The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1879-07-03
CHILD LIFE On TIE AMAZOSS.

| Child-life here is an exceedingly cur
ious study; the little quiet creatures are
so different from our romping American
girls and boys. They get few caresses
| and give none; mother love is mechaui-
cal; there is nothing OF that overflow OF
| tenderness, that constant watchfal 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
| cradles and watching everything around
| with keen eyes. As soon as the little
boys and girls can toddle about they are
| left pretty much to themselves, tumb-
ling up the back stairs of hfe on a diet
| of mandioca meal and fish. The parents
seldom punish their children, for they
| are very docile; when they do, the little
| ones pucker up ther mouths and look
snilen bat do not cry. Pleasure is cx-
pressed by a smile-among the little girls
very often by a broad grin, with abundant
show of teeth-but an articulate 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
a little while, and then let it drop. OBJ
serve how different it is from white
baby's actions. A bright months old
at home has four distinct methods of in
vestigation: first, by looking; second, by
touching; then by putting the object to
its mouth; and finally by banging it
against the floor. The brown baby Just
looks; he does not investigate at all. As
the children grow older, the same trait is
apparent in almost every instance. An
Indian is content to see or hear 4 thing,
without troubling himself about the
why's and wherefores; even such incnm-
prehensible pursuits as fossil collecting,
Or butterfly catching, or sketching, pro
woke hardly any curiosity. The people
look on quietly, sometimes asking
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 party, hardly a person asked why
she came. So, too, the babies are un-
ambitious; they do not cry after pretty
colors, or stretch ont their hands to a
candle. And the men have no apparent
desire to better their lot. They so on
just as their fathers did; submit to the
impositions of the whites, a little sullen-
II, but without thought of rebellion,
unless there is white or half breed to
lead them. Tlr ohiiffrou uo not care
much for playthings. we rarely see one
with a rag doll; the little boys delight in
bows and arrows, but they take them rs
part of their training. Sometimes the
people have dances, in imitation of the
.fest0 sports; and we hear them humming
the watzes and quadrilies which their
quick ears have caught from the musi-
clans. As an Indian will paddle steadily
all day, while his wife at home hardly
ceases her monotonous cotton beating,
SO the little ones have an inezhaustibla
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 canoe, you wonld say
that nothing of him was alive but his
eyes.