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IV BIRTH AND FERTILITY If only a married man was considered a man,1 only a woman with children was considered a woman. It was widely accepted that by the end of one year after the wedding the wife should be pregnant. If this had not occurred she was to resort to a wise-woman. Infertility was thought in some places to be caused by “stale blood,” and the reason for this was held to be that the woman in question had not been properly treated in her youth against infertility. The treatment itself, called klinene, consisted in applying a hot little stone to the groin of the little girl. If nothing helped, and the woman was pronounced to be infertile, she was condemned to a life of scorn, and treated as a potential whore. It is true that in other regions the treatment of an “infertile” woman was not so harsh, but folk beliefs nonetheless never attributed infertility to the male (Marinov 1914, 155). Only in the 1930s did villagers begin to accept it as possible that males also could be sterile (EIM/BAN 640–II, 122). All existing descriptions (from Orthodox as well as from Catholic villages) agree that during delivery the woman was either standing, sitting or squatting. She would give birth to the child over a trough covered with straw, a mat or clothes (EIM/BAN 256–II, 3; 296–II, 6; 220–II, 3; 702–II, 44; 705–II, 32; 869–II, 78). It was believed in some regions that Tuesday was the worst day for delivery (EIM/BAN 703–II, 54). In another region Friday was added to the Tuesday, and it was believed that children born on these days were usually epileptic and did not last long (EIM/BAN 221–II, 15). In the whole of Northwestern Bulgaria the day and time of year of the birth determined the character and fate of the newborn . Thus winter babies were considered to be healthy, spring babies happy, summer babies rich, and autumn babies satisfied. Children born on Mondays would be good laborers, on Tuesdays unhappy, on Wednesdays courageous, on Thursdays wanderers, on Fridays tough, on Sundays learned, so as to become priests or teachers. Saturday babies were held in special esteem, because they were thought of as rare, and were believed to keep evil spirits and bad diseases out of the house (Marinov 1984, 489; Marinov 1914, 158). 55 Balkan Family Structure Births, baptisms and their registration The data at our disposal from the birth register of Baltadzhi (1833–1876) allow us to reconstruct the seasonal pattern of births as seen on Table 4.1. That so many births occurred in September and October is explained by the fact that most marriages throughout the period were concluded in January (see Table 3.1). The usual and hoped for pattern was getting pregnant immediately after marriage. The winter months were best suited for conceptions, as there was no heavy agricultural work, and people were mostly confined to the house. The number of births in January, February and March, and then again in August, is also considerable. These were babies conceived accordingly in April, May, June and November, when the number of marriages was, in fact, very low. These were apparently conceptions that preceded and followed periods of intensive agricultural work. —————————————————————————————————————————————— Table 4.1 Monthly distribution of births —————————————————————————————————————————————— January 287 May 192 September 356 February 288 June 146 October 405 March 321 July 215 November 236 April 263 August 281 December 217 total 3207 —————————————————————————————————————————————— Conceptions began decreasing in July, and drastically fell in August and September, during the intensive harvest time. Accordingly, there were far fewer births during the months of April, and especially May and June. The above data point to the conclusion that there must have been some sort of seasonal planning of births, most probably regulated through sexual abstention . However, this should also be substantiated ethnographically. There is one indication that in some regions there were “bad” days for conception. Thus in the village of Hadzhikioy (today Yerusalimovo, Khaskovo district) it was believed that a child conceived in the night before a Wednesday or a Friday might become very learned, but would suffer from frail health and would die soon (EIM/BAN 703–I, 54). Although these days were not strictly taboo, there is every reason to believe that in a traditional culture the couple would practice abstention on those days. The timing of the baptism of the newborn varied from...

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