82 THE INDIANS OF GATE FLATTERY. 



but I do not think they arc in general use. As a rule the Indian women require 

 but little assistance during labor, and it is very rare that one dies during childbirth. 

 I saw an instance of one who was taken with labor pains while on her way to the 

 brook for water. This was a very unusual occurrence, as they generally keep in 

 /the IIOUSG at such times. My attention was called to the circumstance by seeing 

 / her sitting on the ground and another squaw supporting her back. I went out to 

 I learn the cause, and found that she had just been delivered of a child. The woman 

 I sat still for a few moments longer, then got up and walked into the house without 

 assistance. They are seldom confined to the house over a day, and often not over 

 a couple of hours. That the process is somewhat shorter, and apparently attended 

 with less suffering than among white women, is probably owing to a much lower 

 degree of nervous sensibility, rather than to any material physical difference. The 

 children arc, as a usual thing, well formed. I have heard of cases of malformation, 

 but during three years past have not seen a single one. Twins are of rare occur 

 rence, and during the same period I knew of but one instance, which happened on 

 Tattoosh Island during the summer of 1864. The Indians did not seem, to know 

 what to do about it. They considered it as a sort of evil which would affect in 

 some way the summer fisheries. So the woman and her husband were sent back 

 to Necah Bay, and prohibited from eating fish of any description for two or three 

 months ; and had it not been for the food procured at the Agency she&quot; must have 

 starved. The twins died shortly after their birth, and I strongly suspect that they 

 were killed by the Indians to get rid of the demons which were supposed to have 

 come with them. 1 . 



In cases of sickness where the doctors consider that the patient cannot recover, 

 it was formerly the custom to turn the sufferer out of doors to die, particularly if 

 it was something they did not understand ; the belief being, that if suffered to die 

 in a house all the other occupants would die of the same disease. An instance 

 came under my observation of a woman who was paralyzed so as to be utterly 

 helpless. They dragged her out upon the beach on a cold wintry day, and left her 

 on the snow to perish. The sympathies of the white residents were aroused, and 

 several Indians were appealed to to take the woman into their lodges, and payment 

 offered them for the performance of this simple act of humanity ; but all refused 

 through fear. They were, however, finally induced by promise of reward, and 

 with the assistance of myself and another white person, to construct a rude hovel, 

 in which she was placed, and food and fuel supplied her ; but the Indians would 

 do nothing more, and she was attended by the white residents and made as com 

 fortable as the circumstances would admit, until death relieved her. Since then, 

 and for the past two years, no instances of like inhumanity have occurred ; the 

 Indians fearing lest the agent would punish them for a repetition of the offence. 

 But I have been frequently assured that, except for this, they would have treated 

 several other patients in a similar manner. 



1 The same superstition exists among other tribes?. Some years ago a woman belonging to a party 

 who were being conveyed on a California river steamer to their reservation, gave birth to twins, 

 which were immediately thrown overboard. G. G. 



