Premature Infants
r. Bolshoy Kebin
A premature child is hung in a hat on the kerege for one hour.
Talas
kainazar
An unripe child30 — if a premature baby is born, it is placed in a tuman for the period until it "ripens," and is hung on the kerege at the top31, with the location changed daily, starting from the right of the door, counting each horn in the cross. Each day, the mother feeds the infant once and every night once, exercising its limbs before hanging it back. The child is wrapped in a cloth. It is brought to the left doorpost, combining transfers (? - f.f.).
A zhen tek is made for the premature baby after its term has expired. Premature infants usually die.
Cholponkulov
If the infant is born 15 days premature, it is kept in the tuman for 15 days; if 30 days, then for 30 days, hung on the kerege, changing the top32 every day in succession, starting from the right doorpost. It is fed without being taken out of the tuman (fox fur, as it is warmer). It is fed little (? — F.F.). Upon the birth of a premature child, the same customs are performed as with a normal birth (? F.F.), but the child is not shown. It is shown after its term has expired.
A premature child usually lies with closed eyes. It is placed in the tuman and hung on the kerege, changing location (see above), for one month or one and a half, for 40 days (no more!? — F.F.). It is fed with a nipple. Until the parents are confident that the child will survive, no celebrations are held.
Zhanyzak
solto
Apylgu33. A premature baby is not shown to people, wrapped up, placed in a tuman (fox fur hat) and hung on the kerege. It is fed a little each day. By the time it reaches nine months, nine days, nine hours, and nine minutes, it is shown and a zhen tek is performed. The premature baby hangs in one place.
Osh District
Premature children are hung on the kerege in clothing, for example, for one to two days.
Chongur-chon
kainazar
If the infant is born one to two months premature, it is hung in a felt cap on the kerege, starting from the right of the post, counting each tie as a day — according to the number of missing days until the required nine months, nine days, nine hours. If the cap does not reach the left post, it does not matter. The celebrations due at birth are timed to this period.
It is washed after seven days with warm salted water (from the mouth) with soap.
local. Sarybulak
Kerimbek M.
buku
In the past, a premature baby was placed in a tuman after birth and then immediately taken out.
Tengizbaev
With premature children, the following is done. The infant is placed in a winter sheep hat (tuman) and hung in the kibitka (yurt) on the kerege for 40 days, moving it one end each day, starting from the left of the entrance (from the right of the tora) end (the kibitka stands all winter), so that it matures without touching the ground. It is taken down when necessary, but never placed on the ground.
If the child is born 15 days early, it is cared for as a normal child.
A child born one to two months early is hung in a tuman every day for half an hour on the kerege's top, changing it each time, starting from the right - south post and counting each crossbeam as one. At night, the child sleeps with the mother.
If there are 30 kerege's tops in the kibitka, and the child is born two months early, the kibitka is walked around twice. The birth term of the infant is considered to be nine months, nine days, nine hours, nine minutes. It is taken down from the place it approaches by the time of ripening, without necessarily reaching the left post.
In a family where children do not survive
Talas Cholponkulov
kainazar
Names intended to keep children alive: Toktosun, Toktogul, Toktobibi, Asrankul34.
The child is given to another family. Before birth, an agreement is made with someone, without negotiating a reward. A family with many children is chosen. An agreement is made with a woman. This woman accepts the child and immediately takes it away35.
Three days later, the infant is redeemed by its parents. They give nine items for it: tutkuch (pot holder), kyl zhuguch (hair washcloth for the cauldron), tavak (dish), a bundle of firewood, orok (sickle), fabric for a shirt, money, livestock, etc. Both parents go to redeem it.
They ask: "Kulung ardy satalynar by?"36 (if redeeming a girl — "kunung ardy"37). They are answered: "Bizdin konguli-bizde torturgan, satamys" (If you satisfy, fulfill our desire, we will sell). The items brought with them (payment) are immediately given.
When returning the child, the surrogate parents give it a shirt38. In parting, they say: "Ushu balamde yekshe vak, vakbasan, alyp koyom!" (Take care of this little one, if you don’t take care, I will take it back).
