Journal of Eurasian Studies - EPA

April‐June 2010 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume II., Issue 2.
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After that all kind of people visit the mother and they inquire about the sex of the new‐born child
(whether it is a creature adjusting (and sewing together) sable (skins) or a creature shooting with bow
stag(s)). Then they give her rice, tea and khadak. The mother on her turn answers them: if the child is a
boy »it is a creature dragging the gold snare« and if it is a girl »it is a creature struggling with the needle«.
The midwife comes (into the house) before the birth and for three days she does not go out to visit the
neighbours; (and) the mother does not go out during 21 days neither far, nor into the pagoda, nor into the
neighbourhood.
When the new‐born child is seven nights old it is washed with salted tea, after (the second) seven
nights with salted water, after (the third) seven nights with water mixed with milk and at last with the
milk of the mother; the rationale behind (this practice) is that the child will have no pustules (eruption). If
the parents (father, mother) are wealthy, rich noble people, the new‐born child is not suckled by the
mother, who bore it, but they give it to one of their subjects giving her a good milking cow. The nursing
parents nurse the child with cow milk and white sugar (and), they suckle the child with a suckling
instrument made of ox horn. If the parents are poor, the mother suckles herself her child for three years
from her breast.
[Material prepared and translated by Borbála Obrusánszky. A short introduction into the life and
œuvre of Gábor Bálint de Szentkatolna can be found in the very first issue of the Journal of Eurasian
Studies, pp. 7‐9. – Ed.]
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