Birth.
In addition to the articles of food which women are forbidden to eat at all times, there are certain other things which are prohibited during pregnancy. Neither the woman nor her husband may eat tortoise or pangolin,26 indeed she must not even touch a tortoise, and her husband, though he may touch one, may not bring one into the house or allow anyone else to do so. The wife may not eat bear’s meat or the kill of any wild animal, and if her husband eats any of these things he must sleep apart from her the following [145]night. It is most important that neither the husband nor the wife should kill a snake during this time. Were they to do so the expected child would have a tremulous tongue. Some pregnant women even object to a snake being killed in their presence. It is also forbidden to an expectant mother to cut her hair. Any hairs which fall out are carefully collected and twisted into the hair-band. At the time of delivery the woman lies on her side and is attended to by an old midwife called Oshangessi (“thrower-away of afterbirth”). The husband and female relations may remain present. The household goods are only put outside when delivery is delayed. In cases of very painful birth the father either makes fire with a fire-stick and fumigates the woman, or exchanges drinks of hot “rohi madhu” with her. Occasionally the father spits on his fingers and puts a little of his saliva on the woman’s stomach. This is regarded as an infallible remedy in cases of difficult delivery.27 The Oshangessi, the moment the child is born, calls it by some name other than that which is to be its real name, in order that the evil spirits (tsandhramo) who are listening at the door may be deceived and go away, thinking they are in possession of the real name, which is not given till six days later in the case of a boy and five days later in the case of a girl. The name finally chosen is invariably one which has been borne by a member of the clan before. The false name having been given, the Oshangessi washes the child and puts a little boiled rice into its mouth. The navel string is put into a “chunga” and carefully kept by the parents in their house. If it were thrown away and eaten by a dog or pig or otherwise destroyed the child would die. The Oshangessi wraps up the afterbirth in bits of rag and tsampen (wild lemon) leaves in the case of a boy and michem leaves in the case of a girl, and putting [146]it in a little basket hangs it up on a michem tree, a tree with white flowers, well out of the way of dogs and pigs, who would cause the death or serious illness of the child if they ate it. There is one such tree on the outskirts of every “khel” which is used for afterbirths.28
For the next six days in the case of a boy, or five days in the case of a girl, the parents must not speak to any strangers, nor may any strangers come to the house.29 Freshly killed meat too must not be brought into the house. For these days the child is regarded as in a sense still in the process of being born. The custom until recently was to regard a mother who died during this time as having died in childbirth,30 and abandon the house and all its contents. At the end of five or six days as the case may be the ceremony of first carrying the child is performed. Into the hands of a son the father puts a miniature “madhu chunga” and wooden dao and says, “If I go on the warpath, if I go hunting, if I go fishing, I will take you with me. Grow up a strong, famous man.” He then places the child for a moment in a carrying cloth on the back of the first “carrier” (Ngaromuchung), who must be a boy for a male child and a girl for a female child, but may be of any clan. For a daughter the father puts into her hands a miniature weaving sword and belt and says, “If I go to the fields, if I go to pick leaves in the jungle, I will take you with me. Grow up quickly and be strong.” She is then given to the Ngaromuchung to carry for a minute. For the rest of that day the Ngaromuchung must avoid going down the path by which the spirits of the dead leave the village, in case he or she should unwittingly carry the child’s soul (omon) with her. After the child has been carried by the Ngaromuchung the lobes of the child’s ears are pierced with a sharp bamboo needle. The Oshangessi [147]usually does this, but if she is old and her hand unsteady the father drives the needle through at the place indicated by her. A little plug of cotton wool is put in to prevent the hole closing up.
Boys are suckled for three years as a rule and girls for two, but a little “grown-ups’ ” food is given from a very early age. Bat’s-flesh soup is considered to be a good tonic for a child whom its mother cannot suckle properly for any reason. Within about a month of birth the child is given its first taste of meat. If possible bulbul is given, because this bird twitters so much that by eating it a child will soon learn how to talk. Substitutes are a small fish called ngolelop, or a species of cuckoo called liyosangsü, which is said to be able to imitate the call of all birds and animals.
As soon as the mother is well enough to take the child out of the house she cuts off a little of its hair and either throws it away or wraps it in a leaf and keeps it. The heads of little boys are shaved except for a little piece on the crown, which is gradually allowed to increase until by the time he can run about his coiffure is like that of a grown man. Little girls have the whole of their heads shaved till they begin to wear a skirt, which is generally when they are five or six years old. It is then allowed to grow, beginning in the spring, “so that it grows with the jungle,” as one informant expressed it to the writer.