298 THE ZUNI INDIANS [eth. an.v. 23 



delivered. Owing to the absence of her mother in Ojo CaHente, a farming district, 

 the girl was confined in her mother-in-law's house. She wore only the camig, which 

 leaves the arms exposed, and was covered with a heavy blanket. She lay most of 

 the night on sheepskins spread on the floor near the south end of the room, pressing 

 her feet during tlie pain against the ledge at the south wall of the room. She 

 changed position from her side to her back and often lay face downward. The 

 mother-in-law, who was a doctress, had no professional part in the treatment of 

 her daughter-in-law, but took a seat on the floor beside the girl, offering no 

 assistance. The two grandmothers of the girl were present and were much con- 

 cerned over her suffering. The father, the father-in-law, and a paternal uncle were 

 in an interior room. Their faces expressed anxiety, and they spoke in whispers. 

 The husband of the girl, not expecting the birth of the child for several days, was 

 absent at his farm in Ojo Caliente. The pains increased, and at 4 o'clock in the 

 afternoon, two doctresses having been summoned, the kneading of the abdomen 

 1)egan. Each doctress took her turn, bestowing much strength and energy on the 

 manipulation. With each pain the girl turned on her right side and caught the 

 belt of the doctress before her, while the second doctress pressed hard upon the 

 back, the girl pressing her feet against the ledge. The labor being prolonged, a doc- 

 tress held the nostrils of the patient and blew into her mouth, occasionally releasing 

 the pressure upon her nose for an instant. This heroic treatment appears cruel in 

 the extreme, but it is supposed to force the child into the world. The girl wept 

 continually. The sympathy expressed by the relatives and doctresses was enough to 

 unnerve the sufferer. The juniper tea was frequently drunk and the girl occasionally 

 stood over the urinal during the day, but did not leave her bed after 4 o'clock. 

 Rupture of the meml)ranes occurred an hour and a half Ijefore the birth of the child. 

 Half an hour previous to delivery, one of the doctresses made an examination by 

 inserting her hand. Apparently discouraged and alarmed, she notified the mother- 

 in-law of her intention to call upon the officers of the Great Fire fraternity to come 

 and sing their songs. This fraternity has four songs addressed to the Beast Gods for 

 hastening delayed delivery. Should the child be born after the first song, the singing 

 ceases, and so on. Should the child not be born soon after the fourth song, the heart 

 of the patient is bad; the songs are not repeated, and the theurgists leave the house. 

 Accordingly, the mother-in-law provided the doctress with a quarter of mutton and 

 many yards of cotton and calico as an advance payment to the theurgists. For a long 

 time the doctress was unsuccessful in her efforts to find the men, but she persisted in 

 her search and finally returned with them just as the girl was l)eing delivered of a male 

 child. The four theurgists departed at once with the medicine of the Beast Gods and 

 their rattles. As soon as the child's head was exposed, the girl was at once turned 

 upon her back and most vigorously kneaded. Her drawn knees were held by two 

 women and a doctress took her seat upon the ledge between the girl's knees and, 

 pressing her hands to the sides of the infant's head, assisted the birth by slightly shak- 

 ing the child as she pulled it to her.« Another doctress severed the umbilical cord 

 wiili a steel knife, while the doctress holding the child pressed the cord close by 

 the umbilicus until a cotton cord as thick as a lead pencil was procured and wrapped 

 around it several times. In the meantime the abdomen of the young mother was 

 mauipulated until the placenta passed. It was held by the umbilical cord and hastily 

 taken from under the blanket on the left side, dropped into a bowl, and carried 

 from the' house by the girl's maternal grandmother, who deposited it in the river 

 with a prayer that the young mother might be blessed with many children. While 

 this was happening the mother bit upon a white pebble, that the child's teeth 

 might be strong and white. There seemed to be no evidence of life in the child for 



"Though it is the aim of eacli doctress present at childbirth to bring the child into the world in 

 order that if it be a boy, he will enter the ki'wi'sine of her husband, there is no evidence of unfair- 

 ness toward one another. 



