The patient is in a kneeling or squatting position with her hands on a rope or bamboo rod, which is suspended from a rafter about the height of her shoulders. [53] She draws on this, while one or more old women, skilled in matters pertaining to childbirth, knead and press down on the abdomen, and finally remove the child.  The naval cord is cut with a bamboo knife, [54] and is tied with bark cloth.  Should the delivery be hard, a pig will be killed beneath the house, and its blood and flesh offered to the spirits, in order to gain their aid.

If the child is apparently still-born, the midwife places a Chinese dish close to its ear, and strikes against it several times with a lead sinker.  If this fails to gain a response, the body is wrapped in a cloth, and is soon buried beneath the house.  There is no belief here, as is common in many other parts of the Philippines, that the spirits of unborn or still-born children form the chief recruits for the army of evil spirits.

The after-birth is placed in a small jar together with bamboo leaves, “so that the child will grow like that lusty plant,” and is then intrusted to an old man, usually a relative.  He must exercise the greatest care in his mission, for should he squint, while the jar is in his possession, the child will be likewise afflicted.  If it is desired that the infant shall become a great hunter, the jar is hung in the jungle; if he is to be an expert swimmer and a successful fisherman, it is placed in the river; but ill fortune is in store for the baby if the pot is buried, for he will always be afraid to climb a tree or to ascend a mountain.

These close ties between the infant and the after-birth are easily comprehended by a people who also believe in the close relationship between a person and any object recently handled by him (cf. p. 305).  In general it is thought that the after-birth soon disappears and no longer influences the child; yet certain of the folk-tales reflect a firm conviction that a group of spirits, known as alan, sometimes take the placenta, and transform it into a real child, who is then more powerful than ordinary mortals. [55]

Immediately following the birth the father constructs a shallow bamboo framework (baitken), [56] which he fills with ashes, and places in the room close to the mother.  On this a fire is kept burning constantly for twenty-nine days [57] For this fire he must carefully prepare each stick of wood, for should it have rough places on it, the baby would have lumps on its head.  A double explanation is offered for this fire; firstly, “to keep the mother warm;” secondly, as a protection against evil spirits.  The idea of protection is evidently the original and dominant one; for, as we shall see, evil spirits are wont to frequent a house, where a birth or death has occurred, and a fire is always kept burning below the house or beside the ladder at such a time. [58]