CHILDREN.
§ 92. Diseases of children.—Summer complaint from teething is rare. Diarrhea, however, occurs frequently, even in children who walk, and when they are about four feet high. This may be accounted for as follows: their mothers' milk or other food disagrees with them. Dougherty found that during their first year the Omaha children suffered more from constipation than from any other complaint; and he said that this was relieved by soap suppositories. This is not the case now, according to La Flèche and Two Crows; and the writer never heard of its prevalence when he resided among the Ponkas and Omahas.
§ 93. Adoption of children.—The Omaha idea of adoption differs from ours. A member of the same gens, or one who is a consanguinity cannot be adopted; he or she is received by a relation. Two examples of this were told to the writer: Gahige received Wacuce's eldest son when the father died, because the former had been the potential father of the youth, who succeeded Wacuce as custodian of the sacred pipes. Now Gahige keeps the pipes himself for his son. Anpan-skă, of the Wejincte gens, gave his son, Binze-tig¢e, to his chief, Mahin-¢iñge, to be his son and servant. Mahin-¢iñge having received his kinsman, the latter has become the keeper of the treaty between the United States and the Omahas. This boy is about sixteen years of age.
Omaha adoption is called "ciégi¢ě," to take a person instead of one's own child. This is done when the adopted person resembles the deceased child, grandchild, nephew, or niece, in one or more features. It takes place without any ceremony. An uncle by adoption has all the rights of a real uncle. For example, when Mr. La Flèche's daughter Susette wished to go to the Indian Territory to accept a situation as teacher, and had gained the consent of her parents, Two Crows interposed, being her uncle by adoption, and forbade her departure. (See §§ [118] and [126].)
§ 94. Clothing of children.—Children were dressed in suits like those of their parents, but they used to wear robes made of the skins of the deer, antelope, or of buffalo calves. When the boys were very small, say, till they were about four years old, they used to run about in warm weather with nothing on but a small belt of cloth around the waist, according to Dougherty; and the writer has seen such boys going about entirely naked. Girls always wear clothing, even, when small. When a boy was eight years old, he began to wear in winter leggings, moccasins, and a small robe.
§ 95. Child life.—The girl was kept in a state of subjection to her mother, whom she was obliged to help when the latter was at work. When she was four or five years old, she was taught to go for wood, etc. When she was about eight years of age, she learned how to make up a pack, and began to carry a small pack on her back. If she was disobedient, she received a blow on the head or back from the hand of her mother. As she grew older, she learned how to cut wood, to cultivate corn, and other branches of an Indian woman's work. When a girl was about three feet high, she used to wear her hair tied up in four rolls, one on top of her head, one at the back, and one at each side. This lasted till she was about six years old. The girl manifested the most affectionate regard for her parents and other near kindred.
With a boy there was not so much strictness observed. He had more liberty allowed him; and at an early age he was furnished with a bow and blunt arrows, with which he practiced shooting at marks, then at birds. He had his sports as well as the girl, though it was not usual for many boys and girls to play together. If a boy played with girls (probably with those who were not his sisters), the Ponkas referred to him as a "minquga" or hermaphrodite. Both sexes were fond of making houses in the mud, hence the verb, ʇígaxe, to make lodges, to play games.
Joseph La Flèche used to punish his son, Frank, by tying him to a chair with a cord and saying to him, "If you break the cord I will strike you."
When a boy was seven or eight years old he was expected to undergo a fast for a single day. He had to ascend a bluff and remain there, crying to Wakanda to pity him and make him a great man. Dougherty said that the boy rubbed white clay over himself, and went to the bluff at sunrise. When the boy was about sixteen years of age he had to fast for two days in succession. This had to be without any fire, as well as without food and drink; hence, it was not practiced in the winter nor in the month of March. The period of fasting was prolonged to four days when the boy was from eighteen to twenty years of age. Some youths fasted in October; some fasted in the spring, after the breaking up of the ice on the Missouri River. The same youth might fast more than once in the course of the year. Some who fasted thought that Wakanda spoke to them.
Boys took part with their elders in the Hede-watci, when they danced, stripped of all clothing except the breech-cloth.