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also themselves, and within a short time return 

 to their customary occupations, without expe- 

 riencing any inconvenience ; so true it is, that 

 the human constitution is not naturally delicate, 

 but is rendered so by our customs and modes of 

 living. Child-birth is with them attended with 

 little pain, which must be attributed to the 

 strength of their constitutions ; for a similar 

 reason the women of the lower classes in Europe, 

 according to the statement of Doctor Bland, in 

 the . Philosophical Transactions, experience a 

 more easy delivery than the ladies, and are less 

 subject to sickness in consequence. 



Whether directed merely by the impulse of 

 simple nature, or actuated by their solicitude to 

 furnish strong men to the state, they rear their 

 children in a very different manner from what is 

 practised in civilized countries. When they 

 have washed them in running water, as I liave 

 already observed, they neither swathe nor bandage 

 them, but place them in a hanging cradle, called 

 chigua, lined with soft skins, where they merely 

 cover them with a cloth, and swing* them from 

 time to time by means of a cord attached to the 

 cradle, which leaves them more at liberty to 

 attend to their domestic concerns. 



When their children begin to walk, which is 

 very soon, they neither put them into stays nor 

 any other confined dress, but keep them loosely 

 clad, and let them go any where and eat what 



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