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Hidatsa Lodge, Knife River Indian Villages, Stanton, North Dakota,

December 30, 2000

[View: west.  47º 20’ 07” N - 101º 23’ 11” W]

[Lewis]                                                                   11^th February Monday 1805.

. . .about five oclock this evening one of the wives of Charbono was delivered

of a fine boy.   it is worthy of remark that this was the first child which this

woman had boarn and as is common in such cases her labour was tedious and

the pain violent; Mr. Jessome informed me that he had freequently administered

a small portion of the rattle of the rattle-snake, which he assured me had never

failed to produce the desired effect, that of hastening the birth of the child;

having the rattle of a snake by me I gave it to him and he administered two rings

of it to the woman broken in small pieces with the fingers and added to a small

quantity of water.  Whether this medicine was truly the cause or not I shall not

undertake to determine, but I was informed that she had not taken it more than

ten minutes before she brought forth   perhaps this remedy may be worthy of

future experiments, but I must confess that I want faith as to it’s efficacy.-