| caption: |
Chapter Three. Phases of Life |
| caption: |
place of confinement, those attending, magical activities |
| text: |
The first confinement of every woman took place in her parents' house. Her mother, if she was still alive, and another old woman of the mother's clan acted as midwives. If labour was unduly protracted, it was assumed that the woman's husband had broken one of the taboos which he should have observed during his wife's pregnancy. All baskets present in the house were torn to bits in order to facilitate, by sympathetic magic, the release of the trapped child. Moreover, a chicken was sacrificed to Gawang, the sky god, with a prayer for the opening of the womb. |
