Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/506

 right of it. After three days the child began to be carried, and some archery was practised for a boy, but not for a girl.

17. When a son and heir to the ruler of a state was born, and information of the fact was carried to him, he made arrangements to receive him at a feast where the three animals should all be provided; and the cook took in hand the (necessary) preparations. On the third day the tortoise-shell was consulted for a good man to carry the child; and he who was the lucky choice, kept a vigil over night, and then in his court robes, received him in his arms outside the chamber. The master of the archers then took a bow of mulberry wood, and six arrows of the wild rub us, and shot towards heaven, earth, and the four cardinal points. After this the nurse received the child and carried it in her arms. The cook (at the same time) gave (a cup of) sweet wine to the man who had carried the child, and presented him with a bundle of silks, and the tortoise-shell was again employed to determine the wife of an officer, or the concubine of a Great officer, who should be nurse.

18. In all cases of receiving a son, a day was chosen; and if it were the eldest son of the king, the three animals were killed (for the occasion). For the son of a common man, a sucking-pig was killed; for the son of an officer, a single pig; for the son of a Great officer, the two smaller animals; and for the son of the ruler of a state, all the three. If it were not the eldest son, the provision was diminished in every case one degree.

19. A special apartment was prepared in the