Note 407 — Chapter III · COLUMBIANS. (continued 2)

In the Salish family on the birth of a child wealthy relatives make presents of food and clothing. The Nez Percé mother gives presents but receives none on such an occasion. The Flatheads and Pend d'Oreilles bandage the waist and legs of infants with a view to producing broad-shouldered, small-waisted and straight-limbed adults. Tolmie and Anderson, in Lord's Nat., vol. ii., pp. 231-2. Among the Walla Wallas 'when traveling a hoop, bent over the head of the child, protects it from injury.' The confinement after child-birth continues forty days. At the first menstruation the Spokane woman must conceal herself two days in the forest; for a man to see her would be fatal; she must then be confined for twenty days longer in a separate lodge. Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., pp. 426-8, 485. The Okanagan mother is not allowed to prepare her unborn infant's swaddling clothes, which consist of a piece of board, a bit of skin, a bunch of moss, and a string. Ross' Adven., pp. 324-30. 'Small children, not more than three years old, are mounted alone and generally upon colts.' Younger ones are carried on the mother's back 'or suspended from a high knob upon the forepart of their saddles.' Parker's Explor. Tour, p. 98. Houses among the Chopunnish 'appropriated for women who are undergoing the operation of the menses.' 'When anything is to be conveyed to these deserted females, the person throws it to them forty or fifty paces off, and then retires.' Lewis and Clarke's Trav., p. 539; Townsend's Nar., p. 78; Alvord, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 655.