CRADLES OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 



169 



take the breast until three days have elapsed ; it is considered to weaken 

 the infant if permitted to take the breast before that time. The mother 

 prepares sphagnum moss by beating it until it becomes quite soft and 

 fluffy. A portion of this moss is placed about the child, and it is then 

 wrapped in clothes or skins. The swaddling process begins at the feet 

 and wraps the lower limbs close together; the trunk is also swathed as 

 far as the neck, until the child resembles a cocoon. At earliest infancy 

 the arms are wrapped next the body, but when several months old those 

 limbs are free, except at night. The reason of this is to make them 

 grow straight and afford the mother convenience in handling them 

 when on a journey, or to prevent them from rolling about the tent and 

 into the fire. The bandages are removed once a day and a clean 

 quantity of moss supplied. Water is never given to the child to drink 

 until it is old enough to help itself — an occasion of remark among the 

 women — for it marks an event in the infant's life. 



Figure 5 is from a sketch in the Century Magazine, taken at Cape 

 Breton, and gives us an excellent example of the combinations which 



Tig. 5. 

 Child in Hammock. Cafe Bketon. 



(From sketch m Century Magazine.) 



civilization entails. The wigwam is to the manner born, the hammock 

 reminds one of the far south, while the baby, ensconced in fur and 

 blankets, without a pretense of lashiug, points to Eskimo as well as 

 white man's methods. Dr. Ball's remark about the Alaska Indian fash 

 ion of the hammock may be recalled here. 



On the Pacific side of the Rocky Mountains appear in turn the Kolo 

 shan, the Haidan, Hailtzukan (Quackiool), Salishan, Wakashan, or 

 Nutkan stock. All of these people are more or less the slaves in all 



