CHAPTER V

BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, DIVORCE, DEATH AND BURIAL
CEREMONIES

Births

WHEN a child was expected one of the witches under
the guidance of the Shaman acted as midwife. The
skin of a mountain goat was blessed by the medicine
man, and on this the confinement had to take place.
The newly-born infant was received with great ceremony
and named after one of the clan who had recently died,
and whose spirit the Shaman was alleged to breathe
into the child’s body. Warm water was then given to
the child to cleanse and purify its interior, and its body
was painted or daubed with grease, rolled in flannel and
tied up in the goat’s skin. The mountain goat has long
soft, silken wool, so the child was always snug and
warm. When about one month old it was wrapped in
half a blanket and placed in a rude hammock, and left
there for several hours at a time to sleep or cry as it
wished ; the child very soon learnt how to take care of
itself. Should a child become unwell it was well nursed
by its mother and aunts, otherwise it was left to go
its own way. Infants were rarely bound on boards or
tied up into a motionless bundle and left until the
feeding time came round, they were seldom seriously
chastised, and as they grew up did more or less as they

pleased.
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