236 Expedition to the 



The squaw has no need of propitiating the goddess Ma- 

 nageneta, but during pregnancy, continues her usual avoca- 

 tions, and even in its most advanced stage, she neither bears 

 a lighter burden on her back, nor walks a shorter distance 

 in a day, than she otherwise would ; neither does she expose 

 herself the less on that account, to the inclemencies of the 

 weather. 



If, on a march, a pregnant woman feels the pains of par- 

 turition, she retires to the bushes, throws the burthen from 

 her back, and without any aid, brings her infant into the 

 world. After washing in water, if at hand, or in melted snow, 

 both herself and the infant, she immediately replaces the 

 burden upon her back, weighing, perhaps, between sixty and 

 an hundred pounds, secures her child upon the top of it, 

 protected from the cold, by an envelop of bison robe, and 

 then hurries on to overtake her companions. 



It is only at the delivery of the first child, that any diffi- 

 culty is ever anticipated, and on this occasion, ss there are 

 no professed midwives, the young wife calls in some friend- 

 ly matron, to assist in case of need. The aid, which these 

 temporary midwives afford, seems to be limited to the prac- 

 tice of tying a belt firmly about the waist of the patient, and 

 shaking her generally in a vertical direction, with considera- 

 ble violence. In order to facilitate the birth, a vegetable 

 decoction is sometimes administered ; and the rattle of the 

 rattle-snake is also given, with, it is said, considerable effect ; 

 the singular appendages of this animal are bruised by 

 pounding, or comminuted by friction between the hands, 

 mixed with warm water, and about the quantity of two seg- 

 ments constitutes a dose. 



The art of turning does not appear to be known, neither 

 is blood letting practised in their obstetrics. We heard of 

 no case of a retention of the placenta after parturition, 

 nor of the affection of longing, or of nausea of the stomach, 

 during pregnancy. 



