48 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. VI. 



fails to contract and to expel the placenta, she gently presses and kneads 

 the body; if that fails she resorts to the little broom, already mentioned, 

 which is made of fine stiff grass, and with which she strikes gently the 

 hips and back of the patient. She at the same time gently pulls the 

 cord. The woman during this time is usually in a recumbent position. 



As soon as the placenta is delivered the patient usually is directed 

 to sit down on a bent piece of wood called "childbirth seat" (tihta 

 adtsvehpi), so as to permit the blood to flow through the opening. In 

 the absence of such a seat she places herself on the edge of a plain block 

 of wood. When she is tired she lies down, and the attendant then 

 directs her attention to the baby. A piece of the mother's hair string 

 is first tied around the umbilical cord close to the body of the child. 

 If it is a boy she is supposed to place an arrow shaft, or a piece of wood 

 under the umbilical cord, and cut the cord on it. If it is a girl it 



Fig. 1. Arrow with umbilical cord, and stirring stick. 



is cut on a stirring stick, or a piece of wood representing such a stick.* 

 This part of the cord is later, when it is dried up and severed from 

 the body, tied to the arrow shaft, stick, or piece of wood and thrust 

 behind some joist of the house, "because the boy will later become 

 a hunter, or have to carry the fire wood, and the girl stir the food in 

 the kettle and grind corn." See Fig. i. 



The child is then wrapped up in a blanket and again left to itself, 

 while the attendant places on an old tray the placenta, pads, sand from 

 under the woman, and the little broom, and carries it all to one of the 

 placenta hills (kiwiichochmo), of which there are several in close prox- 

 imity to the village. She, or sometimes the father, if he be present, 

 then places two posts against the house in front of the door, over which 

 she spreads a blanket to exclude the sunlight, which is supposed to be 

 harmful to the child if it should happen to shine on it during the first 

 twenty days. See Fig. 2. Hereupon she places fresh sand or rags, or both, 

 under the woman, and then calls the mother of the baby's father, whom 

 we shall call the godmother. If this grandmother be no longer living, 

 which is often the case, one of her sisters or other relatives is called, 



^Several of these sticks are used together for stirring corn that is being baked or popped 

 in jars or kettles. 



