Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 143 



make a practice of playing with the guis they become . . . Mi-xuga 

 [berdaches].' " PLC and OK held this belief as well. They also stated 

 that if a man permitted himself to be seduced by the Deer-woman the 

 same condition would result. 



Extramarital sex relations on the part of a married woman were 

 met with drastic punishment. Skinner (1915 c, pp. 800-801) writes: 

 "A Ponca might kill, scalp, or cut the hair off a man whom he caught 

 holding clandestine intercourse with his wife. A wife could kill 

 another woman with whom her husband eloped. A husband could 

 cut off the nose and ears of an unfaithful wife. Blood vengeance 

 could not be exacted for these crimes." 



JLR told a folk tale concerning a young woman, married to a man 

 several years her senior, who had been having intercourse with her 

 lover "under the tipi cover." Her husband, learning of her activities, 

 traded places with her the following night. When the lover came and 

 made his advances, the husband cut the lover's penis off and tied it to 

 his wife's hair while she slept. The next morning when a crowd had 

 gathered about the slain lover, the wife was identified as being the 

 cause of his death by this singular hair ornament. 



According to Jones (1890), the Ponca practiced wife lending when 

 they visited, or were visited by, their friends from other tribes. This 

 is, however, the only mention of this custom for the Ponca in the 

 literature. 



PLC made the following remarks concerning birth and its attendant 

 customs among the Ponca: 



Births just came naturally among the Poncas. There was no birth control. 

 In the old days, they tell me, a woman gave birth to her baby in a kneeling posi- 

 tion. She was on a hide. Sometimes her female relatives would come and help 

 her. Nowadays a bed is used, just like the White folks. 



In the old days you never saw any deformed children like you do now. The 

 reason for this was that no one ever married any possible relation of his. They 

 were also more careful about keeping away from a woman when she was having 

 her turn [i.e., during menses]. 



Births didn't come very close together in the old days. A woman wouldn't 

 have her second child until the first one could walk around and take care of itself. 

 The man and woman stayed away from one another unless they wanted a baby. 



One wishes that there were more information available concerning 

 the vital statistics of groups such as the Ponca. In such an economy, 

 children are a handicap much longer than they are in a fully agri- 

 cultural society. Lactation is prolonged and a woman cannot easily 

 handle more than one infant at a time when the tribe is on the move, 

 as on the tribal hunt. In spite of PLC's statement, there seems to be 

 considerable evidence that infanticide has been general among food- 

 gathering peoples and groups which, like the Ponca, had a mixed 

 economy but were on the hunt for months at a time. 



