STRANGS BIRTH CUSTOMS

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2314, 5 December 1925, Page 12

STRANGS BIRTH CUSTOMS

(By Victor Raymond in the “Glasgow Weekly Herald.”) Joy at tho birth of a child is universal, and many are the queer rites performed to proclaim tho happy event in different countries. A sham fight heralds the birth o,f a first-born in parts of Melanesia, the opposing parties consisting of women on one side and the men on the other. The latter are armed with sticks, the women using stones and any other missiles that may come to hand. The proceedings, however, are concluded with a feast, pigs and vegetables forming the menu. The custom of salting the new-born babe is very widespread. The Armenians, for instance, entirely cover’ the infant's body with salt, removing this some hours later with the aid of warm water. This is done to protect the child from malevolent spirits and to ensure for it good health. In Malaya, immediately after a birth the floor of a room is thickly sprinkled with long sharp thorns. It is thought tliat demons coming with the intention of harming the infant will badly injure their feet and hastily retire. The first experience of the little stranger arriving in tho land of the Eskimos is decidedly unpleasant. It is rolled, naked, in the snow outside the dwelling, and the natives attribute their immunity from colds in later life to this operation. At one time in Samoa is was a popular custom to tattoo on a woman’s hand the dates of all her offspring. Even the child itself often had the date of its birth tattooed upon its body by the delighted father thus becoming a living certificate. The Burmese mother, for the seven days immediately succeeding the birth of her child has to submit to ordeals which no European woman would care to endure. A blazing fire, irrespective of the season is kept burning in her room. It is the “fire-bath” however, which forms the most terrible part of her ordeal. The unfortunate woman must seat herself before a roaring fire once daily, to bo toasted. She starts by facing the fire, her back and sides being kept thickly covered with blankets. Next, she must expose her right side to the blaze and in turn. b»r bark and her left side, the blan '• T. moved in accordance with eat n change. At the end of seven days the hapless mother is steamed for an hour over a pot of boiling water, after which she has a cold bath. Only then is she allowed to have anything to do with her baby.