Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/79

 Unlucky Children. 67

Rohtak various ways of averting the evil he may bring are described. In one, the parents sit on a plough and bathe from an earthen vessel containing 108 or loi holes with water from the Ganges and 27 wells, 108 medicines (!) and milk. The water is passed through a sieve, but in some places a sieve is held to be unlucky. In another ceremony the parents bathe in water (passed through a sieve) drawn from 27 wells, and in which stones from 27 places and leaves from 27 trees have been placed. This must be done 27 days after the birth. 27, 14, or 7 Brahmans are also feasted. After these ceremonies a pair of snakes are made of a precious metal, and given with seven kinds of grain to the Dakaut Brahman.

In another rite, a horse-shoe, painted with vermilion figures, is burnt on the third or tenth day after the birth. It is lucky if this day falls on a Sunday.

The superstition appears then to take various forms, and the rites practised are very diverse, those used to avoid other unlucky births being often resorted to, though it appears that, strictly speaking, special rites should be per- formed. It is said to be confined in Nahan to immigrants from Hoshiarpur.

It is possibly connected with the astrological doctrine of trines, but the powers of the first-born are not thereby explained.

Several correspondents mention that the belief and rites are described in the Shastras, but no references are given. In 1885, a Sanskrit book called " Trikhal Shanti'^ was published at Lahore, giving an account of the belief. The sage Pushkar asks Bhargat how a Trikhal can be propi- tiated. The reply is that it should be abandoned, as it will cause the death of its parents and viaternal uncle^ within seven months, and also destroy itself.

' The part which the maternal uncle plays in marriage rites is well known. He is in grave peril if his sister's child cut its upper teeth first.

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