Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/33

Rh The miduifc is given a fee of four annas in the case of a son, and two annas in the case of a daughter; her remuneration not being in proportion to her skill, but to the relative value of the infant she assists into the world. On the 10th or 15th day, mother and child are washed and adorned by the married women, who bring warm water, saffron, oil, etc., for the purpose, and the mother distributes betel—a conventional civility, like offering afternoon tea—and prepares a meal for all present.

The dead are usually buried quite naked, the cloths being discarded at the grave. Leaves are spread over the bodies of women before the earth is filled in. Grain and other food and burning camphor are always left at the grave. If a death takes place on an unlucky day, a fowl, a piece of iron, some salt, and some lamp-oil, are buried with the corpse. On the third day after death, food (flesh or fish and rice) is placed on the grave: or if the deceased was a child, milk is poured over the grave. The food is carried on leaves of the Bilva tree, Aegle marmelos; it is held in great sanctity by the Saivite sects, who will not on any account touch any part of it except for some holy purpose. Those who carried the corpse are fed on their return home.

The final ceremony for the dead is performed on the 11th or 15th day after death. A sheep is killed and the meat is cooked. If the deceased was a man, his widow, dressed in her best cloths and decked with jewels, is taken to the grave, where her bangles (the common sort usually, made of glass or a compound of wax) are broken, her necklace of black beads is removed, and, leaving some food on the grave, the widow is taken to a stream and bathed, and her toe-rings are removed and broken. She is then given a new cloth, called a "widow's covering", and thenceforth she is not allowed to use saffron for personal adornment. When the deceased was a woman, her husband is treated in much the same style. After he has been bathed his