(16) May the child be beautiful and happy.
When one is ill from the heat of the sun he sprinkles corn pollen or meal to the sun, saying, “Father, I am ill in my head, it reaches my heart; I pay you with this meal; I give it to you as food, and will be thankful to you to take away my malady.”
CHILDBIRTH.
One of the most sacred and exclusive rites of the Sia is associated with childbirth.
The accouchement here described was observed in May, 1890, at this pueblo. Upon discovering the woman to be in a state of gestation, the writer made every effort to obtain her consent, and that of the doctress and members of her family to be present at the birth of the child. She kept vigilant watch upon the woman and on the morning of the twenty-second learned that the event was imminent.
Upon inquiring of the father of the women the same morning why he did not go to the fields, he replied, “I can only sit and wait for the little one to come; I must be with my daughter.” He was busy during the day making beads of bits of shells, reducing them to the proper size by rubbing them on a flat stone, afterwards piercing each piece by means of a rotary drill. The following day he sat weaving a band to tie his grandson’s hair. The woman worked as usual with her sewing and prepared the family meals.
After the evening meal (which was some time before dark) on the 22d, the family, consisting of the parents of the woman to be confined, her husband and two boys of 8 and 9 years, gathered in the family living room (this room being 15 by 35 feet). It was evident that the woman was regarded with great consideration and interest, especially by her fond parents, who by the way, were foster parents, the woman being a Navajo. At the time of the removal of the Navajo to the Bosque Redondo, this child was left by her mother in the pueblo of Sia and has since lived with her foster parents.
On the evening of the 23d they gathered as before into the living room, which had been specially prepared for the event. A small quantity of raw cotton, a knife, and a string lay upon a shelf, and the infant’s small wardrobe, consisting of a tiny sheet of white cotton, pieces of calico and a diminutive Navajo blanket, which were gifts to the child, were laid on a table in the farther end of the room. The family sat in anxious expectancy.
It is the woman’s privilege to select her officiating ho´naaite theurgist, and if her husband or father be a ho´naaite, or vicar of a cult society, she usually selects one or the other, otherwise she requests her husband to visit the ho´naaite of her choice and ask his services; in the absence of her husband her brother goes. The woman, holding shell mixture[26] in her right hand (when meal or shell mixture is used in connection with the dead it is held in the left hand), breathes four times upon it, that the expected child may have a good heart and walk over one straight road, and then hands it to the bearer of her message to be presented to the ho´naaite, this shell mixture being the only compensation received for his services.
In this case the woman chose her father.