NAMING AN INFANT. 
109 
read. One of the slips of paper is then taken out at random by the 
hand of the father, and the child is called after the name which is there, 
inscribed, A Mollah takes up the babe, pronounces the name in its 
ear, and places the paper on its swaddling clothes. The relations of 
the child then each give it money and other presents, and this custom 
they call the Roo-nemah, or shewing the face. 
They have still another custom which they call \he Akikeh. The 
father of the child kills a sheep, of the flesh of which he makes broth, 
but cautiously preserves all the bones. He invites his friends, relations, 
and the poor in the highways, to partake of this food, from which he 
and his wife are excluded; but when the entertainment is over, he 
carefully collects the bones, and having selected a clean place near some 
running water, he there buries them. During the mejlis,the name 
of the child is given. 
They adopt also certain ceremonies about shaving the child’s head. 
It frequently happens after the birth of a son, that if the parent be in 
distress, or the child be sick, or that there be any other cause of grief, 
the mother makes a vow, that no razor shall come upon the child’s 
head for a certain portion of time, and sometimes for all his life.* If 
the child recovers, and the cause of grief be removed, and if the vow 
be but for a time, so that the mother’s vow be fulfilled f, then she 
shaves his head at the end of the time prescribed, makes a small enter¬ 
tainment, collects money and other things from her relations and 
friends, which are sent as (offerings), to the mosque at Kerbelah, 
and are there consecrated. J 
* So Hannah vowed, if .she were blessed with a man child, saying, ‘‘ TZ/eu I will give 
him unto the Lord, all the days of his life. There shall no razor come ujwn his head.” — 
1 Samuel, i. 11. 
f Hannah’s vow was a vow of gratitude, an expression of thankfulness; but more usually in 
Scripture the unshaven head is an expression of grief, and a vow to such an effect an act of 
penitent humiliation. 
t Compare with this the law of the Nazarites, Numb, vi., the principle of which was 
altogether moral. The person who was separated to God’s service let his hair grow, and 
abstained from wine and other usual indulgencies. This was done sometimes during life, and 
sometimes during certain periods only; after the latter, offerings were made to the Lord. 
