er nor the child.

_Rules for the Ninth Month._

In the ninth month let her have a care of lifting any great weight, but
let her move a little more, to dilate the parts, and stir up natural
heat. Let her take heed of stooping, and neither sit too much nor lie on
her sides, neither ought she to bend herself much enfolded in the
umbilical ligaments, by which means it often perisheth. Let her walk and
stir often, and let her exercise be, rather to go upwards than
downwards. Let her diet, now especially, be light and easy of digestion
and damask prunes with sugar, or figs with raisins, before meat, as also
the yolks of eggs, flesh and broth of chickens, birds, partridges and
pheasants; astringent and roasted meats, with rice, hard eggs, millet
and such like other things are proper. Baths of sweet water, with
emollient herbs, ought to be used by her this month with some
intermission, and after the baths let her belly be anointed with oil of
sweet roses and of violets; but for her privy parts, it is better to
anoint them with the fat of hens, geese or ducks, or with oil of
lilies, and the decoction of linseed and fenugreek, boiled with oil of
linseed and marshmallows, or with the following liniment:--

Take mallows and marshmallows, cut and shred, of each one ounce; of
linseed, one ounce; let them be boiled from twenty ounces of water to
ten; then let her take three ounces of the boiled broth, of oil of
almonds and oil of flower-de-luce, of each one ounce; of deer's suet,
three ounces. Let her bathe with this, and anoint herself with it, warm.

If for fourteen days before the birth, she do every morning and evening
bathe and moisten her belly with muscadine and lavender water, the child
will be much strengthened thereby. And if every day she eat toasted
bread, it will hinder anything from growing to the child. Her privy
parts must be gently stroked down with this fomentation.

"Take three ounces of linseed, and one handful each of mallows and
marshmallows sliced, then let them be put into a bag and immediately
boiled." Let the woman with child, every morning and evening, take the
vapour of this decoction in a hollow stool, taking great heed that no
wind or air come to her in-parts, and then let her wipe the part so
anointed with a linen cloth, and she may anoint the belly and groins as
at first.

When she has come so near to her time, as to be ten or fourteen days
thereof, if she begins to feel any more than ordinar