Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-07-04
ChiId.Llfe on the Ama.on..

Mr. Herbert H. Smith, writing in the July
Scrbner of IAN Indian Village on the Anna
IONS, thus describes n very interesting phase
of tropical life:
Chiid-life here is an exceedingly curious
study; the little quiet creatures are so diff
fcrent from our romping American boys and
girls. They get few caresses and give none
mother-love is mechanical there is nothing
of that overflow of tenderness, that constant
watchful care, that sheds such a halo around
our homes. The babies vegetate in their
steady brown fashion seldom crying or laugh
ing. but lying all day in their hammock era
dies and watching everything around them
with keen eyes. As soon as the little boys
and girls can toddle about they are left pretty
much to their own resources, tumbling up the
back stairs of life on IA diet of mandioca meal
and fish. The parents seldom punish their
children, for they very docile when they
do, the little ones pucker up their mouths and
look sullen, but do not cry. Pleasure is
pressed by smile, among the little girls very
often by broad grin, with abundant show of
teeth, but an articuate laugh is a rarity.
1t is interesting to watch how the mental
traits of the race appear even in the young
babies. If "A plaything is given them, they
examine it gravely for u 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 meth
ods of investigation first, by looking second.
10y touching then 10y putting the object in its
mouth and finally 10y banging it against the
floor The brown Ai,AjHO 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 a thing without troubling himself about
the why's and whereforrs even such incom-
prehensible pursuits AS fossl-collecting, or
butterfly catching, or sketching, provoke
hardly any curiosity. The people look on
quietly, sometimes asking a question or two,
but soon dismissng the subject from their
minds rs something they are incapable of un-
derstanding. With all the crowding to see
the lady of our party, hardly person asked
why she came. SO, too the babies are unam-
bilious ; they do not cry after pretty colors, or
stretch out their hands to candle. And the
men have no appamnt desire to better their
lot. They 20 on Just as their fathers did
submit to the impositiOns of the whites, lit
tie sullenly, but without thought of rebellion
unless there is a 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 aud arrows
but they take them as part of their training
Sometimes the people have dances, in imita-
tion of the feStG sports and we hear them
humming waltzes and quadrilles which their
quick ears have caught from the musicians
As an Indian will paddle steadily all day
while his wife at home hardly ceases her mo-
notonous cotton beating, so the little ones
have an ineXhaustible gift of patience. Where
n white child would fret and cry the brown
one sits all day, perfectly still, but watching
everything around him. To see little Indian
boy in a canoe you would say that nothing of
him was alive but his eyes.