250 
The Girl Becomes a Woman. 
that of piercing the ears, the lower lip, and the nasal septum in earliest 
youth. From the moment of birth, up to the time when the child can 
trust itself on its feet, the mother is larely seen without it: it is until 
then an integral part of her ego. In spite of the most tender love, one 
never sees tlie mother kissing the child, and hardly ever hears her giv- 
ing it those pet-names which with us are ever on the maternal lips. 
Their love appears to be move serious : they pay attention to more im- 
portant things. In spite of the manifest love of the father for his chil- 
dren, he is nevertheless not above sellin"" them, in spite of the bitterc^i 
tears of the mother, to another, per ps childless couple. With 
unclianged couutouanco the boy or girl ands beside the father, listens 
quietly to the sale, and follows its new parents without demur. The 
pn'ce of a child is the same as that whic^^ the Indians ask for a dog, i.e., 
a gun. an nxe, or the like, in addition t(. which the pui'chaser must give 
the relatives of whom a number will acknowledge themselves as such, 
some knick -knncks. beads, etc. 
nil. Educntion of the boys is limited to instruction in swimming, 
fishing, liiiiiting. the manufacture of wenpons and other essentials. The 
girls are taught household duties bv the mother. rhastisement, like 
punishment at all. is unknown io ilie Indian: only the dog, not the 
Mncusi. requires a beating. 
572. The mother keeps her child at the breast as long as it suits it. 
Should the family increase the grandmother takes over the duties of tho 
mother towards her grandchild, and I often saw quite strong boys stand 
.suckling at their mother or grandmother. In the largest proportion of 
cases the duty also falls on the latter of rearing the young mammals 
found liy the husband or sou. When I expressed my surprise to Sororcug 
at this extraordinary pheuomenon he told me that the women employed 
a means wherel)v the m'ilk was retained to a very old age. 
.17.'>. When the boy reaches puberty, the mother troubles no furthet* 
about him : he has become a stranger to her. 
574. At the first signs of a girl passing from childhood into maturity, 
she is removed from all intercourse with the occupants of the house: 
during this intermediate period she is unclean. The hammock of the 
incipient young woman is taken out of its row and hung up in the very, 
top of the house where the poor creature is exposed to the whole of the 
smoke which, where possible, is further increased. In the first days she 
must not leave her- hammock in the daytime : she is only allowed to come 
down from hei^e at *night, to sit at a fire lighted by herself, and to pass 
the night l>e.side it, or otherwise she will get a lot of nasty ulcers in her 
neck, a goitre, etc. ^*^o long as the most active and striking symptoms 
of the physical changes are in evideuce, she remains subject to the most 
stringent fast. "V^Hieu these are over she may come down from al>ove and 
move into a small compartment, which in the meantime will have been 
get up in the darkest corner of the building. Of a morning she may 
cook for herself in a pai'ticular pot, at a special fire, the cassava meal 
pap, which during her entire seclusion forms her only nourishment : this 
lasts f(n^ some ten days when the piai appears and exorcises her and 
everything with which she has come into contact : he mumbles and blows 
