LETTER XV
On the birth and management of children in Hindoostaun.—Increase of joy on the birth of a Son.—Preference generally shown to male children.—Treatment of Infants.—Day of Purification.—Offerings presented on this occasion to the child.—The anniversary of the birthday celebrated.—Visit of the father to the Durgah.—Pastimes of boys.—Kites.—Pigeons.—The Mhogdhur.—Sword-exercise.—The Bow and Arrows.—The Pellet-bow.—Crows.—Sports of Native gentlemen.—Cock-fighting.—Remarks upon horses, elephants, tigers, and leopards.—Pigeon-shooting.—Birds released from captivity on particular occasions.—Reasons for the extension of the royal clemency in Native Courts.—Influence of the Prime Minister in the administration of justice.
The bustle of a wedding in the family of a Mussulmaun having subsided, and the bride become familiar with her new relatives, the mother also reconciled to the separation from her child by the knowledge of her happiness,—for they are allowed frequent intercourse,—the next important subject which fills their whole hearts with hope and anxiety, is the expected addition to the living members of the family. Should this occur within the first year of their union, it is included in the catalogue of 'Fortune's favours', as an event of no small magnitude to call forth their joy and gratitude. Many are the trifling ceremonies observed by the females of this uneducated people, important in their view to the well-being of both mother and infant, but so strongly partaking of superstition that time would be wasted in speaking of them; I will therefore hasten to the period of the infant's birth, which, if a boy, is greeted by the warmest demonstrations of unaffected joy in the houses both of the parents of the bride and bridegroom. When a female child is born, there is much less clamourous rejoicing at its birth than when a son is added to honour the family;[1] but the good mother will never be dissatisfied with the nature of the gift, who can appreciate the source whence she receives the blessing. She rests satisfied that unerring Wisdom hath thus ordained, and bows with submission to His decree. She desires sons only as they are coveted by the father, and procure for the mother increased respect from the world, but she cannot actually love her infant less because it is a female.
The birth of a son is immediately announced by a discharge of artillery, where cannon are kept; or by musketry in the lower grades of the Native population, even to the meanest peasant, with whom a single match-lock proclaims the honour as effectually as the volley of his superiors. The women say the object in firing at the moment the child is born, is to prevent his being startled at sounds by giving him so early an introduction to the report of muskets; but in this they are evidently mistaken, since we never find a musket announcing the birth of a female child.[2] They fancy there is more honour attached to a house where are many sons. The men make them their companions, which in the present state of Mussulmaun society, girls cannot be at any age. Besides which, so great is the trouble and anxiety in getting suitable matches for their daughters, that they are disposed to be more solicitous for male than female children.
Amongst the better sort of people the mother very rarely nourishes her own infant; and I have known instances, when a wet-nurse could not be procured, where the infant has been reared by goals' milk, rather than the good lady should be obliged to fatigue herself with her infant. The great objection is, that in Mussulmaun families nurses are required to be abstemious in their diet, by no means an object of choice amongst so luxurious a people. A nurse is not allowed for the first month or more to taste animal food, and even during the two years—the usual period of supporting infancy by this nourishment—the nurse lives by rule both in quality and quantity of such food only as may be deemed essential to the well-being of the child.
The lower orders of the people benefit by their superiors' prejudices against nursing, and a wet-nurse once engaged in a family becomes a member of that house to the end of her days, unless she chooses to quit it herself.
On the fourth day after the birth of a son, the friends of both families are invited to share in the general joy testified by a noisy assembly of singing-women, people chattering, smell of savoury dishes, and constant bustle; which, to any other females in the world would be considered annoyances, but in their estimation are agreeable additions to the happiness of the mother, who is in most cases screened only by a curtain from the multitude of noisy visitors assembled to rejoice on the important event. I could not refrain, on one of these occasions, remarking on the injudicious arrangement at such a time, when I thought quiet was really needed to the invalid's comfort. The lady thought otherwise; she was too much rejoiced at this moment of her exaltation to think of quiet; all the world would know she was the mother of a son; this satisfied her for all that she suffered from the noisy mirth and increased heat arising from the multitude of her visitors, who stayed the usual time, three days and nights. The ladies, however, recover their strength rapidly. They are attended by females in their time of peril, and with scarcely an instance of failure. Nature is kind. Science has not yet stepped within the confines of the zeenahnah. All is Nature with these uneducated females, and as they are under no apprehension, the hour arrives without terror, and passes over without weakening fears. They trust in God, and suffer patiently. It may be questioned, however, whether their pains at that juncture equal those of females in Europe. Their figure has never been tortured by stays and whalebone; indeed, I do not recollect having met with an instance of deformity in the shape of any inhabitant of a zeenahnah.
On the ninth day the infant is well bathed,—I cannot call any of its previous ablutions a bath,[3]—then its little head is well oiled, and the fillet thrown aside, which is deemed necessary from the first to the ninth day. The infant from its birth is laid in soft beaten cotton, with but little clothing until it has been well bathed, and even then the dress would deserve to be considered more as ornamental covering than useful clothing; a thin muslin loose shirt, edged and bordered with silver ribands, and a small skull-cap to correspond, comprises their dress. Blankets, robes, and sleeping-dresses, are things unknown in the nursery of a zeenahnah. The baby is kept during the month in a reclining position, except when the nurse receives it in her arms to nourish it; indeed for many months the infant is but sparingly removed from its reclining position. They would consider it a most cruel disturbance of a baby's tranquillity, to set it up or hold it in the arms, except for the purpose of giving it nourishment.
The infant's first nourishment is of a medicinal kind, composed of umultass[4](cassia), a vegetable aperient, with sugar, and distilled water of aniseed; this is called gootlie,[5] and the baby has no other food for the first three days, after which it receives the nurse's aid. After the third day a small proportion of opium is administered, which practice is continued daily until the child is three or four years old.
The very little clothing on infants in India would of itself teach the propriety of keeping them in a reclining position, as the mere natural strength of the poor baby has nothing to support it by the aid of bandages or clothing. The nurse receives the baby on a thin pillow of calico quilted together, called gooderie;[6] it is changed us often us required, and is the only method as yet introduced amongst the Natives to secure cleanliness and comfort to their infants. In the cold season, when the thermometer may range from forty-five to fifty, the method of inducing warmth is by means of cotton or wadded quilts; flannel, as I have said before, they know not the use of. The children, however, thrive without any of those things we deem essential to the comfort of infancy, and the mamma is satisfied with the original customs, which, it may be supposed, are (without a single innovation) unchanged since the period of Abraham, their boasted forefather.