3. Customs at birth and death.
A child is named on the day after its birth by some woman of the caste; a Brāhman is asked whether the day is auspicious, and he also chooses the name. If this is the same as that of any living relation or one recently dead, another name is given for ordinary use. A daughter-in-law is usually given a new name when she goes to her husband’s house, such as Badi (elder), Manjhli (second son’s wife), Bāri (innocent or simple), Jabalpurwāli (belonging to Jubbulpore), and so on. If a woman has borne only female children, the umbilical cord is sometimes put in a small earthen pot and buried at a place where three cross-roads meet, and it is supposed that the birth of a male child will follow. Children whose shaving ceremony has not been performed, and adults dying from snake-bite, cholera, smallpox or leprosy, are buried, while others are burnt. Children are carried to the grave in their parents’ arms. On the return of a funeral party, liquor, provided by the relatives of the family, is drunk at the house of the deceased.