Ij6 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



*' The mother takes great delight in nurfing her 

 '^ child. There is no fuch thing known am-ng 

 " them as giving out their children to '>e nurfed 

 " by a ftranger. They are fond of their children 

 "to excefs. They bathe them regularly every 

 " day in a fountain or river. They do not (waddle 

 " them, but put them to fieep in a little bed of 

 *' cotton, made exprefsly for the purpofe. They 

 " always leave them quite naked : their progrefs 

 *' in growth is perfe6lly wonderful ; fome are able 

 " to walk alone at the age of eight otnine months. 

 " When grown to a certain age, if they are inca- 

 *' pable of walking upright, they march along on 

 *' tlieir hands and feet. Thofe people love their 

 •' children to diftradion. They never chide nor 

 *' beat them, but permit them to enjoy perfeét li- 

 *' berty ; which they never abufe by doing ^y 

 *' thing to vex their parents. They exprefs great 

 ** afto ni (liment, when they fee any of our people 

 *' correal their children." 



Here is a third, cxtrafted from the work of a 

 Jefuit, 1 mean Father Charlevoix^ a man of various 

 and extenfive learning. It is a paflage from his 

 Voyage to New Orleans, another colony which we 

 have fuffcred to fall to nothing, through our divi- 

 fions, a confequence of our moral confliturion, and 

 of our fyftem of education. He is fpeaking, in 



general^ 



