side a boy is portended, but if on the left side a girl. If delivery
is retarded they go to a gunmaker and obtain from him a gun which
has been discharged and the soiling of the barrel left uncleaned;
some water is put into the barrel and shaken up and then poured into
a vessel and given to the woman to drink, and it is thought that the
quality of swift movement appertaining to the bullet which soiled
the barrel will be communicated to the woman and cause the swift
expulsion of the child from her womb.

10. Childbirth

When a woman is in labour she squats down with her legs apart holding
to the bed in front of her, while the midwife rubs her back. If
delivery is retarded the midwife gets a broom and sitting behind
the woman presses it on her stomach, at the same time drawing back
the upper part of her body. By this means they think the child will
be forced from the womb. Or the mother of the woman in labour will
take a grinding-stone and stand holding it on her head so long as
the child is not born. She says to her daughter, 'Take my name,'
and the daughter repeats her mother's name aloud. Here the idea is
apparently that the mother takes on herself some of the pain which
has to be endured by the daughter, and the repetition of her name
by the daughter will cause the goddess of childbirth to hasten the
period of delivery in order to terminate the unjust sufferings of
the mother for which the goddess has become responsible. The mother's
name exerts pressure or influence on the goddess who is at the time
occupied with the daughter or perhaps sojourning in her body.

11. Treatment of the mother

If a child is born in the morning they will give the mother a little
sugar and cocoanut to eat in the evening, but if it is born in the
evening they will give her nothing till next morning. Milk is given
only sparingly as it is supposed to produce coughing. The main idea of
treatment in childbirth is to prevent either the mother or child from
taking cold or chill, this being the principal danger to which they
are thought to be exposed. The door of the birth chamber is therefore
kept shut and a fire is continually burning in it night and day. The
woman is not bathed for several days, and the atmosphere and general
insanitary conditions can better be imagined than described. With
the same end of preventing cold they feed the mother on a hot liquid
produced by cooking thirty-six ingredients together. Most of these
are