Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/321

Rh observed at subsequent menstrual periods, as no pollution is attached to them.

No special diet or customs are observed during pregnancy by husband or wife. The woman in her confinement is attended by her female relatives and the village midwife. At the birth of a child, all the female members of the family, and other women who attend the confinement, bathe and give a bath to the mother and child. On the second and third day, from five to ten women are invited. They bring boiled water and turmeric paste to apply to the body of the mother. On the third day a ceremony called Vīralu is performed. Vīralu means the worship of the afterbirth. The midwife buries it at the outer door, throws over the grave a piece of thread, dipped in turmeric water, and some rice, turmeric powder, kunkuma (red powder) and nīm (Melia Azadirachta) leaves. She offers to it kitchade, a mess made of broken cholam (millet: Sorghum) and a dish of greens, and breaks a cocoanut. The mother, who wears on the right wrist a piece of thread with a piece of sweet flag (Acorus Calamus) tied to it, worships the grave with joined hands. The women who have brought boiled water also wear similar threads on the right wrists, and eat the chōlam and the greens. The midwife takes away the offering made to the grave, and gets also her money perquisites. The Vīralu ceremony is observed in the belief that the mother's breasts will thereby be fruitful of milk. The mother for the first time, on the day after the ceremony is over, suckles the child. Both of them receive dhulodaka (water from a Jangam's feet). The child also receives from the Jangam the lingam, which is to be his personal property for life and for eternity. The name is given to a child on the sixteenth day after birth. Five married women go to a well or river,