He strikes the ground with this all round the patient, making a great row; this is to frighten the sickness away.
What seems to me a somewhat peculiar ceremony is the reception a coming baby holds before its birth.
The baby is presumably about to be born.

Its grandmother is there naturally, but the black baby declines to appear at the request of its grandmother, and, moreover, declines to come if even the voice of its grandmother is heard; so grannie has to be a silent spectator while some other woman tempts the baby into the world by descanting on the glories of it.

First, perhaps, she will say: 'Come now, here's your auntie waiting to see you.' 'Here's your sister.' 'Here's your father's sister,' and so on through a whole list.

Then she will say, as the relatives and friends do not seem a draw: 'Make haste, the bumble fruit is ripe.

The guiebet flowers are blooming.