On this occasion, in the families of the higher classes, professional female singers are hired to entertain a party of ladies, friends of the infant's mother, who visit her on this occasion, in the ḥareem; or a concert of instrumental music, or a recitation of the whole of the Ḳur-án, is performed below by men. The mother, attended by the midwife, being seated in a chair which is the property of the latter, the child is brought, wrapped in a handsome shawl or something costly; and, to accustom it to noise, that it may not be frightened afterwards by the music and other sounds of mirth, one of the women takes a brass mortar and strikes it repeatedly with the pestle, as if pounding. After this, the child is put into a sieve and shaken, it being supposed that this operation is beneficial to its stomach. Next, it is carried through all the apartments of the ḥareem, accompanied by several women or girls, each of whom bears a number of wax candles, sometimes of various colours, cut in two, lighted, and stuck into small lumps of paste of ḥennà, upon a small round tray. At the same time the midwife, or another female, sprinkles upon the floor of each room a mixture of salt with seed of the fennel-flower, or salt alone, which has been placed during the preceding night at the infant's head; saying as she does this, "The salt be in the eye of the person who doth not bless the Prophet!" or, "The foul salt be in the eye of the envier!" This ceremony of the sprinkling of salt is considered a preservative for the child and mother from the evil eye; and each person present should say, "O God, bless our lord Moḥammad!" The child, wrapped up and placed on a fine mattress, which is sometimes laid on a silver tray, is shewn to each of the women present, who looks at its face, says, "O God, bless our lord Moḥammad! God give thee long life!" etc., and usually puts an embroidered handkerchief, with a gold coin (if pretty or old, the more esteemed) tied up in one of the corners, on the child's head, or by its side. This giving of handkerchiefs and gold is considered as imposing a debt, to be repaid by the mother, if the donor should give her the same occasion; or as the discharge of a debt for a similar offering. The coins are generally used for some years to decorate the head-dress of the child. After these presents for the child, others are given for the midwife. During the night before the seventh-day's festivity, a water-bottle full of water (a dóraḳ in the case of a boy, and a ḳulleh[216] in that of a girl), with an embroidered handkerchief tied round the neck, is placed at the child's head while it sleeps. This, with the water it contains, the midwife takes and puts upon a tray and presents it to each of the women; who put presents of money for her into the tray. In the evening, the husband generally entertains a party of his friends.[217]