The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-07-02
Child-Life on the Aamzons.

Mr. Herbert H. Smith, writing in the
July Scribner of can Indian Village on
the Amazons," thus describes very in
teresting phase of tropical life:
Child-life here is an exceedingly curl
Gus study; the little quiet creatures are
so different from our romping Ameri-
can boys and girls. They get few caress-
es and give none; mother-love is me-
chanical ; there Is nothing Of that over
flow tenderness, that constant watchtul
care, that sheds such halo around our
homes. The babies vegetate in their
steady brown fashion, seldom crying
or laughing, but lying all day in their
hammock cradles and watching every
thing around them with keen eyes. As
soon as the little boys and girls can tod
die about they are left pretty much to
their own resources, tumbling up the
back stairs of life on a diet Of mandioca
meal and fish. The parents seldom pun
ish their children, for they are very
docile; when they do, the little ones
quicker up their mouths and look sullen,
but do not cry. Pleasure Is expressed
by smile, among the little girls
very often by broad grin, with album
dant show of teeth ,-but an articulate
laugh is rarity.
1t is interesting to watch how the
mental traits Of the race appear even in
the young babies. If a plavthing il
given them, they examine it gravely
for little while, and then let it drop.
Observe how different this is from a
white baby's actions, A bright little
six-months-old at home has four distinct
methods of investigation first, by look
ing :; second, by touching; then by put
ting the object in its mouth; and final
" banging it against the floor. The
brown me,,ino just looks; he does not
investigate at all As the children
grow older, the same trait Is apparent
in almost every case. An Indian is
content to see or hear thing, without
troubling himself about the why's and
wherefores even such incomprehensi-
bic pursuits as fossil-collecting, or but
terfy-catching, or sketching, provoke
hardly any curiosity. The people look
on quietly, sometimes asking a question
or two, but soon dismissing the subject
from their minds as something they are
incapable of understanding With all
the crowding to see the lady of our par
ty, hardly a person asked why she came.
So. too, the babies are unambitious
they do not cry after pretty colors, or
stretch out their hands to a candle.
And the men have no apparent desire
to better their lot. They go on just as
their fathers did; submit to the imposi-
tions of the whites, little sullenly, but
without a thought of rebellion, unless
there is white or half-breed to lead
them. The children do not care much
for playthings; we rarely see one with
rag doll; the little boys delight in
bows and arrows. but they take them
as part of their training Sometimes
the people have dances, in imitation of
the fiesta sports and we hear them
humming the waltzes and quadrilles
which their quick ears have caught from
the musicians. As an Indian will pad
die steadily all day, while his wife at
home hardly ceases her monotonous cot
ton-beating, so the little ones have an
inexhaustible gift of patience Where
a white child would fret and cry, the
brown one sits all day, perfectly still,
but watching everything around him.
To see little Indian boy m a canoe,
you would say that nothing of him was
alive but his eyes.