d.

"During the fifth month of pregnancy the family gods are worshipped
to avoid generally any difficulties in her labour. Towards the end of
that month and sometimes in the seventh month she rubs her body with
a preparation of gram-flour, castor-oil and turmeric, bathes herself,
and is clothed with new garments and seated on a wooden stool in a
space freshly cleaned and spread with cowdung. Her lap is then filled
with sweets called _pakwan_ made of cocoanut. A similar ceremony
called Boha Jewan is sometimes performed in the seventh or eighth
month, when a new _sari_ is given to her and grain is thrown into her
lap. Another special rite is the _Pansavan_ ceremony, performed to
remove all defects in the child, give it a male form, increase its size
and beauty, give it wisdom and avert the influence of evil spirits."

14. Earth-eating

Pregnant women sometimes have a craving for eating earth. They eat
the earth which has been mixed with wheat on the threshing-floor,
or the ashes of cowdung cakes which have been used for cooking. They
consider it as a sort of medicine which will prevent them from
vomiting. Children also sometimes get the taste for eating earth,
licking it up from the floor, or taking pieces of lime-plaster from
the walls. Possibly they may be attracted by the saltish taste, but
the result is that they get ill and their stomachs are distended. The
Panwar women of Balaghat eat red and white clay in order that their
children may be born with red and white complexions.

15. Customs at birth

During the period of labour the barber's wife watches over the case,
but as delivery approaches hands it over to a recognised midwife,
usually the Basorin or Chamarin, who remains in the lying-in room
till about the tenth day after delivery. "If delivery is retarded,"
Mr. Marten continues, [63] "pressure and massage are used, but coffee
and other herbal decoctions are given, and various means, mostly
depending on sympathetic magic, are employed to avert the adverse
spirits and hasten and ease the labour. She may be given water to
drink in which the feet of her husband [64] or her mother-in-law or a
young unmarried girl have been dipped, or she is shown the _swastik_
or some other lucky sign, or the _chakra-vyuha_, a spiral figure
showing the arrangement of the armies of the Pandavas and Kauravas
which resembles the intestines with the exit at the lower end."

The menstrual blood of the mother during chil