INTRODUCTION. or 
The usual age of marriage among the girls was sixteen or more 
years, by which time she was supposed to be able to cook and look after 
the lodge, as well as to assist in the fields. ‘The men were supposed to 
marry when old enough to be able to provide food and safety for a 
family. ; 
During the period of the woman’s monthly sickness the husband did 
not sleep under the same roof. She did not prepare food for him; 
otherwise he would suffer illness. Having recovered, the woman went 
at once to the river and bathed, and her relations with him were resumed 
as before. 
Delivery was performed by old women especially trained for this 
purpose. After the birth of a child the husband did not enter the lodge 
of the child and mother until after four days; otherwise he would invite 
sickness, especially consumption, on his wife and child. Immediately 
after the birth some old woman was selected to take the child to the river 
and bathe it. She had to be well versed in the mythology of the tribe, 
and especially had to know the instruction given by the Moon to 
women when she instructed them about the birth of children. Arrived 
at the river she prayed to the Moon and Man-never-known-on-earth. 
Then she carried the child into the water, praying to all the gods in the 
water. She asked that the child might grow as fast as they did. The 
child’s head was then sprinkled with water, after which it was immersed. 
On the appearance of the moon the child was taken outside of the lodge 
and held up to the moon, and a prayer was made that it might grow as 
she, the moon herself, grew from day to day. 
The after-birth was always wrapped in a cloth and placed in a 
straight young elm tree—the elm because it produced splendid, straight 
offspring which grow well, and always seem prosperous. They prayed 
to the tree: “Keep this until it decays. I beg that the child which 
was in this may have power. May it grow like your children.” The 
after-birth was never put on the ground, lest animals should harm 
it; nor was it thrown into the water, lest fishes should eat it, in which 
case the child would be sickly and die. In the story of After-Birth-Boy 
may be found another reason why the after-birth was never thrown into 
the water. 
Shortly after the birth of the child the father looked about the vil- 
lage to discover some woman who had grown fast and who had always 
had good health. His choice having been made he went to the timber 
and cut twenty-four small, slender willow rods, the longest of which, 
to form the sides of the cradle, were cut first. Before the stick was cut he 
addressed it: “Now you were made to be used for many different 
