According to de Groot (op. cit. p. 396), "in the Siao 'rh fang or Medicament for Babies, by the hand of Ts'ui Hing-kung [died 674 a.d.], it is said: 'The placenta should be stored away in a felicitous spot under the salutary influences of the sky or the moon ... in order that the child may be ensured a long life'". He then goes on to explain how any interference with the placenta will entail mental or physical trouble to the child.
The placenta also is used as the ingredient of pills to increase fertility, facilitate parturition, to bring back life to people on the brink of death and it is the main ingredient "in medicines for lunacy, convulsions, epilepsy, etc." (p. 397). "It gives rest to the heart, nourishes the blood, increases the breath, and strengthens the tsing" (p. 396).
These attributes of the placenta indicate that the beliefs of the Baganda are not merely local eccentricities, but widespread and sharply defined interpretations of the natural phenomena of birth.
[85] Op. cit. p. 241.
[86] See "The Origin of Early Siberian Civilization," now being published in the Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.
[87] De Groot, p. 5.
[88] Early Religious Poetry of Persia, p. 145.
[89] Op. cit. p. 264.
[90] Ibid. p. 240.