The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-11-02
Wild Babies.


world kin, so we have chosen a trite IL
lustration of the truth of this statement.
and venture to exhibit it by showing to
our parents the manner in which Ger
tain savage people treat their offspring.
because pleasant and envious notion
is entertained here and in other civil
lied precincts that young Indians grow
Just grow as Topsy thought she did.
But it is not so; they have sore eyes and
bad tempers; they wake up in the night
with lusty yells and the collie; they have
fits; they raise riots when cutting their
teeth; and they are just as much petted
and just as mischievous as our own.
The mothers of Pocahontas and Red
Jacket worried over them with lust as
much earnestness as, perhaps, did the
maternal progenitors of Mrs. Hemans
and George Washington, while quite as
much paternal supervision was given
doubtless to one as to the other. When
the question of love and tenderness
alone is mooted, then it should be said
without hesitation that the baby born
to-day in the shadow and smoke of saw
age life is as carefully cherished as the
little stranger that may appear here,
simultaneous with it, amid all the sur
roundings of civilized wealth; and the
difference between them does not COM
mence to show itself until they have
reached that age where the mind be-
gins to feed and reason upon what it
sees, hears, feels, and tastes then the
gulf yawns between our baby and the
Indians; the latter stands still, while
the former is ever moving onward and
upward.
The love of an Indian mother for her
child is made plain to us by the care
and labor which she often expends
upon the cradle; the choicest produc-
ton of her skill in grass and wooden
weaving, the neatest needle-work. and
the richest bead embroidery that she
can devise and bestow are lavished upon
the quaint-looking cribs which savage
mothers nurse and carry their little
ones around in. This cradle, though
varying in minor details with each
tribe, is essentially the same thing, no
matter where it is found, between the
Indians of Alaska and those far to the
south in Mexico. The Esquimaux are
the exception, however, for they use no
cradle whatever, carrying their infants
snugly escOnced in the hoods to their
parkies and otter-fur jumpers. The
governing principle of pappoose
cradle is an unyielding board upon
which the baby can be firmly dashed at
full length on its back.
This board is usually covered by soft
ly dressed buckskin, with flaps and
pouches in which to envelop the baby;
other tribes, not rich or fortunate
enough to procure this material, have
recourse to a neat combination of
shrub-wood poles, reed splints, grass
mating, and the soft and fragrant rib
bons Of the bass or linden tree bark
Sweet grass is used here as a bed for
the youngsters tender back, or else
clean dry moss plucked from the Bonded
limbs of the swamp frs; then, with
buckskin thongs or cords of plated
grass, the baby is bound down tight
and secure, for any and all disposition
that its mother may see fit to make of
it for the next day or two.
Indian babies, as rule. are not
kept in their cradles more than twenty
to twenty-four consecutive hours at
any one time; they are usually I'M
limbered for an hour or two every day,
and allowed to roll and tumble at will
on the blanket, or in the grass or sand
if the sun shines warm and bright.
But this liberty is always conditional
upon the good behavior when free, for
the moment baby begins to fret or
whimper, the mother claps it back into
its cradle, where itrests with emphasis,
for it can there move nothing save its
head; but so. far from disliking these
rigid couches, the babies actually sleep
better in them than when free, and
positively cry to be returned to them
when neglected and left longer than
usual at liberty. This fact is certainly
an amusing instance of the force of
habit
When the pappoose is put away in
its cradle, the mother has little or no
more concern with it, other than to
keep within sight or hearing. If she
is engaged about the wigwam or in the
village, she stands it up in the lodge
corner or hangs it to some convenient
tree, taking it down at irregular inter-
walls to nurse. When she retires at
night, the baby is brought and suspend
ed az some point within easy reaching;
if the baby is ill, it is kept at her side,
or she sits up all night with it in the
most orthodox fashion. When the
women leave the village on any errand,
such as going to the mountains for ber-
ries or to the river canon for fish, the
cradles with the babies therein are
slung upon the mothers's backs, and
carried, no matter how far, how rough
the road, or how dismal the weather.
Indian babies are born subject to all
the ills that baby flesh is heir to, but
with this great difference between them
and ours-when sick they are either
killed or cured without delay. This
does not happen, however, from SIMS
ter motives; it is not done to avoid the
irksome care of sickly, puny child;
it is not the result of lack of natural
love for offsprirg-not any or all of
these; it is due to their wonderful "med-
icine," their fearful system of incanta-
ton.
A pappoose becomes ill; it refuses to
eat or to be comforted; and after sew
eral days and nights Of anxious, ten
der endeavor to relieve her child, the
mother begins to fear the worst, and
growing thoroughly alarmed, she at
last sends for the "shaman," or doc
tress of the tribe, and surrenders her