136 THE SIA. 



woiild walk about outside of the house. The pains were very frequent 

 for three hours, the longest interval being thirty minutes, the shortest 

 thirty seconds, the average being ten minutes, the pains continuing 

 from three to twenty minutes. Though her suffering was great, 

 nothing more than a smothered groan escaped her lips. The doctress 

 seemed perfectly ignorant and unable to render any real assistance. 



The only attempt made by the doctress to hasten the birth was au 

 occasional manipulation of the abdomen, after which she placed the ear 

 of corn at the head of the woman, and after blowing upon it passed it 

 down the middle of the body four times, as before, and the heating of 

 the person by heaping a few coals upon the floor and putting upon 

 them cobwebs, tlie woman standing over the coals while the mother 

 held the blanket close around her feet. This failing in its desired 

 effect, scrapings from one of the beams in an old chamber were placed 

 on coals, the woman standing over the coals. It is claimed by the Sia 

 that these two remedies are very old and were iised when the world 

 was new. After a time a third remedy was tried — the fat of a cas- 

 trated sheep was put on coals heaped in a small bowl, the woman also 

 standing over this — but all these remedies failed. Tlie woman occa- 

 sionally assisted herself with a circular stick 4 inches in length 

 wrapped with cotton. After 2 o'clock a. m. the father became so 

 fatigued that the sister-in-law, instead of blowing upon the corn, stood 

 back of him and supi)orted his forehead with her clasped hands. The 

 ear of corn, when not in use, lay beside the sand bed. As the night 

 waned the woman gradually became more and more exhausted, and at 

 half past two the mother laid several sheepskins upon the floor and on 

 these a blanket, placing two pillows at the head of this pallet, and 

 then taking a pinch of meal from the bowl which was at the right side 

 of the bed, which had been prepared for use after the birth, put it 

 into the right hand of the woman, who now knelt upon the sand bed, 

 leaning upon her father's shoulder while he, in the deepest emotion, 

 stroked her head. As the woman received the meal she raised her 

 head and the sister-in-law handed the ear of corn to the father, who 

 held it between his hands and prayed, then running the corn from the 

 crown of the woman's head down the body in a direct line and hold- 

 ing it vertically while the woman sprinkled the meal upon it and 

 prayed to tJt'set that she might pass safely through the trials of jiarturi- 

 tion. She was now so exhausted that she was compelled to lie on the 

 pallet; twice she raised from the pallet and took position for delivery. 



The two babies of the sister-in-law slept on blankets, and the two 

 sons of the woman who had been sent fiom the room early in the even- 

 ing had returned and were also sleeping on rugs. At 4 o'clock the 

 parents, in alarm at the interrupted labor, sent for a prominent ho'na- 

 aite, and the husband of the woman, who had left the room at the ap- 

 proach of extreme labor. The husband, in company with the ho'naaite, 

 soon appeared, the former removing both his moccasins, the latter the 



