The Influence Of The Moon

: Part V.
: Folklore Of The Santal Parganas

If a child is born on the day before the new moon the following

ceremony is observed. After bathing the child they place an old broom

in the mother's arms instead of the child; then the mother takes

the child and throws it out on the dung heap behind the house. The

midwife then takes an old broom and an old winnowing fan and sweeps

up a little rubbish on to the fan and takes it and throws it on the

dung hill; there she
sees the child and calls out. "Here is a child

on the dung heap" then she pretends to sweep the child with the broom

into the winnowing fan and lifts it up and carries it into the house;

and asks the people of the house whether they will rear it. They ask

what wages she will give them and she promises to give them a heifer

when the child is grown up.



If this is not done the child will be unlucky when it grows up; if

it is a boy, however often he may marry, his wife will die and so,

if it is a girl, her husbands will die.



Another fact is that they always shave a child's head for the first

two times during the same moon; if it is shaved first during one moon

and then during the following moon; it will always have a headache

once a month.



Similarly when they tie the knots in a string to fix the date of a

wedding the wedding must take place in the lunar month in which the

knots are tied or else the children born of the marriage will die.



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