678 NATIVE CHILD LIFE. 



Sports and Pastilmes. — The following are some of the 

 pastimes indulged in by Native children. 



Bird and rat hunting, the quarry being taken home, roasted 

 over the coals, and eaten with great relish. 



Tobogganing (the toboggan being constructed from the 

 forked branch of a tree, to serve as runners). 



Games of skill, e.g., ukuhlaba intsema. The root of a bulbi- 

 ferous plant is used. The boys stand in a row about three or 

 four yards apart, on an inclined plane. One of their number 

 is told off to start the bulb, and as it passes down the line, 

 sharpened sticks are thrown at it. The boy who succeeds in 

 transfixing the bulb is given the highest place. 



Tops are made from various bulbs through which a 

 sharpened stick is thrust. These are spun by twirling the stick 

 between the hands, and are allowed to revolve on a sheepskin 

 prepared for the purpose. The little girls make dolls from clay 

 and dress them up in any rags that may be found lying about, 

 and the boys make little models of oxen, etc., from clay. 



Education. — I do not wish it to be understood that the few 

 foregoing details are in every case meant to be used as an index 

 to the methods of education necessary for the Native, for it has 

 been aptly said in reference to anecdotes of child life that " a 

 great deal of material, which even if intelligently collected is 

 simply data for the scientific specialist, is often presented as if 

 educational practice could be guided by it." However, it is most 

 desirable that the instructor should have some knowledge of his 

 pupil. Fifty years ago it was considered sufficient for the 

 teacher merely to know his subject in order to impart it 

 efficiently ; at the present day it is recognized as very necessary 

 that he should know his pupil as well. This principle was taken 

 cognizance of by Plato in his " Republic," where he discusses 

 the Theory of Education, and in more modern times the same 

 idea has been put forth by Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel. 

 Some of the undesirable results in reference to Native education 

 in South Africa may be due, in large measure, to the fact that 

 we do not knoiv our pupils as we ought. 



Educationalists are aware of the fact that home influence is 

 a great power for good or evil in the direction of develop)ing 

 the child's mental and moral faculties. Raymont, in his 

 admirable work entitled " The Principles of Education,'' states 

 that "the school is almost helpless when the home influence is 

 on the wrong side." In studying the c^uestion we come to the 

 conclusion that during the most impfessionable period in the 

 life of the Native child his whole .social surroundings are not 

 calculated to uplift or enlighten him in the principles of integ- 

 rity, purity, honesty, truthfulness and industry. 



When a young Native straight from a kraal comes to 

 school, he finds himself surrounded by a totally different environ- 

 ment from that which obtains in his home, and he cannot but 

 gaze with astonishment at the strange new things around him 

 which he has never seen before. Here he finds that what was 



