No attention was given to the woman by the doctress for two hours after the birth, when a fresh gown was put on, the gown being changed every morning and evening for four days, the one worn in the evening having been washed and dried the same day. The sheepskin on the bed was changed daily. About 9 o’clock a. m. the grandmother prepared a bowl of tea made from freshly gathered cedar twigs steeped in water, and the woman drank two gourdfuls. This tea is constantly drunk for a designated period, which differs with different clans; some drinking it regularly for four months, others taking it but three, and some only two months. No water is drunk during the time this liquid is used, and continency is observed for the two, three, or four months; the husband, however, sleeps during this time in the same room, and in this particular case the husband slept by his wife’s side. Should a woman break the continency, an animal would enter her abdomen and she would surely die, for so said the first mother of her clan.
After the first draft of the tea the woman ate a hearty breakfast of tortillas, jerked meat, and corn-meal gruel. Her female relatives and friends called to see her and the baby during the day, and she chatted as merrily as if nothing had happened.
The Sia infant is nourished regularly from the time it is born; and in this particular case the infant was nursed by a woman whose child was three months old, until the third morning, when the mother took it in charge. Though the door of the room could not be left open until the child should have passed out the fourth morning to see its sun father, and the two small windows being stationary, the most fastidious could have found no fault with the purity of the atmosphere. The father of the woman scarcely left her during the four days. He sat by her bed-side, weaving garters, and showing her the tenderest care, and her mother did little else than look after the wants of the invalid and infant and admire and caress the latter. The woman’s husband was absent all day working in the fields, but upon his return in the evening he could be found by his wife’s side admiring the baby and saying pleasing words to the woman of his choice. The family all slept in the same room as usual with the addition the first two nights of the woman engaged to furnish nourishment to the child, who also had her infant with her.
By half past 4 on the fourth morning the woman had donned her woolen dress and belt and sat upon the bed awaiting the arrival of the doctress, who soon came, and after a greeting handed ashes from the fireplace to the woman, who receiving the ashes in her right hand rubbed her legs and breast for purification, and then put on her moccasins. The grandmother took the infant from the cradle and wrapping it in its blanket handed it to the doctress, while the father of the woman gave her the two stone fetiches from under her pillow, which she placed in her bosom. The doctress then took from the fireplace a bit of charcoal and put it into the woman’s mouth that the cold winds might not enter through her mouth and congeal her blood and prevent its flow, for should this occur the woman would surely die. The father then handed sacred meal to his daughter and the doctress, and again helping himself he gave some to the writer. The doctress led the way, carrying the infant in her arms and pressing to its breast the ear of corn which had played such an important part during parturition, and had since lain by the side of the child; the woman followed, also carrying an ear of corn, a companion of the first ear (everything associated with life must have its dual, and “corn is life itself, for it comes from the heart of Ût´sĕt; were it not for the mother corn none could live.” These two ears of corn are afterwards wrapped together and laid under the child’s cradle, where they must remain until the next corn-planting time, when it is sown in two or four rows, apart from the main field, and when ripe it is eaten by the child, who takes the nourishment of the mother corn as it draws the milk from its mother’s breast). The writer followed after the woman and, passing a few feet to the right of the entrance after leaving the house, they stood while the grandfather went from the door directly to the eastern gateway of his placita and stood facing east, where he was joined by the others, the doctress leading the way; she stooped at his right. The father of the infant was not present any of the time and the grandmother did not leave the house. The grandfather prayed and sprinkled meal to the east ([Pl. xxxiii]); the mother then whispered a short prayer and sprinkled meal to the same point; the doctress afterward stooping until she almost sat upon the ground bared the child’s head as she held it toward the rising sun and repeated a long prayer, and addressing the child she said, “I bring you to see your sun father and Ko´pîshtaia that you may know them and they you.” At the close of the prayer she led the way to the house, and upon entering the woman sat on her bed with her legs extended and received the infant from the doctress, who laid the child across the mother’s arms with its head to the east; the doctress then laying the ear of corn lengthwise on the child’s breast requested the writer to hold the corn with her. The grandmother and the two boys stood to the left of the woman while the grandfather standing at the feet of the child offered a prayer. The doctress then repeated the long baptismal prayer, naming the child.[28]
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XXXIV
GAST LITH. CO. N.Y.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT WHEN RECEIVED INTO THE THIRD DEGREE OF OFFICIAL MEMBERSHIP CULT, SOCIETY.
She then placed the infant in the writer’s arms, saying, “The child is named; it is yours.” When the child was returned to her she washed its head in yucca suds, and bathed its body by again filling her mouth with water and spirting it over the child. It was afterwards rubbed with ashes, especially about its face, and the doctress gave it some warm water to drink by dipping her fingers into the vase and letting the drops fall from them into the infant’s mouth; the child smacked its lips in evident satisfaction; and it was then strapped to the cradle which was handed the doctress by the grandmother; and the child in the cradle was placed on the mother’s lap, and she proceeded to nourish it.