214 ISLETA, NEW MEXICO 



also of an infant that had been born vdth teeth, because a yellow whip 

 snake (naw'enare) had whipped her mother before her birth. 



A prospective father should not slaughter sheep or go hunting or 

 fishing lest the child be marked. Once when Lucinda was pregnant 

 her husband had gone deer hunting. Her baby was born gasping 

 for breath. So her husband had to go out and run as if chasing a 

 deer, then return and pass his hands over the baby. As soon as he 

 did this, the baby began to breathe all right.^^ 



Women do not like to bear twins (kuinin, two). "Oiu" Lord 

 punishes by sending twins." Is this a paraphrase for the theory of 

 solar impregnation, familiar at Taos and elsewhere but of which at 

 Isleta I could learn nothing, or is it a substitute theory? If the 

 mother of twins give away her dress to any woman, that woman will 

 have tmns. 



Birth and Naming Ritual 



In both medicine societies there is a childbirth specialist and a 

 woman assistant. Their attendance is requested in the usual way, 

 with meal, wliich the doctor gives in twn to his Mother (iema'paru) 

 aslving her to help him. The doctor visits the prospective mother two 

 or three days in advance of the birth "to clean up the body of the 

 woman"; i. e., to exorcise her. During the dehvery the doctor holds 

 the woman. Relatives leave the I'oom. The doctor's woman assist- 

 ant washes the baby. The doctor carries the baby to the middle of 

 the room where he thanks Waeide and liis Mother (iema'paru) and 

 heads the baby in the different directions, beginning as usual with the 

 east. 



The afterbirth and the cord are buried in a field, for a boy; for a 

 girl the afterbirth is bmied imder the house ladder, the cord, in the 

 house. If the cord is lost the girl will be a wanderer from home. 



The stillborn is carried early in the morning to Nampe'koto (sand 

 red piled up), a place in the mesa side to the west or northwest. It is 

 buried without wrappings. A woman will refer to the stillborn as 

 "my poor Uttle Navaho!" "It is just like a Navaho, people are 

 afraid of it. "" I asked Lucinda if this land of burial was outside the 

 cemetery because the padre so directed. "No, old-time way," she 

 answered. 



The cliild's father announces the birth by firing oft' a gun — tkree 

 shots for a girl, five shots for a boy. The morning following the 

 birth, at sunrise, the father's sister carries the baby outdoors, sprin- 

 kles meal, and asks Wsjeide and Sun for long life for the child to whom 

 she gives a name. The doctor and his woman assistant are present. 

 The parents give them breakfast and presents of meal or bread. 



« Cp. Parsons 6: 170. « See p. 289-300. 



