igoo-i.] D^N^ Surgery. 25 



and, of course, perform the operation as gently and as gradually as 

 possible. 



Midwifery was formerly unknown among the Carriers as it has 

 remained among the Tsilkoh'tin, another Dene tribe. But since the 

 advent of civilization, it would seem that our women are not half as 

 hardy as they used to be*, and, whenever possible, one or more of their 

 female neighbours are now called in to assist nature in the process of 

 parturition. So far as I know, this aid consists in external pressure 

 only. It goes without saying that none of the various instrumental 

 operations resorted to in grievous cases among civilized people are 

 known among poor children of the forest, whose only cutting tools 

 were, but yesterday, roughly flaked stone implements. 



As parturifacients, three plants are chiefly valued and used to this 

 day among the Carriers. They are the horse-tail ( Equisetum hyeniale) 

 which is taken in strong decoctions, the bark of the Devil's bush 

 (Fatsia hot'rida), and that of the elder ( Sainbucus racemosus ), hot 

 infusions of which are drunk previous to parturition or before the 

 after-birth is expelled. 



A particularity subsequent to delivery which is proper to the 

 natives and is based on superstitious notions, is that relative to the 

 placenta. This was formerly wrapped and suspended from a tree at 

 some distance from the village. Should it have come in contact with 

 water, the mother was believed to be doomed to perpetual sterility. 



Any reader, ever so little conversant with American aboriginal 

 sociology, knows of the sudatory or sweat-bath wherein the whole 

 naked body is exposed, within an hermetically closed space, to the 

 effect of steam emanating from heated stones. This is quite common 

 among the Northern Denes. But those Indians have besides a partial 

 or local vapour-bath which is a favourite with lately delivered women. 

 This is called yoen-dizai (it — an object long or heavy — lies on the 

 ground), while the regular sweat-bath is known as tse'-zcel, or the heat 

 of stones. Yosn-dizai consists in a round, shallow hole about one 

 foot in diameter dug in the ground, wherein two or three red hot 

 stones are laid. Across the apex of the cavity, small sticks are 

 deposited gridiron-wise and then covered with moistened grass. 



* That this is a common result of civilization over savage populations is shown by the following state- 

 ment, one of the many which could be adduced : "When they begin to take on civilized habits, the Dakota 

 women find they can not continue to follow the customs of their grandmothers." Riggs,' Dakota Grammar, 

 etc., p. 208. 



