SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTEHN UNITED STATES 713 



about two foot long, and one broad, to which they brace the child close, cutting 

 a hole against the child's breech for Ats excrements to pass through; a leather 

 strap is tied from one corner of the bo;Ard to the other, whereby the mother flings 

 her child on her back, with the child's back towards hers; at other times they 

 hang them against the walls of their houses, or to the boughs of trees ; by these, 

 and other conveniences, these portable cradles are adapted to the use of Indians; 

 and I can't tell why they may not as well to us, if they were introduced here. 

 They cause a singular erectness in the Indians, nor did I ever see a crooked Indian 

 in my life. (Catesby, 1731-43, vol. 2, p. xv.) 



'White's drawing of a "ladye" of the town of Dasemonquepeuc in the 

 Algonquian country of North Carolina carrying a child represents 

 evidently the method in use after the child had been released from the 

 cradle (pi. 10 in De Bry) . 



Little is known specifically regarding Timucua customs. We are 

 merely told that women did all the work about the house, and planted 

 the fields. Preparation of the ground, however, was a male duty. 

 The male concubines or berdaches relieved women of much of their 

 labor. They carried provisions for a war party, undertook the burial 

 of the dead, and removed those who had contagious diseases to special 

 places where they could be taken care of. The Guale Indians of St. 

 Simons Island were probably related to the Muskogee and Hitchiti, 

 but they were near neighbors of the Timucua, and the following inci- 

 dent may here be inserted. After the monk San Miguel and his com- 

 panions had reached a town belonging to these people, they spent the 

 night under a tree, and 



the day following, as soon as it was day many Indian boys came to the sloop, 

 and all, though they were very small, had bows and arrows proportioned to their 

 size and stature, and all these began shooting into the top of the tree where we 

 had slept, chattering merrily to one another, without our understanding them 

 or understanding why they were shooting there, when we saw falling from 

 the tree a little snake, its small head pierced by an arrow, and one of those boys 

 came proudly and lifting on his arrow the pierced snake, showed it to us joyfully 

 as the conqueror and more skilful than the rest. (Swanton, 1922, p. 373; Garcia, 

 1902, p. 193.) 



During the menstrual periods and for some time after the birth of 

 her child, a woman did not eat fish or venison. It was also consid- 

 ered wrong for her to anoint herself with bear grease or to eat fish 

 for a number of moons after having given birth. Both at that time 

 and at the menstrual period she must not make a new fire or approach 

 one. ^ 



Timberlake says that a Cherokee child was usually born without 

 extraneous help and forthwith dipped into water, the dipping be- 

 ing repeated every morning for 2 years. Probably by the absence 

 of help he means absence of a doctor, for Olbrechts reports that in 

 modern times there must be four women present at a birth and that 

 a doctor was summoned only when some difficulty was anticipated. 