Another method: they call an old woman who has many children that grew up well and healthy. Immediately after the infant is born, it is passed under the knees of the old woman (she does not undress)39.
At the place where the infant fell during birth, 40 stakes40 are immediately driven in.
They hang the afterbirth (tonu, zholdash41), sewn in a skin under the tunjuk (smoke ring)42.
The infant is carried around the kibitkas, making it bite (touch with its mouth) the ears of 40 cauldrons43.
Names: Tutkuch, Itybai44.
If two children die in the family (in infancy), then before the third, an agreement is made with some old woman who has good offspring, so that she "steals" the infant: alkachyp ketsin. And the ransom is given from nine items: tutkuch (pot holder), buchak (knife), kashik (spoon), etc. Three days later.
Talas Cholponkulov
kainazar
The child's illness is called barpy45. They make a thin flatbread from dough. There is a hole in the middle. The infant is passed through this hole, then through the crack of one uzuk, and a woman outside takes it, passing it through the tulga (cauldron) and carries it to another kibitka46. The mother must redeem her child. She bakes and carries seven maytokach and a teapot of tea to that kibitka.
A bracelet47 is put on the infant's leg. A woman sleeps with the child in a holy place.
Names: Tashturgan ("stands firmly"), Amurbek, Bek, Jamansart, Jamankuchuk, Jamankazak48.
If given to another family, it is left there until the age of one, starting from three, four, seven days.
When redeemed, nine items from household things are given: knife, sickle, awl, whip, etc.
The infant is taken by the woman with whom an agreement was made beforehand, immediately after birth. The mother usually does not go to see how her son grows, but asks the foster mother: "Aynanai, bayagy tulgan bala emchekde yakshi ema turago? (Dear, how is the health of your recently born child? Is he sucking well?)
Both parents go to redeem him with the specified nine items. They ask: "Balang ardy sagynvalarymyn gardy kylalyk?" ("Will you sell your child? We will give you something"). "Alkaninggar yakshi ("If you take it, it will be good"). When returning the child, the foster parents give him a tubeteika and a shirt.
The child is given either to relatives or a close family friend.
If boys die in the family, the boy is dressed as a girl to deceive evil spirits.
Talas
Zhanyzak
solto
The newborn is given for two weeks — 40 days. When given for such a term, a zhen tek is performed already in the foster home, just like the position in the beshik and kok boru regarding the birth of the child.
The child is taken by the agreed woman immediately after birth. Such a child is given an ugly name. When it is redeemed back, nine items are collected from trivial things, so that the child is bought for a low price, for cheap things.
Chonkur-Talas
kainazar
For seven days, the child is not shown, taken to another kibitka. The woman who takes him is the kindik-ene. The child is not seen by those women who are present in the kibitka during the birth. The kindik-ene, after cutting the umbilical cord, immediately takes the infant to herself. She says that she has given birth to a child.
If the child stays in a stranger's house for a longer period, all the celebrations associated with its birth take place there. If it is to return to its parents in about seven days, then during this period, its real father performs a zhen tek and kok boru at his place, and visitors then (go. — B.K., S.G.) to the foster parents and there give korumduk, without seeing the child. They see him a week later upon his return home.
The parents buy him back for nine items: whip, spoon, knife, etc. They carry these things, and they are treated there. Then they offer to buy the child from them, saying: "Kulun satkila?"49 — and give what they brought. When giving the child back, the foster parents give him a shirt or even livestock. Subsequently, the child is not considered bound by any ties to his foster parents.
Since death is often the result of murder by someone, after the "theft" of the child, a puppy is placed in its place, so that the hostile spirit, seeing it, would consider everything a mistake.
The name for such a child (Azrankul, Toktagul) is given by the foster parents or, without any ceremony, by some old man. Upon the child's return, a feast is arranged, the size of which depends on the parents' wealth. The position in the cradle occurs in the house where the infant is located, and the feast is performed by the real parents.
