§ 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.
STANDING OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY.
§ 96. The women had an equal standing in society, though their duties differed widely from what we imagine they should be. On cold days, when the husband knew that it was difficult for the woman to pursue her usual occupations, he was accustomed to go with her to cut wood, and he used to assist her in carrying it home. But on warm days the woman used to go alone for the wood. The women used to dress the hides at home, or at the tent in which she was staying when the people were traveling. When a woman was strong she hoed the ground and planted the corn; but if she was delicate or weak, her husband was willing to help her by hoeing with her. The woman did the work which she thought was hers to do. She always did her work of her own accord. The husband had his share of the labor, for the man was not accustomed to lead an idle life. Before the introduction of fire-arms the man had to depend on his bow and arrows for killing the buffaloes, deer, etc., and hunting was no easy task. The Indian never hunted game for sport.
CATAMENIA.
§ 97. The sexual peculiarity was considered as "Wakan´daʇa´¢ican," pertaining to Wakanda. In the myth of the Rabbit and the Black Bears, Mactciñge, the Rabbit, threw a piece of the Black Bear chief against his grandmother, who had offended him, thereby causing her to have the catamenia. From that time women have been so affected. Among the Omahas and Ponkas the woman makes a different fire for four days, dwelling in a small lodge, apart from the rest of the household, even in cold weather. She cooks and eats alone, telling no one of her sickness, not even her husband. Grown people do not fear her, but children are caused to fear the odor which she is said to give forth. If any eat with her they become sick in the chest, very lean, and their lips become parched in a circle about two inches in diameter. Their blood grows black. Children vomit. On the fourth or fifth day, she bathes herself, and washes her dishes, etc. Then she can return to the household. Another woman who is similarly affected can stay with her in the small lodge, if she knows the circumstances. During this period, the men will neither lie nor eat with the woman; and they will not use the same dish, bowl, and spoon. For more than ten years, and since they have come in closer contact with the white people, this custom of refusing to eat from the same dish, etc., has become obsolete. Dougherty stated that in the young Omaha female, catamenia and consequent capability for child-bearing, took place about the twelfth or thirteenth year, and the capacity to bear children seemed to cease about the fortieth year. This agrees in the main with what the writer has learned about the age of puberty (§ [80]) and the law of widows (§ [98]). La Flèche said that the change of life in a woman occurs perhaps at forty years of age, and sometimes a little beyond that age.