258 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



To accomplish this task the pipeline must be extended nearly a 

 quarter of a mile. In addition, a well-traveled road is in its path. 

 The plan seems to be unrealistic, and at this writing, no steps have 

 been taken to implement it. 



Another informant, the wife and mother of a Conservative family 

 living in a type two home, made this statement in June, 1959: 



We plan to add a bedroom and shower to the house. Some young people who 

 helped the community last summer and do what people need, capped the spring. 

 We got to buy the pipe to get the water down from the reservoir. 



At present nothing further has been done. 



People in this group frequently mention cleanliness and good 

 health habits. ' Often, however, a somewhat cavalier attitude is 

 exhibited in this regard. The 11-year-old daughter of the above- 

 mentioned informant developed a severely infected foot. My quarters 

 were near their home, so I was able to observe the entire sequence of 

 events. The girl rubbed a blister on her heel which went unattended 

 as she traveled about barefooted. Finally her foot and lower leg 

 became inflamed, swollen, and very painful. She was taken down to 

 the reservation hospital late one night. I asked her mother what 

 caused it; she answered that a bhster had caused it. When I brought 

 the child home from the hospital 3 days later, she had a Band-aid on 

 her heel and carried two more. During the succeeding days she 

 continued to go about without shoes. The original bandage loosened 

 and dangled from one side of her heel. When I asked her when she 

 was going to replace it with one of the spares, she replied, "Just before 

 I go back to the hospital." 



A second example of the contrast between verbalizations and actual 

 behavior regarding cleanliness and health habits comes from a highly 

 verbal Rural White family whose home is typical of this second 

 category. Emma, the mother, was concerned because her son, 

 Richard, was sick. "What's the matter with him?" I asked. 



He went fishing Saturday night below the dam without a jacket and he already 

 had a little cold. Today he took the fever and chills and his teacher sent him 

 to the hospital. 



Later, while visiting Emma, I observed that the baby was given his 

 bottle after it had been lying on the couch where I had inadvertently 

 sat on it. 



The frequent comments about cleanhness are almost always un- 

 solicited. Molly, an elderly informant, sometimes cooked breakfast 

 for me. One day as she washed the breakfast dishes she said: 



I always use soap and scald the dishes . . . because it keeps the germs away. 

 That's what I learned when I cooked at Berry's camp and when I cooked in other 

 places. At Berry's camp if one dish got cracked, we had to put it away because 

 a germ could get in the crack . . . after he went away we used the cracked ones. 



