52 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. VI. 



of which are used by the women either before or after confinement. 

 " Sun top " ( Tawdriyanpi, Tetraneurio iresiana Greene) is applied locally 

 against severe pain in the hips and back, especially during the pregnant 

 state. A decoction of the leaves of various junipers (Juniperies occi- 

 dentalis Hooker and Juniperies communis L.), as well as of "maidens" 

 (Manatu) is taken by women who desire to have female issue, while 

 such plants as "boys" (Lolimu, Townsendia strigosa Gray) is used by 

 those who desire male issue. 



When explaining to me the nature and uses of " Big Maiden blos- 

 som " (Wapamanci, Castillega Linearifolia Bentham) my friend and infor- 

 mant of the Hopi medical profession, once said that a decoction of this 

 was also sometimes used against excessive menstrual discharges and 

 to prevent conception, as it "dried up the menstrual flow," as he put it. 

 Another informant, in speaking about- Hopi drugs, mentioned two other 

 herbs, both called " not child-bearing medicine " (ka tihta-nga), as 

 being used for the same purpose. One of them is said to be so strong 

 that "it twists the uterus all up," causing the death of the woman. 

 To prevent such a fatal result, the two herbs are used together for the 

 purpose mentioned, one partly neutralizing the strength and severity 

 of the other. 



While, of course, by far the greater percentage of Hopi women 

 pass safely through the puerperal state, cases are by no means wanting 

 where their apprehension, that the dark days through which they are 

 to pass might become for them the passage to the skeleton house 

 becomes fearfully true. Only lately a man was here from another vil- 

 lage, whose wife died recently of what I believe to have been puer- 

 peral fever. Other cases are known to me. Of one I learned — when 

 help was too late — that the woman had died of what seems to have 

 been puerperal ecclampsia. One of the causes to which the Hopi 

 attribute such fatal results is, that the patient has partaken of cold 

 water or nourishment, which, they say, causes the blood in the uterus 

 to coagulate, to produce distension of that organ, etc., and hence great 

 care is taken that a lying-in woman shall take warm food and drink only. 



During the twenty days comprising the lying-in period, the fire 

 is not supposed to go out in the house where the patient is; of course 

 it is not actually to burn all the time, but care must be taken that at 

 least embers remain at the fireplace. In case it be entirely extinguished 

 it is at once renewed, but that day is not counted as one of the twenty, 

 and another one is added. In such a case the child is said to be 

 a " fire meddler " (towiishkovi). It is believed that it will have a mor- 

 bid inclination to play with fire. This, it is claimed, will also be the 

 case if anything be baked or roasted on the fire, or on the coal of the 