Chonkur-Talas
kainazar
The parents provide livestock, and they cut, treat, and so on — the foster parents, if the child is still with them. For the infant, the foster parents make a new cradle. When cutting the hair, they leave tufts (F.F.).
Sarybulak
Karimbek Moynak
buku
They call an old man to make a bata; for this, he is given a ram. If the child is given to another family, it is for various terms, from three days to adulthood.
Satyvaldy(k) — "bought child" (referring to the name. — B.K., S.G.).
If the child is breastfed by the foster mother, then in the future, marriage between this child and her own children is not allowed. If fed with a nipple, then marriage is permitted.
Osh District
If children die, do not survive, then the newborn can be given the name of one of the closest ancestors (grandfather, grandmother).
Songkul
Suranchi Adylo
sarybagysh
Toloton — the name of a boy (literally, "settled, compensated for the loss"). It was given to him after two sons and a daughter were born and died in the family. He was a reward for previous losses, compensation for them.
Sarybulak
buku
If children do not survive, the infant is taken by a woman with whom an agreement was made, so that she raises him. They are taken for various terms, up to adulthood. While the child is with the foster parents, he is considered their child.
Both parents go to redeem him. They give nine trivial items for him: knife, flatbread, meat, ram, etc. They ask to sell "your" son. The child is received back in the clothing he is wearing. The name is given by the foster parents.
If the child is given to a stranger's family, then his mother, not breastfeeding him, expresses milk on the ground, trying to stop its secretion as soon as possible.
Satyvaldy
Satyvaldy — formerly Chinavay. By the advice of the duan, he was given to another family: he did not eat for four days, and his parents were afraid he would die, as his brothers had before him. He was given to unfamiliar Kyrgyz from the cherik clan in a cradle. They came and took him away. For two weeks, he was fed by his mother's breast, and then until the age of five, he stayed in this foreign family.
When buying him back, the parents gave four horses and other items, totaling up to nine.
Kalyss50 — this is what the foster parents are called.
While the son is in a stranger's family, his parents give the caretakers one ram a year for his sustenance and clothing in that family (shyvata). The "sold" child was not given anything by the foster father. The name was changed after the repurchase.
Tupskaya vol., s. Tengizbaev
In case of constant death of sons in the family, the newborn son is taken to a family where children survive, and left there without saying anything (abandoned). However, this family was previously warned by the infant's father. This is done immediately after birth, and the mother does not have time to see him and give him breast. In the stranger's family, the child remains for 40 days. Then the father, depending on wealth, gives one horse or ram and eight iron items (knife, awl, flint, etc.) — a total of nine items — to the milk "father," asking to "sell" him his ("your") son. The milk father makes iron bracelets for the child's right hand and left ankle and puts them on him, then from the same metal makes a bow and arrow (small) and sews a piece of yak tail to the back of the child's jacket, inserting an earring51 into the lobe of the right ear. In this form, the father receives his son back. Several people go for the child, and the parents carry bread and boiled meat in a hurjine. They bring the child home themselves. In parting, the milk father gives a small bashtyk (bag), saying: "When my son grows up and plays with boys, let him wear it, digs up kemirchak (the root of a thorny plant), puts it in there and eats it (feeds on it)." The father asks the milk father: "What is your son's name?" He names a name that, in his opinion, should protect the infant from death. Names like Kachkimbai ("escaped bay"), Kachkintai ("escaped foal") indicate that he should avoid death; Bektemir ("hard as iron"), Tashtemir ("stone-iron"), Tashtambek ("hard as stone") and others indicate the strength of his health, which will be able to resist death. There are also names of a different nature: Kaldyk (? — F.F.), Toktosun, Tursun, Toktomush, expressing a request to the bearer of such a name to remain (in this world), not to leave; Bokbasar, Bokchi, Tezakchi, Tezakbay52 — that no one ever pays attention to a child with such an unpleasant name and does not spoil him, let him be the last worker, as long as he does not die.
Karoyskaya vol.,
Talas Cholponkulov
kainazar
If the child is ill, it is passed through three cracks in succession between uzuks: from inside out, from outside in, in four hands.
