56 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. VI. 



to the child she again says the little prayer, but now inserts all the names 

 it has received. Her£upon she hands the child to the mother, who 

 repeats the same performance. Both then hold their hands containing 

 the meal to their lips, breathe a prayer over it. sprinkle it towards the 

 rising sun, kiss the child, and then return to the house. Here the 

 morning meal is now prepared and partaken of. First, those who have 

 bathed the child and the members of the house eat. Then the grand- 

 mother on the mother's side goes through the houses and invites any 

 one to come and share with them the morning meal. Sometimes it 



is even announced by the crier. 

 Any food may from now be eaten 

 by the mother, and a little meat 

 and salty food are even given to 

 the baby. The cover that carefully 

 kept out the sunshine during the 

 twenty days is not put up on this 

 day, and everything in the house 

 assumes normal conditions again. 

 The child is then rubbed all 

 over the body with a mixture of 

 tallow and clita (a red ochre). 

 This is later on repeated every 

 few days for about a month, to 

 clean the child's skin, the women 

 say. On the fifth and tenth days 

 after these rites, the woman once 

 more washes the child's and her 

 own head, but hers with cold water. In the case of a primapara this is 

 done on the tenth and twentieth days. During these respective periods 

 they are also supposed to observe the strictest continence. 



While the manner of procedure during these ceremonies is essen- 

 tially the same in the different families, it naturally varies in small 

 details; for instance, where the grandmothers are no longer living, 

 one of her relatives takes her place, or sometimes the mother washes her 

 own head, sometimes it is done by her mother-in-law. Some details 

 are also determined by the condition of the patient; but the rites are 

 described as nearly as possible as they should be, and as they are per- 

 formed under normal circumstances. 



Fig. 5. Mother of the child waving the 

 ears of com to the rising sun. 



