BIRTH
In each district there are one or two mid wives, known as managámon. They are women past middle life who are versed in the medicines and rites which should be employed at the time of birth. They are not considered as ballyan, yet they talk to the spirits upon certain occasions.
When a pregnant woman is about to be delivered the midwife crushes the bark of the dap-dap tree and makes a medicine called tagaúmo, which she gives to the patient. It is claimed that this causes the muscles to relax so that they allow an easy delivery. The umbilical cord is cut with a bamboo knife and as soon as the child has been bathed it is given to the mother. The afterbirth is placed in a specially prepared basket and is either hung against the side of the house or in a nearby tree. For a few days the midwife assists about the house and then, if all is well with the child, she takes her payment of rice, chicken, and fish, and returns to her home. Should the child be ailing she will return, and having placed rice and betel-nut on banana leaves she carries these to the top of the house and there offers them to the asuang,[136] meanwhile asking those spirits to accept the offering and to cease troubling the child. No ceremony takes place at the time of naming or at the age of puberty, but at the latter period the teeth are filed and blackened so that the young person may be more beautiful and, therefore, able to contract a suitable marriage.
[136] See p. 176. [Transcriber's note: This is page 192.]