Shaving

The shaving or chaul of the boy's head takes place in the first, second, third, or fifth year, or at the same time as the thread-girding. In the morning of the shaving day, after anointing themselves with oil, the father, mother, and cold bathe, and, dressing in rich clothes and covering themselves with shawls, sit in a line in a quartz tracing. The usual holy-day blessing and joyful-event spirit-worship are performed, the sacrificial fire is lit, the boy is seated on the knee of his maternal uncle or on a wooden stool set in a square traced with lines of quartz, and the barber shaves his head except the top-knot. The barber retires after receiving a present varying from a turban to a few copper coins. The boy in anointed with sweet-smelling oil and bathed along with his parents. After he is dried, ashes from the sacrificial fire are rubbed on his brow, and the ceremony ends with a feast to Brahmans.