If the child is ill with iti (diarrhea, sunken eyes, exhaustion), they take a dog's skull and apply it to different parts of the body at 12 points (according to the number of major joints)53.
The child's illness is called barpy.
Osh District
Niyaz — two side tufts are left on the child's head, and a vow is made to take him to a certain holy place by the age of 10-15 if he survives, and there to cut them off. In fulfillment of the vow at the specified time, upon arriving there, the boy's father brings a sacrifice and distributes alms, for example, with things.
If children do not survive, the child is given for upbringing to an old woman for a period of several days to a year.
Toy
Osh District
Tovaka
A toy is arranged: 1) at the birth of a child. It is placed in the cradle for four to five days, and a relative brings it (the cradle. — B.K., S.G.); 2) when the boy first sits on a horse, people are invited for a treat, and a robe is given to the aksakal; 3) when the sunat (circumcision) is performed — at the age of seven.
When given to study, the student brings a dastarkhan (treat) to the teacher. The treat remains with the teacher, and the dishes and tablecloth are returned.
Comments:
30 An unripe child — literally, "undercooked, unripe child".
31 On the top of the kerege — "on the upper part of the kerege".
32 Top — here: the top of the kerege.
33 This word is not in K.K. Yudakhin's dictionary. But it may be derived from apyl, i.e., "hastily, quickly, hurriedly," and means "one who has hastened to appear in this world, premature".
34 Toktosun — literally, "let it stop," Toktogul — literally, "stop, flower," Toktobibi — "stop, bibi" (a respectful address to a woman), Asrankul — "foster slave." Names with the verb tokta (stop) were often given to children as a magical wish to keep them in this world. Names like Asrankul were given to deceive evil spirits: the part As ran (foster) was supposed to show them that the child was not born in this family, where children do not survive, but in another, where they presumably survive; and the part kul (slave) was supposed to show that the infant is not the most precious being. Such names were widely spread among the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. For the meaning of Central Asian names, see: Gafurov A. Name and History. Moscow, 1967.
35 The custom of the pre-arranged "theft" of the infant, and then "buying" it back by the parents is quite common among the peoples of the Central Asian and Altai-Siberian regions. The newborn from a family where children do not survive, without showing the mother, was taken to the house of a mother with many children or a midwife, who cared for him for the agreed time. By "buying" the child for trivial items, like pot holders, washcloths for cauldrons, etc., the parents seem to show the evil spirits that the "purchase" is of little value, and therefore uninteresting to them (for the spirits) (Troitskaya A.L. The First Forty Days... p. 259; Abramzon S.M. Birth and Childhood... p. 104; Kislyakov N.A. Family and Marriage... p. 53; Potapov L.P. Essays... pp. 276-278; Esbergenov X., Atamuratov T. Op. cit. p. 138-139; Snesarev T.P. Relicts... pp. 93-94; Traditional Worldview of the Turks... I., p. 164; Toleubaev A.T. Op. cit. pp. 73-74).
36 Literally, "Will you not sell your slave?"
37 Kung — female slave.
38 Upon "sale," the foster parents gifted the child not only a shirt but often something more substantial, such as livestock (see below), although not all informants of F.A. Fielstrup note this. It seems that the foster parents, acting as real ones, were necessarily required to give the child its "share of inheritance." But since the true meaning of this custom was forgotten even by the 1920s, not all informants note this.
39 Passing the infant under the knees of a woman with many children is a form of protective magic known to many Central Asian peoples. This imitates the new birth of a child in a woman whose children did not die. This rite was practiced by many peoples of the world, starting with the ancient Greeks. It was performed to return a person considered dead to life or in case of adoption, as in our case (Frazer J. Op. cit. pp. 24-25).
40 Perhaps to "secure" the infant in this house.
41 Zholdosh — literally, "companion, friend." It has already been mentioned that many peoples considered the afterbirth a double of the child, a brother or sister (see note 4), and thus, a companion.
