[Birth ceremonies.] 14. There are no ceremonies during pregnancy. Contrary to ordinary Hindu custom the woman lies on a bed facing east during delivery. She is attended during seclusion by the Chamâin midwife, who cuts the cord and buries it outside under the eaves of the house. The mother is dosed with a decoction of dill (ajwâin), and gets in the evening a mess of boiled sâwân, millet and konhrauri or balls made of urad pulse, and cucumber (konhra). On the sixth day the clothes of the mother and all the household are washed by one of them. They do not employ a Dhobi which, as the birth pollution is much dreaded, marks a very low stage of ceremonial purity. On the same day mother and child are bathed by the midwife, who gets a loin cloth (dhoti) as her fee. The mother then cooks for the family and a few of the neighbouring clansmen. On the same day the delivery room (saur) is cleaned and replastered by the sister of the husband (nanad), who receives a fee of four annas for her trouble. On the twelfth day the clansmen and their wives who live in the neighbourhood are fed. [Couvade.] 15. The husband is allowed to do no work on the day his wife is delivered, and has to take the first sip of the cleansing draught which is given her after delivery. He does not cohabit with his wife for a month after her confinement. [Puberty ceremonies.] 16. There is no regular ceremony on arrival at puberty. The only rite in the nature of initiation is the ear-boring, which is done both for boys and girls in the fifth year. Up to this they may eat from the hands of a person of any caste. After this ceremony they must conform to tribal usage. [Death ceremonies.] 17. The dead, except young children and those dying of small-pox, are cremated in the jungle. This is done very carelessly, and in times of epidemic disease the corpses are merely exposed in the jungle to be eaten by wild animals. The corpse is laid face upwards on the pyre with the feet to the south. The nearest kinsman moves five times round the pyre and touches the face of the corpse five times with a straw torch. As soon as the pyre blazes all go and bathe. Then they fill their vessels (lota) with water and return to the house of the deceased, where each pours the water he has brought in the court-yard. No fire is lit and no cooking done in the house that day. The food is cooked at the house of the brother-in-law (bahnoi) of the dead man. On the tenth day the clansmen assemble at some running water, and then go and eat at the house of the deceased. The bones which remain after cremation are thrown into the nearest running stream. They are not buried, and subsequently, when convenient, conveyed to the Ganges, as is the custom with the similarly named tribe in Chota Nâgpur. [106]