After applying the ashes, the paternal
grandmother places the infant in the arms of the maternal grandparent,
who performs other offices for the little one and wraps it in a piece
of cotton cloth. The paternal grandmother prepares a bed of warm sand
by the right side of the mother (leaving a cool spot for the child's
head); she then receives the infant and lays it upon its bed, and over
it she arranges the little blanket which she brought; she then places
upon the sand and at the right side of the child an ear of white
corn; if the child be a girl, the mother, or a three-plumule, corn is
selected; if a boy, the father, or single ear, corn. The fourth day
after the birth the child is again bathed in the yucca root suds by
the same grandmother, who again repeats a long prayer. During the
first ten days of the child's life the paternal grandmother remains in
the daughter-in-law's house, looking after the mother and helping in
the preparation of the feast that is to occur. On the morning of the
tenth day the child is taken from its bed of sand, to which it is
never to return, and upon the left arm of the paternal grandmother it
is carried for the first time into the presence of the rising sun. To
the breast of the child the grandmother carrying it presses the ear of
corn which lay by its side during the ten days; to her left the mother
of the infant walks, carrying in her left hand the ear of corn which
lay by her side. Both women sprinkle a line of sacred meal, emblematic
of the straight road which the child must follow to win the favor of
its gods.
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