Stevens County tribune. (Morris, Minn.) 1877-1880, 1879-08-28
Child-Life on the Amazon.
Scribner for July.


Child-life here is an exceedingly curl
Gus study; the little quiet creatures are
SO different from our romping American
boys and girls. They get few caresses
and give none; mother love is mechani-
cal; there is nothing Of that flow of ten
deness, that constant. watchiuI 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
ard watching everything around them
with keen eyes As soon as the little
hoys and girls can toddle about, they are
left pretty much to their own resources,
tumbling up the back stairs of life on
diet oil mandioca meal and fish. The
pare nts seldom punish their children, for
they are very docile; when they do, the
little ones quicker up their moutl and
look sullen, but do not cry. Pleasure IL
expressed by a smile,-among the little
girls very often by broad grin, with
abundant show of teeth,-but an articu-
late laugh is rarity.
1t is interesting to watch how the men
tai traits of the race appear even in the
bables. fla plaything is given t. EN-,
they examine it gravely for little while,
and then let Ii drop. Observe how differ =
ent this is from white babies, actions.
A bright little six-months-olda at home has
four distinct methods of investigation:
first, by looking: SCI ond, by touching:
then by putting the object in its mouth;
and finally by banging it against the floor.
The brown menio 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
"r hear thing, without troubling himself
about the why's and whe sfores even such
omprehensible pursuit as fossil-collect-
ing, or butterfly catching, or sketching,
provoke hardly any curiosity. The peo-
pie look on quietly, sometimes asking
question or two, but soon dismissing the
subject from their minds as something
they are capable of understanding. Vita
all the crowding to see the lady
of our party, hardly 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 forefathers did;
submit 10 the lmp0sltlons OF the whites,
little sullenly, but without thought
of rebellion, else there is white or $
half.breed to lead them. The children
do not care much for playthings; we rare
" see one with a rag doll; the little boys
dellg It In bows and arrows, but they take
them as part of their training. Some
times the people have dances, an imira-
ton of the j; sta sports; and We hear them
humming the waltzes and quadrilles
which their quick ears have caught from
the musicians. As an Indian v i'll paddle
steadily all day, while his wife at home
hardly ceases her monotonous cotton beat
ing, so the little ones have an inexhausti-
bic gift of patience. While a white
child would fret and cry. the brown one
sits all day perfectly still, but watching
every thing around him. To see little
indian boy in canoe, you would say
nothing of him was alive but his eyes.