Turmeric, yellow ginger.
Curcuma longa
Turmeric is used to make rice yellow and to add flavor, also to make a marinade by adding salt and turmeric to water. Chicken, fish, or vegetables are sometimes cooked in such a merinade. It is also used as a dye in matmaking. When a child has just been born, the cord cut, and the child bathed, the juice of turmeric is touched to the eyebrows and the middle of the forehead between the eyes of the child. Also a thin sliver is placed in the middle of the forehead of all who have seen the blood of the birth. A prayer or incantation is whispered while the elders, an imam or the midwife places it.