142 TlMEMRI, 



parents, but left to nature and the force of circumstances. 

 To a European he looked gaunt and wretched, his skin 

 covered with jigger marks and open sores. Yet he was 

 happy in his own quiet way. He saw all that went on 

 around him and tried to imitate the men in everything. 

 From the time he could reason however he drew the 

 line at woman's work and would have nothing to do with 

 it. Of course his mother helped him in this — she knew 

 what a man had to do and would have thought it wrong 

 in him to help her. His father made him a little 

 woodskin canoe and a paddle, and when only four 

 years old he made long excursions down the creek 

 alone or accompanying the men on their hunting and 

 fishing trips. Seeing the men shoot with bows he asked 

 his father to give him one and soon became proficient 

 enough to make it dangerous for birds to perch in the 

 clearing. 



Now and then he shot at some of the half-domesticated 

 animals which lived about the settlement. No one cared 

 if he treated them cruelly — he was in training for a 

 huntsman. Dogs, monkeys, bush fowl, macaws and 

 parrots, were equally marks for his shafts. These how- 

 ever were always on the look-out and generally ran into 

 the bush when they saw him pra6lising. Not being con- 

 fined in any way they were able to do this and return when 

 the boy had got tired of shooting. He would tease the dogs 

 and sometimes seriously injure them, but no one interfered 

 although these animals were so necessary to the huntsmen. 



As a rule fewchildren areseen in the Indian settlements, 

 and the one in which our boy lived was no exception. 

 The Indians are not prolific, and the death rate among 

 the little ones is very great. The girls were women in 



