'When A Lao Woman Of Southern China Has A
Child, She Goes Out At Once.
The husband goes to bed exhausted, like a
woman giving suck.
If he does not take care, he becomes ill. The woman has
no harm.'"
L., pp. 91-95.
Under the title of The Couvade or "Hatching," John Cain writes from
Dumagudem, 31st March, 1874, to the Indian Antiquary, May, 1874, p.
151:
"In the districts in South India in which Telugu is spoken, there is a
wandering tribe of people called the Erukalavandlu. They generally pitch
their huts, for the time being, just outside a town or village. Their
chief occupations are fortune-telling, rearing pigs, and making mats.
Those in this part of the Telugu country observe the custom mentioned in
Max Mueller's Chips from a German Workshop, Vol. II., pp. 277-284.
Directly the woman feels the birth-pangs, she informs her husband, who
immediately takes some of her clothes, puts them on, places on his
forehead the mark which the women usually place on theirs, retires into a
dark room where is only a very dim lamp, and lies down on the bed,
covering himself up with a long cloth. When the child is born, it is
washed and placed on the cot beside the father. Assafoetida,
jaggery, and other articles are then given, not to the mother, but
to the father. During the days of ceremonial uncleanness the man is
treated as the other Hindus treat their women on such occasions.
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