PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 35 



observes the fourth lunar day of every dark fortnight 

 as a fast and breaks her fast only after seeing the moon, 

 generally before nine or ten o'clock in the evening. A 

 dish of twenty-one balls of rice like marbles having 

 been prepared, in one of which is put some salt, it is 

 then placed before her ; and if she first lay her hand on 

 the ball containing salt, she will be blessed with a son. 

 In this case no more is eaten ; otherwise she goes on 

 until she takes the salted ball. This is a ceremony 

 which may only be observed a limited number of times ; 

 once, five, seven, eleven or twenty-one times. If she 

 fail altogether to pick out the salted ball first, she is 

 doomed to barrenness. 1 At the festival of Rahu, the 

 tribal god of the Dosadhs of Behar and Chota 

 Nagpur, the priest distributes to the crowd tulsi-leaves 

 which heal diseases else incurable, and flowers which 

 have the virtue of causing barren women to conceive ; 2 

 but whether they are to be eaten or (more probably) 

 worn does not appear. 



An old Arab work relates concerning the Isle of 

 Women at the extremity of the Chinese Sea, that it 

 was reported to be inhabited only by women who 

 were fertilised by the wind, or according to another 

 manuscript by a tree the fruit of which they ate. 3 The 



1 Ind. N. and Q. iv. 106. 



2 Risley, i. 256. In ancient Greece certain flowers possessing 

 similar virtue were sacred to Hera (Farnell, i. 182). Mr. Rose has 

 collected (/. A. I. xxxv. 271 sqq., 279 sqq.) a number of observances 

 by Hindoo and Mohammedan women in the Panjab during and 

 previously to pregnancy. They include in all cases the gift of 

 fruits, rice, and sweets to the woman. Sometimes where these gifts 

 are made to a woman already pregnant she divides them among the 

 kinswomen (even young girls) who assemble on the occasion, the 

 idea being as Mr. Rose with probability concludes " to convey equal 

 fertility to all of them." 3 UAbrege des Merveilles, 71. 



