The parents, assisted by a Vadhyan, make a burnt sacrifice to the deity. (9) Annaprasana is the ceremony at which food other than that from nature's fount is first given. It is done in the sixth month after birth. The father carries the child to a group of friends and relations. The Vadhyan or purohit is present and repeats Vedic texts, while the father places a little rice and butter in the child's mouth. (10) Chaula is the ceremony when the hair is cut for the first time in the Nambutiri fashion. (11) Karna vedha is the occasion on which the ears are bored. On the Vidyadasami day, the tenth of Asvayuja, when a male child is five years old, the father goes through the form of initiating him into the mysteries of the alphabet. The following details of some of the above ceremonies are given in the Gazetteer of Malabar. "The chief ceremonies connected with pregnancy are Pumsavanam or rite to secure male offspring, at which the husband puts a grain of barley and two beans, to represent the male organ, into his wife's hand, and pours some curds over them, which the wife then swallows, and also pours some juice of karuga grass into her right nostril; and Simantham, a ceremony usually performed in the fourth month of pregnancy, at which the husband parts the wife's hair four times from back to front with a sprig of atti (Ficus glomerata), a porcupine quill which must have three white marks on it, and three blades of darba grass, all tied together, after which mantrams are sung to the accompaniment of vinas. The first ceremony to be performed on the birth of a child is jathakarmam. A little gold dust is mingled with ghee and honey, and the father takes up some of the mixture with a piece of gold, and smears the child's lips with it, once with a mantram and once in silence. He next washes the gold, and touches the child's ears, shoulders and head with it, and finally makes a gift of the bit of gold and performs nandimukham. The ceremony of naming the child, or namakarmam, takes place on the twelfth day. The father ties a string round the child's waist, and marks its body with the sacred ash (bhasmam). Then, after the usual 'gifts' he pronounces thrice in the child's right ear the words 'Devadatta Sarmmasi,' or if the child be a girl, 'Nili dasi.' He then calls out the name thrice. Then, taking the child from its mother, he again calls out the name thrice, and finally gives the child back to its mother, who in turn calls out the name thrice. Gifts and nandimukham complete the ceremony. In the fourth month, the child is ceremonially taken out of doors (nishkramana or vittil purapattu) by the father, who carries it to a cocoanut, round which he makes three pradakshinams."