ROTH] BIRTH AND CHILDREN 699 
whether this arose from parental, love, although it would seem that 
it was done with the consent of the victims themselves, who, realizing 
their impotence and uselessness, frequently offered themselves for the 
purpose. Yet all redskins are not as heartless. We once even heard 
a sober youth exclaim: “I want to get back to my mother, to the 
spot where I played as a child. I will bathe in the stream and 
see the flood rise at the spot where I was born. My sister will not 
recognize me more, and she will be ashamed of me for a couple of 
days, and see in me an ordinary every-day man” (PEN, 1, 165, 166). 
912. The children . . . pass the state of infancy without receiving 
much attention or assistance from the parents, except food only; but 
this neglect is far from proving detrimental, and they much sooner 
acquire strength and self-sufficiency . .. The males, as they grow 
toward manhood, attend the father in hunting, and by habitude and 
experience acquire sagacity and expertness (BA, 331). The Carib 
youngster has to learn by himself, since his father considers it un- 
necessary to instruct him in such simple things as the secrets of the 
forest, the making of plaitwork, bow, and arrows. “See what we 
do and follow us,” say the parents to their children. Explanations 
are considered superfluous. Only once did we hear a man say to his 
little boy, “Open your eyes and ears, so that later on you will not 
be able to say that I gave you no chance to learn.” The chance re- 
ferred to was the animal tulala (charm, talisman). There is but one 
thing that is impressed upon the child from its earliest youth with 
fairy tales, legends, etc., and that is, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a 
tooth, and likewise never to look surprised (PEN, 1, 164). It is true 
that expertness in the use of weapons might be specially encouraged, 
as was the case with the Otomac women, who did not allow their 
boys to partake of food or fruit unless they succeeded in hitting it 
with their arrows when put up as a target (G, m1, 89). The girls 
at the same time are devoted to the service and assistance of their 
mother. They are soon brought under discipline and taught to take 
care of the smaller ones, and to learn the economy of an Indian house- 
hold. They are seldom away from their mother’s side, except when 
she goes for a while to the field, at which time the little housekeepers 
are left to look after the house and the little ones (Da, 250). Just 
like their modern counterpart elsewhere, the Orinoco children did 
not shrink from heroic measures to insure excuse for playing truant. 
Gumilla mentions how the youngsters would allow themselves to be 
stuck with a sting-ray tail out of pure devilry (malicto), so as to 
free themselves from going to school and to doctrine (doctrinic) 
which they avoid whenever they can, such tasks being opposed to the 
tastes of that age (G, 11, 206). One might say that children are born 
to the use of knives. It is of common occurrence to see a boy of 3 or 
