CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 163 



still living, are sent to fetch water for the use of the 

 child and its mother. The feasting then begins, 

 some person eating on behalf of the child, if it is 

 too young to partake of the feast. Eight days 

 later the dayong again invokes the protection of the 

 beneficent spirits, and the child is taken out into 

 the gallery and shown to all the household. Some 

 near relative makes a cross upon its right foot with 

 a piece of charcoal, and the child is taken to the 

 door of each room to receive some small present 

 from each roomhold. The child must then return 

 to its parents' room and remain there eight days. 

 After the next harvest a similar feast of pigs' flesh 

 and dried animals is made, and the name is confirmed. 

 But if in the meantime the child has been ill, or any 

 other untoward event has happened, a new name 

 is given to it. In this case it would be usual to 

 choose the well-tried name of some prosperous 

 uncle or aunt. Again the child must be confined 

 to its parents' room for eight days following the 

 feast ; and after that time it is free to go where it 

 will, or rather wherever children are allowed to go. 

 From five or six years onwards the boy more 

 and more accompanies the men in their excursions 

 on the river and in the jungle, and is taught to 

 make himself useful on these occasions, and also on 

 the /<3:<3f^ farm, where he helps in scaring pests and 

 in other odd jobs. But he still has much leisure, 

 which is chiefly devoted to playing with his fellows. 

 Among the principal boys' games the following 

 deserve mention : — Spinning of peg-tops of hard 

 wood, usually thrown overhand, but sometimes 

 underhand, in a manner very similar to that of 

 English boys, each boy in turn striving to strike the 

 tops of the others with his own ; this game is played 

 about the time oi padi harvest. Simple kites are 

 flown. A roughly made bow with unfeathered arrow 

 is a somewhat rare toy. Most of the out-door games 



