To prevent the return of the Chudel, some people pass underneath the bier the legs of the cot on which the woman lay in her confinement, while others drive in an iron nail at the end of the street immediately after the corpse has been carried beyond the village boundary.[151]
In some places, the nail is driven into the threshold of the house.[152]
Even after the precautions mentioned above have been taken, to prevent the return of a Chudel or Vantri, Shrāddhas are performed, and a number of Brāhman women feasted on the twelfth and thirteenth day after death to propitiate her as the fear of the mischief done by her is very strong.[152]
A Chudel has no shoulders.[153] Any passer by coming across her is asked by her to take her to his home, and if he agrees, she accompanies him, passes the night in his company, and brings his life to a speedy end. In the village of Charādi under the jurisdiction of Dhrāngadhra, a Girāsia named Halāji fell into the clutches of a Chudel who was driven from his person by the enchantment of a Jati on condition that he should not go into the eastern part of the village.[154]
It is believed that a woman can be relieved from the ghostly order of a Chudel by the performance of a shrāddha at Siddhapur.[155]
There is no belief that the father has to take special precautions at the birth of his child except that care is taken to note the exact time of the child’s birth for the purpose of casting its horoscope correctly. An inkstand and pen are also placed in the lying-in-room, as it is believed that the creator writes the destiny of a child as soon as it makes its appearance into the world.[156]
All children born in Jyeshta Nakshatra, Mula-nakshatra, or Yamaghanta are said to cause the death of their male parent. Such children were left to starve uncared for in forests in olden times; but now-a-days they are kept alive, as certain performances are believed to avert the evil. One such performance is only to see the child after clarified butter has been given in donation. Another is to see its face after it has been bathed with the water collected from eighteen wells in a pot with a thousand holes.[157] In a third, the parents of the child hold in their hands goblets filled with clarified butter, and see their faces reflected in them before the child is presented to the sight of the father.
Such children are named Mulubhāi, Mulchand, Muli or Mulo.
A child born in the month of Jyeshta prognosticates poverty.[158]
If the birth time of a child happens to fall within the ecliptic period, that is the period of nine hours before an eclipse takes place, as well as in the duration of the eclipse, the father does not see the child before performing certain rites, as to do so is supposed to bring misfortune.[159]