CHILDBIRTH

The child is washed, and there is a curious ruling that demands the woman drink - or just taste - three times out of the water. The placenta, together with the umbilical cord, some blood (gateh) , and afterbirth water (yieh nyom) are placed in a " yellow coconut " (nyoh gading) , which is wrapped in sugar-palm fibre and buried in front of the sleeping-quarters (meten) , that of a boy at the right, that of a girl at the left of the entrance. A fire is built over the place where the coconut is buried and a bamboo altar with offerings is erected over the spot.

At first the child is fed with a porridge of boiled rice flour (bubur) or a little palm-sugar and meat from a young coconut. In easy cases the woman recovers on the same day and is able to walk and give the breast to the child. They believe that the first milk is " hard " and indigestible, and before feeding the baby, the mother milks her breast, making the first milk fall on the house wall. The only explanation for this strange idea is the eternal answer that it is custom.

Ordinarily, they say, a woman will have " pains in her insides " for about three days, after which time she can perform her usual work. It is not considered that the mother's milk is sufficient for the nourishment of the child; she gives the baby the breast every time he cries, but he is also fed with bubur, and even with a banana previously chewed by the mother.

The child is weaned after three birthdays (otonan) , two and a half of our years, when the mother puts a mixture of lime and palm-sugar to her nipples; but it is not unusual to see children of four being suckled still.

Special songs are used to amuse or put the child to sleep, Balinese nursery rhymes (tjetjangkrima) sung to a slow beautiful tune. Here is an example:

" Tadpoles, fishes, and beetles from Bedulu, where are you going southwards? To where the boats land. What will you sell there? My insides that have fallen out. How far did they fall? As high as a thousand pigs. What doctor gave you medicine? The one with the beard and the topknot. Where does he live? In front of the little waru tree where the kulkul hangs. With what do they beat the kulkul? With sticks of heart of sandalwood and tengulun. Who beats it? The big ironsmith who is there crouched asleep."

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