White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 201 
After the baby arrives a midwife ties, then cuts, the umbilical 
cord. The afterbirth (wacanyi) is put into a pottery bowl: into a 
cooking pot (ap4oc) if the baby is a boy; into a waicti (a bowl for 
soup or water) if a girl. It is sprinkled with petana and taken down 
to the river where it is buried. 
The baby is bathed by the midwives. The one to whom the 
mother took the prayer meal is the first to bathe it; she becomes the 
baby’s mother as a consequence. No one is allowed to see the new- 
born baby except the midwives, the baby’s mother, and possibly the 
mother’s mother. After the baby is bathed, it is put into a cradle- 
board (cradleboards are said to be made ritually—they may be 
“oiven life” perhaps by a medicineman or society—but no data were 
obtained on this point). The midwives then send for a Snake medi- 
cineman (or a female member of the Snake society), a packet of 
prayer meal being the vehicle of the prayer request, as usual. He 
comes with his bag of medicines and his eagle wing feathers (hicami). 
He talks to the child, prays, and ‘‘preaches to the mother and the 
child.”” He drives sickness and evil influences away with his eagle 
feathers. Then he chews some medicine and blows it out of his 
mouth in a spray over the baby. He now gives permission for anyone 
to come in and see the baby; prior to this time the baby would have 
been vulnerable to any evil influence that may accompany a visitor. 
A person who had been bitten by a snake would be especially dan- 
gerous to the baby because he would injure both mother and baby 
with the snake’s poison that had remained in his system. The Snake 
medicineman is given a small basket of flour (inawi) which must have 
been ground by the mother. The midwives are given baskets of 
flour, too. 
After the Snake tcaiyanyi has left, the father of the newborn babe 
ties cords made of native grown cotton around the baby’s ankles 
where they remain until they fall off—although the father “may cut 
them off if they stay on too long.” 
NAMING 
The midwife who has become the baby’s ceremonial mother goes to 
the baby’s house each morning and evening of the first 4 days after 
birth to bathe the baby. On the morning of the fourth day, before 
sunrise, the midwife goes to the baby’s house and takes him, or her, 
outdoors toward the east. As the sun rises, the midwife presents the 
baby to its sun father and gives the child a name. Then she brings 
the baby back to the house and returns it to its mother, pronouncing 
the child’s name as she does so. This ends the duties of the midwife, 
and she is “‘dismissed.’’ 
