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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 10 



ening their legs, then pushing their hips inward, 

 and finally pressing their heads slightly from front 

 to back — "to make them beautiful," as Araia 

 told me. Both infants were then given a hasty 

 bath from a calabash of water, after which the 

 two women, sitting on the ground, gave the babies 

 suck. When I retired, at about 2 a. m., both 

 women were still attending the infants and sitting 

 in the same position they had assumed after the 

 birth. 



On the following morning, January 18, I 

 returned to the hut about 6 a. m. The mother was 

 then holding both of the infants, but when I came 

 into the hut, she passed the female to Araia. 

 The mother had not yet taken a bath; the blood 

 from the birth was smeared all over her legs. 

 Her husband was lying in the hammock, eating 

 maize. The women spent some more time in 

 shaping the limbs and pressing the hips and heads 

 of the infants and then gave them a bath. Eak- 

 wantiii and Araia next began to eat roasted maize 

 prepared for them by the 8-year-old daughter 

 of the former. After eating the maize, the two 

 women were brought some fruits of the aguai 

 and motacu. They continued to roast and eat 

 until about 2 p. m., when they entered their 

 hammocks for the first time since the birth the 

 night before. At 8 o'clock that evening both 

 women were still fast asleep in their hammocks 

 with the infants upon their breasts. The father 

 had lain in his hammock all day. 



About 8 a. m. on January 19 the father took a 

 bath in the river. When he returned, Eakwantiii 

 placed two baby slings — newly made and covered 

 with uruku — around his neck, as well as two neck- 

 laces of coati teeth. He was then scarified on the 

 legs by Isf, his father's brother. Meanwhile, the 

 two infants were given their first haircut by the 

 mother. During this operation they howled con- 

 tinually. After being scarified, the father's legs 

 were washed and smeared with uruku. He then 

 returned to his hammock and began to eat maize. 

 I asked him what he could eat and what he could 

 not eat at this time, and he gave me the following 



list of foods, which he said applied to the women 

 as well: 



When the mother finished giving the infants a 

 haircut, the depilated hair was wrapped into two 

 separate cotton balls and hung around the necks 

 of the two women. The mother now gave the 

 boy infant to her husband to hold while she went 

 out to defecate. When she returned, he removed 

 the baby slings and the coati necklaces and put 

 them around her neck. He was then given a hair- 

 cut by his sister, the hair clippings being thrown 

 in the hole with the afterbirth. Feather orna- 

 ments were then put in his hair, in the traditional 

 fashion by his sister. After he had been dec- 

 orated, he scarified the legs of the mother and of 

 Araia, who was taking care of the female infant. 

 Both of the women had previously bathed. They 

 were then given a haircut, and feather ornaments 

 were glued into their hair. Cotton string covered 

 with uruku was also wound around their arms, 

 legs, and necks. By the time these decorations 

 were complete, the day had almost ended, and 

 after an evening meal of maize all retired to their 

 hammocks. 



Early the next morning, January 20, the mem- 

 bers of the family smeared uruku on their faces, 

 arms, and legs. The father took off his old wrist 

 guard and put on a new one. Both of the women 

 and the father hung necklaces made of the base of 



