384 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 33 



The baby's first smile is noticed, but has no significance. Usually 

 a child was not permitted to creep ; when it reached the creeping stage, 

 it was taught to stand. A mother uses several methods to teach it to 

 walk. A toddler old enough to run away is tied to a stationary object 

 with a rope long enough to give it freedom of movement. Neither 

 creeping nor walking is celebrated as an event. 



Nothing is done to bring about early speech development. The 

 mother teaches the child to speak, beginning with words. 



Nursing and weaning. — A mother nurses the child until it is about 

 2 years old, unless an unusual situation arises. The mother sustained 

 her milk flow by eating much nourishing food ; she ate no beef, how- 

 ever, because it was believed to make a nursing mother sick. No de- 

 coction was given to increase milk flow. A child was nursed on an 

 indicated or demand schedule, but never when there was a snake about 

 the place. A child old enough to hold something in its hands is given 

 a piece of meat from which to suck the essence. It is given soups about 

 this time also. As soon as it can swallow heavier foods, the mother 

 masticates meat for it. When it has teeth, it is expected to eat foods 

 eaten by adults. 



A child is weaned either gradually by accustoming it to food other 

 than mother's milk or abruptly by placing it with relatives or neighbors 

 for several days, and, upon its return to its mother, discouraging nurs- 

 ing by treating the nipples with a plant repellent. Fur repellent was 

 not used. The postnursing milk must be poured into a brook, since 

 this will give the mother the capacity to nurse other children that may 

 yet be born to her. 



Atypical conditions. — Twins, but no other multiple births, were 

 known to have occurred ; twins have been born in recent times. They 

 may be both of the same sex, or one of each. There was no way of 

 predicting them. According to most informants twins were not 

 wanted, but never were they killed. Twins had no special way of 

 talking. 



No information on incest was collected. Illegitimacy was formerly 

 a rare thing. The family of a girl who had an illegitimate child lost 

 status in the community, and the cacique had the right to take the life 

 of the paramour, if the parents of the girl insisted. A child born to 

 an unmarried girl was known as a "natural" child. It was reared in 

 its mother's home, if born there (which rarely happened), or by its 

 grandparents or other sympathetic adults. 



Rarely was a child born deformed. Infanticide was not practiced. 

 A child that cries persistently is thought to be sick, and is given either 

 medicinal preparations used for children or diluted doses of those 



