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SwANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMONiAI. LIFE 117
They do not wean them until they are tired of the maternal breast. I
have heard very strong children say to their mothers " Sit down so that I
may nurse," and the mother immediately sat down. Their cradle is made of
canes. The mothers lay their children in these so that their heads are three
or four finger-widths lower than their bodies. That is why one never sees
crooked or hunch-backed children among the savages.*'
There are no other early statements of consequence bearing upon
the customs of childbirth. The following is extracted from Cushman
and applies to the latter half of the nineteenth century
With the Choctaw wife, as with all Indians, parturition was [a] matter
that gave no uneasiness whatever; nor did it interfere with her domestic
affairs, but for a few hours. Unlike her civilized sister, she neither required
nor desired, nor accepted any assistance whatever. I have known them to give
birth to a child during the night, and the next morning would find them at the
cowpen attending to the affairs of the dairy. To have a man physician, on
such occasions, was as abhorrent to her sense of modesty and revolting to her
feelings, as it was wholly unnecessary. And the old custom is still [1899]
adhered to by the present Choctaw wife and mother. After a child was born,
after undergoing the usual necessary preliminaries, it was placed in a curiously
constructed receptacle called Ullosi afohka, (infant receptacle) where it spent
principally the first year of its life, only when taken out for the purpose of
washing and dressing. This curiously made little cradle (for such it may
truly be called) was often highly ornamented with all the paraphernalia that
a mother's love and care could suggest or obtain. The little fellow's face,
which was always exposed to view, was carefully protected by a piece of wood
bent a few inches above and over it. Contented as Diogenes in his tub, the
babe would remain in its little prison for hours without a whymper ; part
of the time asleep, and part of the time awake looking around in its innocence
with calm and tranquil resignation. According to her convenience, the mother
suspended her thus cradled child on her back, when walking, or the saddle
when riding ; or stood it up against a neighboring tree, if a pleasant day, that
it might enjoy the fresh and pure air, and exhilarating sunshine; or suspended
it on the projecting limb of a tree there to be rocked to sleep and pleasant
dreams by the forest breeze. As soon as it was old enough to begin to crawl, it
bade an informal adieu to its former prison, but to be found perched upon its
mother's back, where it seemed well contented in all its journeys—long or
short. It was truly astonishing with what apparent ease the Choctaw mother
carried her child upon her back. The child was placed high up between the
shoulders of the mother, and over it was thrown a large blanket, which was
drawn tightly at the front of the mother's neck, forming a fold behind ; in this
the child was placed and safely carried, with seemingly little inconvenience
to either mother or child. When the little chap had grown to such proportions
as to be no longer easily thus transported, he was fastened to the saddle upon
the back of a docile pony, which followed the company at pleasure; though
here and there stopping momentarily to bite the tempting grass that grew along
the pathway, then briskly trotting up until it had again reached its proper place
in rank and file, indifferent to the jolting experienced by the youthful rider
tied upon its back, who, however, seemed to regard it with stoical indifference.
When arrived at the age of four or five years, he was considered as having
passed through his fourth and last chrysalis stage, and was then untied from
*i Appendix, p. 263; Bossu, Nouv. Voy., vol. 2, pp. 104-105.