HUNTING AND FISHING KACES 161 



wonder if a great number remained alivo. For when the poor 

 child first sees the Hght of day, there is no other cradle provided 

 for it but the hard soil, or the still harder shell of a turtle, in which 

 the mother places it, without much covering, and drags it about 

 wherever she goes. And in order to be unencumbered and enabled 

 to use her limbs with greater freedom while running in the fields, 

 she will leave it sometimes in charge of some old woman, and thus 

 deprive the poor creature for ten hours or more of its natural 

 nourishment. As soon as the child is a few months old the mother 

 places it, perfectly naked, astraddle on her shoulders, its legs 

 hanging down on both sides in front, and it has consequently to 

 learn how to ride before it can stand on its feet. In this guise the 

 mother roams about all day, exposing her helpless charge to the 

 hot rays of the sun and the chilly winds that sweep over the 

 inhospitable country.' ^ Conditions seem to be much the same 

 in South America. Dobrizhoffer tells us that the Abipones plunge 

 their new-born babies into a cold stream,^ and Guinnard says that 

 very few diseases occur among the children of the Puelches, 

 though child mortality is high.^ ' Few [Fuegian] women save all 

 their children ; most die in early infancy.' * So, too, among the 

 Andamanese child mortahty is said to be excessive ^ and is ascribed 

 to injudicious management on the part of the parents.^ According 

 to the Sarasins it is the high death-rate that is the cause of the 

 small size of the Veddah famihes which they observed.' New-born 

 GhiHak children are bathed ' often when it is 40° below zero. The 

 children who can survive such an experience are necessarily very 

 strong.' ^ ' According to Schrenck, the Ghiliak woman never 

 dares " to give birth to a child at home ; she must, in spite of 

 severity of season or of stormy weather, go out of the hut for the 

 purpose. In late autumn or in winter they build a special hut for 

 the woman, but a very uncomfortable one, so that the mother and 

 the child suffer the cold and feel the wind ".' ^ 



This concludes our survey of the races of the first group. Before 

 we consider what conclusions are to be drawn from these facts, we 

 have to deal in the same fashion with the races of the second 

 group. This will form the subject-matter of the next chapter. 



1 Baegert, loc, cit., p. 368. - Dobrizlioffer, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 43. 



' Guinnard, loc. cit., p. 147. ■» Bridges, loc. cit., p. 202. ^ Man, 



loc. cit., p. 79. * Ibid., p. 81. ' Sarasins, loc. cit., vol. iii, p. 469. 



* Deniker, loc. cit., p. 303. ' Czaplicka, Aboriginal Siberia, p. 137. For 

 a general sketch of the treatment of children by parents see Steinmetz, Entwicfc- 

 lung der Strafe, vol. i, pp. 179 ff. 



2498 L 



