Page:Shubala - a child-mother (IA shubalachildmoth00soraiala).pdf/16

 Rani explained that it was part of the ritual attending child-birth—live coals are placed upon the Mother, "and if it is her fate to live, she will live, though there will be a burn: if it is not her fate to live, she will die."

We got past the difficulty that night, by the grace of my Rani, using hot Ganges water in bottles, an oblation to Mother Ganga, on Shubala's poor little body; and burning the coals, our oblation to Fire, on a tin-plate in the window.

And Shubala lived—without the burn. But it was very nearly otherwise.

And the Baby? Even in this household where love and comparative enlightenment greeted the child, its earliest days were inset in one long neglect.

It was unclean, and for 40 days the mother might not touch it, nor the grandmother or great-grandmother.

It was left to servants who were untrained and unlearned in aught but magic lore. That the evil eye should not fall