From her mental imbecility it can
hardly be imagined that she had any idea of the object of this
separation, and it must have been instinct that impelled her to
do it. Sermon says the wife of Thomas James was delivered of a
lusty child while in a wood by herself. She put the child in an
apron with some oak leaves, marched stoutly to her husband's
uncle's house a half mile distant, and after two hours' rest went
on her journey one mile farther to her own house; despite all her
exertions she returned the next day to thank her uncle for the
two hours' accommodation. There is related the history of a case
of a woman who was delivered of a child on a mountain during a
hurricane, who took off her gown and wrapped the child up in it,
together with the afterbirth, and walked two miles to her
cottage, the funis being unruptured.
Harvey relates a case, which he learned from the President of
Munster, Ireland, of a woman with child who followed her husband,
a soldier in the army, in daily march. They were forced to a halt
by reason of a river, and the woman, feeling the pains of labor
approaching, retired to a thicket, and there alone brought forth
twins. She carried them to the river, washed them herself, did
them up in a cloth, tied them to her back, and that very day
marched, barefooted, 12 miles with the soldiers, and was none the
worse for her experience.
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