CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



165 



sidered frequent symptoms also. Sometimes 

 in tlie early months women are sick at their 

 stomachs and vomit in the mornings. 



Usually a midwife is sought early in preg- 

 nancy and pays frequent visits to the enceinte 

 woman. The midwife massages the woman 

 with lard or cooking oil "to make sure the foetus 

 is in the right position" and generally keeps 

 an eye on the patient's health. Sometimes the 

 midwife locates the head of the child during the 

 massage. A fee of 10 centavos is charged for 

 each visit. 



A pregnant woman should not do much work, 

 should not lift heavy things, and should take fre- 

 quent baths in cold water in the house. She 

 continues to grind corn and carry water ; young 

 mothers, indeed, are encouraged to keep active 

 by older women, who believe some exercise 

 helps the mother. She does not cook tortillas 

 if she can avoid it, because the fire might "cook" 

 the foetus. Toward the end of pregnancy 

 some women are "delicate" and eat very little. 

 At Capacuaro this is customary in the last days 

 of pregnancy. Otherwise there are no pre- 

 natal food taboos. 



An eclipse during pregnancy may cause 

 something bad to happen to the child. To 

 prevent the effects, a red belt is worn under- 

 neath the several belts worn by women who 

 dress in traditional costume. If Mestizo cos- 

 tume is worn, red underwear is used. Women 

 should do nothing during an eclipse. The 

 occurrence of Mongoloid spot is reported. It is 

 believed that this is caused by the woman 

 carrying her coins in the customai'y fashion in 

 her belt during pregnancy. 



Women should not tie any animals during 

 pregnancy, as this may cause the child to be 

 strangled by the umbilical cord during birth. 

 If the mother urinates where some animal has 

 urinated, the child may be born with some part 

 of the animal. Reports were given by mid- 

 wives of children having been born with a pig 

 face or a goat face and tail because the mother 

 urinated where these animals had urinated. 

 In the latter part of pregnancy a woman should 

 always remove the lid from a vessel before lift- 

 ing it from the fire ; if she fails to observe this 

 rule, the child may be born dumb. Clubfoot is 

 caused by the mother not taking proper care 

 of herself. 



Wrong positions, especially breech presenta- 

 tions, may result from several causes. The 

 mother may have moved around too much and 

 worked too hard, hit a dog with her foot, put 

 the "foot" of a stick of wood in the fire first, 

 failed to remove the comal from the fire imme- 

 diately after finishing the cooking of tortillas, 

 eaten toasted tortillas, or eaten off the metate 

 (the latter taboo was explained on the basis that 

 the metate has only three legs). Children are 

 born blind only because "God wills it." 



Witches may interfere with pregnancy and 

 make the child arrive dead. The preventive 

 remedy is to cook tomato peeling and a pot- 

 sherd of Guadalajara ware together and drink 

 the liquid. 



Fathers are also under some restrictions 

 during the period of pregnancy. Whenever a 

 load of wood is brought to the house it must be 

 untied immediately or the child may be 

 strangled by the umbilical cord. Also, the 

 father must not kill lizards or snakes during the 

 pregnancy, or touch resin or turpentine, or 

 they will enter into the child. Some say the 

 father should not kill any kind of an animal, 

 from a snail to an ox. If he does so, the 

 animal will enter into the child through the 

 mouth or nose and the child will be born dead. 

 One midwife thought the father should not 

 have relations with his wife after the third or 

 fourth month of pregnancy for reasons of clean- 

 liness, but some say diflicult birth or wrong 

 positions may result from continued inter- 

 course. The father should not work on the day 

 of birth. 



No distinction is made between first and sub- 

 sequent births. Midvv^ives varied in their ideas 

 as to the frequency of births. Some believed 

 that women had children from 1 to II/2 years 

 apart, others said from 8 months to 3 years. 

 One midwife explained that the number of 

 children and the frequency of births were deter- 

 mined by something resembling links in the 

 uterus. These could be counted by the mid- 

 wife, who could tell how many children the 

 woman would have and, by the spacing, what 

 the interval between births would be. Some 

 women might be capable of as many as 25 

 pregnancies. 



All births are attended by midwives, who 

 form a professional group, although without 



