The Midwest pioneer, his ills, cures, & doctors - University Library ...

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beliefs.
Woe betide the pioneer baby, who in his anxiety to
get into the rapidly developing West, decided to enter
society a month early. Only seven-months' premature
babies were supposed to live. And should the powers that
be defy the laws of nature by deciding that he shouldn't
enter the world at all, 'twas said that drinking of water in
which nine eggs had been boiled would do the trick. Delayed
entry could, of course, be expedited by quilling, but
this was hardly a superstition. The rattle of a rattlesnake
sewed in a black silk cloth and put in the hands of the parturient
woman, provided she neither knew what the bundle
contained nor opened it, was said to hasten delivery. Once
the baby's arrival was satisfactorily explained to the other
children— that he had been discovered in the spring, the
creek, the cabbage-patch, or the midwife's apron— he
began to run the gantlet of superstition and home cure.
Any birthmarks could be obliterated by rubbing them
with the hand of a corpse or the head of a live eel for three
successive mornings and then burying the three eel heads,
If Mamma cut his hair before he was a year old, she
tied together, beneath a stone under the eaves. If baby's
face was washed in his baptismal water, he would be beautiful.
thereby cut short his life; if she pared his nails before nine
weeks, he was doomed to the life of a thief and would be
forced to scratch for a living. Crawling through an open
window or between the legs of tables or chairs— unless he
crawled back the same way— would immediately stop his
growth. If a child were "afflicted with short growth," the
string which measured his length and showed it less than
seven times his foot-length was looped, the child was passed
through the loop three times while words were repeated,
and then the string was twined around the grindstone.
When the string wore out the child would be of proper
length.
Should he look into a mirror before he was nine months
old his life would be full of trouble. Were the empty cradle
carelessly rocked, measures had to be taken immediately,
else colic would result. Scrapings from the table cover or a