardi Boswellia), sugar-cane and butter. In order to be efficacious, it must be taken on seven consecutive days commencing from the fourth day of the monthly menstrual period.
Conception is also believed to be favoured by administering the gum of the babul tree dissolved in milk for three days commencing from the third day of the monthly period.
Some believe that, in order to be effective, this mixture must be taken standing." In some places, seeds of a vegetable plant called shivalangi are also administered."
To secure conception, a bit of coral is also caten, with the face turned towards the sun,
1 The School Master of Dhank
3 The School Master of Uptala.
5 The School Master of Sultanpur.
Other preparations taken with the belief that they cause conception are:
8
(1) Harde (Myrobalan) put in kansàr (a preparation of wheat flour cooked in water and sweetened with molasses) (2) extract of the fruit called sàrangdha, (3) paras pipalo (Thespesia populnea) mixed with clarified butter, § (4) gum mixed with plantains, (5) juice of the cooked leaves of the Arani (Elacodendren glaucum), (6) powder of Nag kesar (Messua ferrea) put into milk. and (7) the roots of Bhong ringdi (a kind of poisonous plant) mixed with the milk of a cow.10
It is also believed that if a harren woman succeeds in carrying away grains of rice from the folds of the upper garment of a pregnant woman, and eats them cooked in milk, her desire for a child is satisfied.11
In celebrating the Simànt or first pregnancy ceremony of a woman, the pregnant. woman is taken for a bath to a dung-hill or to a distance of about thirty yards behind the house. After the bath is over, she returns home walking over sheets of cloth spread on her way. On this occasion her company is coveted by barren women for the purpose of tearing off unseen a piece of her upper garment, as this is believed to bring about conception. It is said that if a woman succeeds in doing this, she conceives, while the victim has a miscarriage.12
Some believe that a slight pressure by a childless woman on the upper garment of á pregnant woman is sufficient to bring about the result mentioned above.13
7 The School Master of Dadvi.
9 The School Mistress of Rajkot, Civil Station Girls' School.
12 The School Master of Dhànk and Mr. K. D. Desai.
An ingredient used in'
The School Master of Chhatràsa.
4 The School Mistress, Girls' School, Gondal.
6 The School Master of Dhànk.
8 The School Master of Ganod
10 The School Master of Bhayavadar.
11 The School Master of Sultanpur 13 The School Master of Dadvi. preparing spices,
