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.