Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-08-01
Child-Life on the Amazons.

Mr.. Herbert H. Smith. writing in
Scribner of IAN Indian Village on the
Amazons," thus describes yerv inter.
esting phas, Of tropical life:
Child-life here is an exceedingly
curious study the little quiet crec.
lures are so different from our rom ping
American boys and girls. They get
few caressos and give none mother.
love is mechanical there is nothing of
that overflow of tenderness, that con.
slant watchful care, that sheds such n
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 everything around them with
keen eyes. As soon as the little bows
and girls can toddle alb ut 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 punish their children.
Tor they are very docile when they do
the little ones pucker up their mouths
and look sullen, but do not cry. Pleas.
ure is expressed by a smile, among
the little girls very often by 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 babes. If a plaything is
given them, they examine it gravely
Tor 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 dis
tinct methods of investigation; FIRST,
by looking /; second, by touching then
by putting the object III its mouth and
fuaily by banging it against the floor.
The brown memi"O 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 Incompetence
bic pursuits as fossil collecting, Or but
t,ra, catching, or sketching, provoke
hardly any curiosity. The people look
on quietly, sometimes asking Il ques-
ton or two, but soon Diminishing the
subject from their minds as something
they are incapable Of understanding
With all the crowding to see the lady
of our party, hardly person asked
why she came. 80, too, the babies are
nnambitious they do not cry after
pretty colors, nor stretch out their hands
w candle. Aud the men have no APP
parent desire to better their lot. They
go ou Just as their fathers did submit
To the impositions of the whites, little
sullenly, but without q thought of re
bellion, unless there is white or II
hali-breed to lead them. The children
do hot care much for playthings We
rarely see one with a rag-dull, the little
boys delight in bows aud arrows, but
they take them as part OF their train
lug. Sometimes the people have
dances, in imitation of the fe,tl sports :
and we hear them humming the waltzes
aud quadrilles which their quick ears
have caught from the musicians. A
AN Indian will paddle steadily all day,
while lis wife at home hardly ceases
her monotonous cotton beating, SO tn.
little ones have an inexhaust,ble gift Gf
patience. Where a white child would
fret and cry, the brown one sits all
day, perfectly still, but watching every
thing around him. To see little In
diau boy in u canoe, you would say
that nothing OF him was alive but nis