gram, mixed with oil and perfumes,
which is rubbed on the bride and bridegroom, is being ground, the
handle of the hand-mill is smeared with sandalwood paste, powder of a
kind of nut ( _Vangueira spinosa_), and some betel leaves; betel-nuts
wrapped in a piece of new red cloth are tied to it. Then seven women,
whose husbands are living, sit down to grind the condiment. Some raw
rice is put in a red cloth, and with a parcel of betel-leaf is tied to
the mill-handle with a thread (_nara_). Women pretend to beat it,
and sing a marriage song. The rite is a form of fertility magic. The
handle of the mill here represents the rice-pounder (_musal_) in
the rite described in the text.--_Bombay Gazetteer_, ix, part i, 101;
part ii, 163 f.[7]]

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