Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/299

Rh after birth and gave it a name. After the establishment of the new religion the privilege of naming the child remained with the father until it was set aside in favour of the godfather in 813.

At the present day infant baptism is a very widely observed custom, not only among Christian nations, but also among heathens.

In the huts of the Yoruba negroes of the West Coast of Africa there is a sacred tree, around which stand pots full of water, and with this water the face of the newborn baby is sprinkled during the ceremony.

The LlamasLamas [sic] of Mongolia and Tibet, it is said, dip the new-born child three times into water, naming it as they do so. Buddha was so baptized by the snake-gods, according to the story, but the Buddhist community as a whole do not perform the rite.

Among the Maories of New Zealand the taboo of the child after birth is removed by a fire ceremony and a water-sprinkling ceremony. The latter is described as follows:

A number of clay balls are made by the priest and little mounds are erected; each mound is named after a god, and each clay ball after an ancestral chief. The priest then takes a branch of Karamu or Kawa, parts it, and binds it half round the baby's waist, chanting an invocation beginning, "There are mounds risen up," etc. When this is finished he sprinkles the mother and child with water by means of a branch, and chants again. Then three ovens are made, one for the mother, one for the priests, and one for the gods. In these ovens food is cooked. A number of pieces of pumice are then placed in a row and named after the child's ancestors. And to each of these stones in turn food is presented, with an incantation beginning, "This is your food," etc. Then the