NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW HOLMBERG 



71 



neighboring hammocks. Children were also pres- 

 ent, boys and girls as well as babes in arms. No 

 men were intentionally present, although some lay 

 nearby in their hammocks, paying no attention to 

 the proceedings. After about 10 minutes of wait- 

 ing for the birth to take place, someone at the 

 other end of the house announced the arrival of a 

 party with manioc brought in from an old garden 

 some distance away. The suffering woman was 

 immediately abandoned; everyone made a rush to 

 see whether he could get some manioc. In a short 

 while the labor pains ceased, and at about 6 p. m. 

 Eakwantui's husband returned from the hunt with 

 a squirrel, which was eaten by his sister. 



Nothing further happened, except that the pro- 

 spective parents had occasional intercourse to 

 hasten the delivery of the child, until December 17, 

 when Eakwantui again began to feel labor pains 

 about 7:30 in the morning. Her husband stretched 

 the childbirth rope over the hammock before 

 going out to hunt. Tatiii (Armadillo), the 

 husband's sister, swept the floor under the 

 hammock and loosened the earth with a digging 

 stick. An old woman, not an immediate relative, 

 performed a solo dance at the head of Eakwantui's 

 hammock to facilitate the birth. Again present 

 were most of the women and children of the band. 

 After about an hour the birth pangs subsided for 

 the third time. At nightfall Eakwantui's hus- 

 band returned with a small tortoise, which 

 was eaten by his brother-in-law. 



Between December 17 and January 17 there 

 was no further progress toward labor, but there 

 was considerable talk on the part of the other 

 women, who expected that Eakwantui would die. 

 On the whole, however, they paid little attention 

 to her, although her sister-in-law, Eicazi (Mother- 

 of-Clubfoot) said to me, "kose mose mbia mdno 

 akenddsi" ("People have died hi childbirth 

 before"). During this period both Eakwantui and 

 her husband stayed close to camp. He did not 

 go hunting for more than a day at a time, and 

 the only times she left camp were to have inter- 

 course to stimulate the birth of the infant. 



Finally, on January 17, at about 3 o'clock in 

 the afternoon, Eakwantui again began to have 

 labor pains. Because of the previous false 

 alarms almost no attention was paid to her at 

 first. Her husband went hunting as usual, al- 

 though he explained that it was too late in the 

 afternoon to get game. About 5 p. m. the labor 



pains began to grow stronger, and Eakwantui's 

 sister-in-law began to rub her stomach a little. 

 She herself was pulling and rubbing her breasts 

 during the pains. This time her husband's sister's 

 husband tied a piece of pole over the hammock 

 with lianas, and she grasped on to this for support 

 while trying to give birth. Receiving very little 

 attention, she continued in pain until about 5:30 

 p. m., when her husband returned from the hunt 

 with a small turtle. This was immediately pre- 

 pared and eaten by one of his sisters-in-law. 

 A girl child was finally born about 7 p.m., dropping 

 through the strings of the hammock, and about 3 

 minutes afterward, a boy. As soon as the girl 

 was born, the father got out of his hammock and 

 assisted Eakwantui by supporting her under the 

 arms. When the boy was born, there was terrific 

 confusion among the women, who crowded so 

 close to the mother that she could hardly breathe, 

 but none made an effort to help her. After the 

 second birth the mother got out of the hammock 

 to expel the afterbirth. Both children were lying 

 in the dirt underneath the hammock, showing 

 few signs of life. The mother appointed Araia, a 

 cowife, to take care of one of the children. When 

 Araia picked up the boy, all the women cried, 

 "Desi erdNkwi" ("penis for the mother," i. e., 

 the boy for the mother), so she put the boy down 

 and took up the girl. The mother, who had 

 expelled the placentas in the meantime, called for 

 a basket. From it she took a small blade of 

 bamboo and handed it to her husband. He first 

 severed the cord of the girl about 2 inches from 

 the placenta and then cut off a piece about 4 

 inches long, which Araia, the second wife, put on 

 her leg before tying it under her hammock. The 

 cord of the boy was then cut in the same manner. 

 It was now about 8 p. m., and almost everyone 

 who had been observing the birth, retired to his 

 hammock to sleep. 



After the rest had left, the mother and Araia 

 remained seated on the ground with the two 

 children. The mother began to scrape up the 

 bloody earth from underneath the hammock 

 with her hands, pushing it into a small hole 

 which her sister-in-law, Tatiii (Armadillo), had 

 made for that purpose near the head of the 

 hammock. When all of the blood-stained earth 

 had been placed in the hole, the mother carefully 

 put the two placentas on top. Then both of the 

 women began to shape the children, first straight- 



