7. Devices for procuring children, and beliefs about them.
Women who desire children resort to the shrines of saints, who are supposed to be able to induce fertility. “Blochmann notes that the tomb of Saint Salīm-i-Chishti at Fatehpur-Sikri, in whose house the Emperor Jahāngīr was born, is up to the present day visited by childless Hindu and Musalmān women. A tree in the compound of the saint Shāih Alam of Ahmedābād yields a peculiar acorn-like fruit, which is sought after far and wide by those desiring children; the woman is believed to conceive from the moment of eating the fruit. If the birth of a child follows the eating of the acorn, the man and woman who took it from the tree should for a certain number of years come at every anniversary of the saint and nourish the tree with a supply of milk. In addition to this, jasmine and rose-bushes at the shrines of certain saints are supposed to possess issue-giving properties. To draw virtue from the saint’s jasmine the woman who yearns for a child bathes and purifies herself and goes to the shrine, and seats herself under or near the jasmine bush with her skirt spread out. As many flowers as fall into her lap, so many children will she have. In some localities if after the birth of one child no other son is born, or being born does not live, it is supposed that the first-born child is possessed by a malignant spirit who destroys the young lives of the new-born brothers and sisters. So at the mother’s next confinement sugar and sesame-seed are passed seven or nine times over the new-born infant from head to foot, and the elder boy or girl is given them to eat. The sugar represents the life of the young one given to the spirit who possesses the first-born. A child born with teeth already visible is believed to exercise a very malignant influence over its parents, and to render the early death of one of them almost certain.”[10]
8. Pregnancy rites.
In the seventh or ninth month of pregnancy a fertility rite is performed as among the Hindus. The woman is dressed in new clothes, and her lap is filled with fruit and vegetables by her friends. In some localities a large number of pots are obtained, and a little water is placed in each of them by a fertile married woman who has never lost a child. Prayers are repeated over the pots in the names of the male and female ancestors of the family, and especially of the women who have died in childbirth. This appears to be a propitiation of the spirits of ancestors.[11]
9. Childbirth and naming children.
A woman goes to her parents’ home after the last pregnancy rite and stays there till her confinement is over. The rites performed by the midwife at birth resemble those of the Hindus. When the child is born the azān or summons to prayer is uttered aloud in his right ear, and the takbīr or Muhammadan creed in his left. The child is named on the sixth or seventh day. Sometimes the name of an ancestor is given, or the initial letter is selected from the Korān at a venture and a name beginning with that letter is chosen. Some common names are those of the hundred titles of God combined with the prefix abd or servant. Such are Abdul Azīz, servant of the all-honoured; Ghani, the everlasting; Karīm, the gracious; Rahīm, the pitiful; Rahmān, the merciful; Razzāk, the bread-giver; Sattār, the concealer; and so on, with the prefix Abdul, or servant of, in each case. Similarly Abdullah, or servant of God, was the name of Muhammad’s father, and is a very favourite one. Other names end with Baksh or ‘given by,’ as Haidar Baksh, given by the lion (Ali); these are similar to the Hindu names ending in Prasād. The prefix Ghulām, or slave of, is also used, as Ghulām Hussain, slave of Hussain; and names of Hebrew patriarchs mentioned in the Korān are not uncommon, as Ayūb Job, Hārūn Aaron, Ishāq Isaac, Mūsa Moses, Yakūb Jacob, Yūsaf Joseph, and so on.[12]
10. The Ukīka sacrifice.
After childbirth the mother must not pray or fast, touch the Korān or enter a mosque for forty days; on the expiry of this period she is bathed and dressed in good clothes, and her relatives bring presents for the child. Some people do not let her oil or comb her hair during these days. The custom would seem to be a relic of the period of impurity of women after childbirth. On the fortieth day the child is placed in a cradle for the first time. In some localities a rite called Ukīka is performed after the birth of a child. It consists of a sacrifice in the name of the child of two he-goats for a boy and one for a girl. The goats must be above a year old, and without spot or blemish. The meat must be separated from the bones so that not a bone is broken, and the bones, skin, feet and head are afterwards buried in the earth. When the flesh is served the following prayer is said by the father: “O, Almighty God, I offer in the stead of my own offspring life for life, blood for blood, head for head, bone for bone, hair for hair, and skin for skin. In the name of God do I sacrifice this he-goat.” This is apparently a relic of the substitution of a goat for Ishmael when Abraham was offering him as a sacrifice. The Muhammadans say that it was Ishmael instead of Isaac who was thus offered, and they think that Ishmael or Ismail was the ancestor of all the Arabs.[13]
11. Shaving the hair and ear-piercing.
Either on the same day as the Ukīka sacrifice or soon afterwards the child’s hair is shaved for the first time. By the rich the hair is weighed against silver and this sum is distributed to beggars. It is then tied up in a piece of cloth and either buried or thrown into a river, or sometimes set afloat on a little toy raft in the name of a saint. Occasionally tufts of hair or even the whole head may be left unshaven in the name of a saint, and after one or more years the child is taken to the saint’s tomb and the hair shaved there; or if this cannot be done it is cut off at home in the name of the saint.[14]