Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/235

Rh through the form of initiating him into the mysteries of the alphabet. The following details of some of the above ceremonies are given in the Gazetteer of Malabar. "The chief ceremonies connected with pregnancy are Pumsavanam or rite to secure male offspring, at which the husband puts a grain of barley and two beans, to represent the male organ, into his wife's hand, and pours some curds over them, which the wife then swallows, and also pours some juice of karuga grass into her right nostril; and Simantham, a ceremony usually performed in the fourth month of pregnancy, at which the husband parts the wife's hair four times from back to front with a sprig of atti (Ficus glomerata), a porcupine quill which must have three white marks on it, and three blades of darba grass, all tied together, after which mantrams are sung to the accompaniment of vīnas. The first ceremony to be performed on the birth of a child is jāthakarmam. A little gold dust is mingled with ghee and honey, and the father takes up some of the mixture with a piece of gold, and smears the child's lips with it, once with a mantram and once in silence. He next washes the gold, and touches the child's ears, shoulders and head with it, and finally makes a gift of the bit of gold and performs nāndimukham. The ceremony of naming the child, or nāmakarmam, takes place on the twelfth day. The father ties a string round the child's waist, and marks its body with the sacred ash (bhasmam). Then, after the usual 'gifts' he pronounces thrice in the child's right ear the words 'Dēvadatta Sarmmasi,' or if the child be a girl, 'Nīli dāsi.' He then calls out the name thrice. Then, taking the child from its mother, he again calls out the name thrice, and finally gives the child back to its mother, who in turn