St. Landry democrat., 1879-08-23
Child Life on the AmaZOns,

Mr.. Herbert 81. Smith, writing in the
July Scribner of AN Indian Village on
the Amazons," thus describes very
interesting phase of tropical life:
Child life here is an exceedingly
curious study; the quiet little creatures
are SO different 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 halo
around ou: homes. The babies vege-
tate in their steady brown fashion, sell
dom crying or laughing, but lying all
day in their hammock cradles, and
watching everything around them with
keen eyes. AS soon as the little boys
and girls can toddle about they are left
tumbling up the back stairs of life on g
diet of mandiocs meal and fish. The
parents seldom punish their children,
for 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 smile-among the
little girls very often by broad grin
with an abundant show of teeth-but an
articulate laugh is rarity.
It is interesting to watch how the
mental traits of the race appear even in
the young babies. Il a playthingi is 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 si1.months.old
at home has four distinct methods of
investigat on: first, by looking; second,
by touching; then by putting the object
into its mouth; and finally, BY banging
it against the floor. The brown menino
just lovks; 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 and hear thing,
without troubling himself about the
why's and wherefores; even such incom>
prehensible pursuits as fossil.collecting
or butterfly. catching, or sketching. pro-
woke 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 party, hardly person
asked why she came. So, too, the babies
are unambitious; they do not cry after
pretty colors or stretch out their ha nd
to candle. And the men have no ap-
parent desire to better their lot. They
90 on fust as their fathers did submit
to the imposition of the whites, little
sullenly, but without thought of a re-
bellion, unless there is white or hall.
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 a part of their training,
Sometimes the people have dances, in in'
itation of the "festa " sports; and we
hear them humming the waltzes and
quadrilles which their quick ears have
caught from the musicians. As an In
dian 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 pa
tience. Where white child would fret
and cry, the brown one sits all day, per-
fectly 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.