42 Kazakhs also hung premature children at the smoke hole, hoping that the spirits of ancestors would help the child survive (Toleubaev A.T. Op. cit. p. 70). The smoke hole, like the hearth, is one of the most sacred places in the yurt.
43 Among the Kyrgyz of the Sayak tribe, according to S.M. Abramzon's materials, in a similar case, the mother sews a small bag of fabric to the right shoulder of the child's outer clothing and goes begging in 7 houses, where the child is made to bite the ears of seven cauldrons and lick soot, and ash is placed in its bag (Abramzon S.M. Birth and Childhood... p. 104). It is known that in the healing magic of Central Asian peoples (and not only them), fire and its derivatives play a significant role: soot, ash. And the cauldron, like the hearth, is not only a symbol of stability but also a protector, a guardian of the life of the clan, family (Traditional Worldview of the Turks... I. pp. 136-147). Apparently, this is why the infant (and the sick in general) is made to bite the ears of cauldrons, lick soot, and ash is placed in its bag. Regarding smearing the child with soot, see: Chvyr A.A. Experience of Analysis... pp. 125-126. The literature is cited there.
44 Tutkuch — literally, "pot holder," Itybai — it (dog) and bai (a component added to male names). It was assumed that such unpleasant names would hardly attract evil spirits, and the child would remain alive (see note 34).
45 Barpy — according to K.K. Yudakhin — is the name of a herb.
46 The rite of passing the infant through openings (in our case: in a flatbread, through a crack in the yurt, in a tripod for the cauldron) is a widespread phenomenon. The goal is to protect the child from the action of evil forces (Kislyakov N.A. Family and Marriage... p. 53; Traditional Worldview of the Turks... II. p. 164). The flatbread, tripod for the cauldron, smoke hole (through which the infant was also passed), as is known, are sacred things capable of protecting from evil spirits. Turks in such cases passed the infant through a dried wolf's mouth, which M.N. Serebryakova associates with a remnant of the ancient common Turkic wolf cult (Serebryakova M.N. Traditional Institutions of Child Socialization among Rural Turks // Ethnography of Childhood: Traditional Forms of Child and Adolescent Education among the Peoples of the Near and South Asia. Moscow, 1983. p. 44).
47 A bracelet (iron) is put on the arm or leg for protection from evil spirits not only by Kyrgyz but many peoples who believe that evil spirits are very afraid of iron. The spirits' aversion to iron is so great that they do not even approach people protected by this metal (Frazer J. Op. cit. pp. 257-258; Andreev M.S. Tajiks of the Khuf Valley. p. 55; Serebryakova M.N. Op. cit. p. 44).
48 Tashturgan — literally, "standing stone," Omurbek — from omur (life), bek — a component of personal names, Jamansart — from jaman (bad) and sart (before the revolution, this term referred to the settled part of Uzbeks; for Kyrgyz, the word "sart" was derogatory), Jamankazak — literally, "bad Kazakh." All these names again serve the function of deceiving evil spirits (see note 34).
49 Literally, "Is your slave for sale?"
50 Kalyss — literally, "impartial, neutral, uninterested."
51 Regarding iron bracelets, bows, and arrows, it has already been mentioned above. The tail, as one of the most sacred parts of an animal, was often sewn as an amulet to children's clothing. As for the earring in the ear, as M.S. Andreev suggests, this is a kind of mark showing the spirits that the child already has its owner (Andreev M.S. Tajiks of the Khuf Valley. p. 57), and therefore, there is no need to covet it.
52 Kaldyk — literally, "remainder," Tursun — literally, "let it live," Bokbasar — literally, "stepping on manure," Bokchi and Tezakchi — literally, "dealing with manure," Tezakbay — "manure": all these are names-incantations.
53 From iti — dog. Kazakhs called rickets this way and treated it by bathing the child in water with a dog's skull or rolling it where a dog had died (Toleubaev A.T. Op. cit. pp. 82-83). Itiy — in Kyrgyz "rickets".
Rituals associated with the birth and upbringing of children among the Kyrgyz. From the ritual life of the Kyrgyz in the early 20th century. Part - 10