ABSTRACT
A woman’s pregnancy gives rise to changes in the couple’s daily life. During the gestation period the future mother and her husband are subject to a certain number of taboos based on magic by analogy. If they are broken, childbirth will be complicated. ‘The child refuses to come out’, it is said. A pregnant woman must not use sharp objects: she must not sew, knit or hammer in nails. She must not tie a knot in anything, or make interlaced fences, or ‘the baby will remain a prisoner in his mother’s womb’. If there are difficulties with the delivery, the father must immediately go and destroy any fences put up during the pregnancy, pull out nails or unravel sweaters. The future mother must not lean up against a door frame, as otherwise ‘the child will not be able to decide whether to stay or to leave his mother’s womb’. If the taboo is broken, the door frame must be immediately wiped three times. The mother-to-be must not help to demolish houses, or step over ropes, yokes or bamboos. She must not sit on a bench, even in a cart, next to another person. She must drink in small sips, and must on no account swallow liquid too fast, or her new-born baby will start vomiting at birth. At work in the fields, she must not build a hearth with three stones, or, if she does, she must destroy it before leaving.
