Uncovering the Child’s Face
While in the seclusion-hut with its mother and for some time after, the child has its face covered, and no one except the mother is allowed to see it. At the end of the third month[19] the face of the child is uncovered, and this ceremony is called mokh mûtâr terithti, “child outside he opens,” or, more shortly, mûtâr terthpimi. If the child is a boy, he is taken by his father early in the morning to the front of the dairy, and both father and child bow down at the threshold of the dairy (pavnersatiti), the child being put down by his father so that his forehead touches the threshold. The child is then taken to the place where the buffaloes are standing, and there the face is uncovered, the child being held so that he looks towards the sun when the covering is removed.
If the child is a girl, she is taken by her mother to the majvatvaiidrn, the place where the women go to receive [[332]]buttermilk from the dairyman, and there the mother uncovers the child’s face.
I was not told that the covering of the face is designed to protect the child from the influence of the evil eye, but this is the probable motive. The object of the ceremony is probably to minimise the danger incurred when the covering is removed by putting the child, if a boy, into relation with the three sacred objects, the dairy, the herd of buffaloes, and the sun. If a girl, the child is taken to the spot nearest to the dairy where women are allowed to go.