investiture with the sacred cord (janeû) it is thrown into a river (jal pravâh); after investiture the dead are cremated. The corpses of girls up to the age of seven are thrown into running water; if over that age or married they are cremated. [Barahi.] 16. On the twelfth day after birth is the barahi, when the mother and child are bathed and the baby is shown to its male relations, who are expected to put a money present in its hand. The maternal grandmother sends a yellow sheet (pîari dhoti) for the mother, and for the child a little coat (jhola), and a cap (topi). On that day all the women friends collect and have their nails cut, while a barber woman rubs them with a mixture of oil and turmeric (ubtan). If the baby be a boy, the lady friends give the wife’s mother, or in her absence the father, two annas each; in the case of a girl, the contribution is half that amount. This is known as “the nail cutting” (nakh katiya, nakh tarâshi). A list of these donations is made at the time, so that the receiver may reciprocate them when a similar occasion occurs in the family of the donor. The women also give a pice or two to the barber’s wife, who does the anointing. All the women then sit down and sing the birth song (sohar, Sans.: sobha). This is the only song (râg) which can be sung at any time of the day; for the others appropriate times are fixed. [Mûla sânti.] 17. If the child be born in the asterism of Mûla, the mûla sânti rite is performed to obviate the ill-luck attaching to this period. In this case the woman and child are kept in the delivery room for twenty-seven days from the date of birth, and during that period the father is not allowed to see the face of the baby; he is also not allowed to shave or change his clothes. There are two kinds of the Mûla asterism, “the light” (halka, lâg); the other “heavy” (bhâri, drik). If the birth occur in the latter, he must not see his child for twelve years, and in that interval can neither shave nor change his clothes. Many persons, under such unfortunate circumstances, become Jogis. On the day of the mûla sânti rite everything follows the number twenty-seven, the number of the asterisms (Nakshatra); water is drawn from twenty-seven wells, the wood of twenty-seven varieties of trees, sieves made with twenty-seven kinds of knots, blankets of twenty-seven breadths, earth from both banks of the Ganges, clay that has been pressed by the foot of a horse or elephant, and from the King’s gateway, which at Chunâr is the main gate of the fort, are collected. The child’s father bathes and goes into the courtyard. There a barber woman makes a square of flour, and in it places a stool for him to sit on. Near him is placed a jar (kalsa) filled with Ganges water. The Purohit or family priest then worships Gauri and Ganesa. The earth and blankets are put into the sieves and laid on the father’s head, while over him is poured the water drawn from twenty-seven wells. After this