250 TlMEHRl. 
legs. The long fast is gone through only for the first- 
born ; for the others there is only a dieting of four or five 
days. The women take great care of their children, and 
convey them everywhere in their arms, or in little ham- 
mocks slung round the neck. As soon as the children 
are sufficiently strengthened by the mother's milk, they 
are fed on potatoes, plantains, or other fruits. They are 
apt to eat earth, which is due I believe to their melan- 
cholic temperament. I have seen grown up people eat 
chalk with as much satisfaction as sugar. When the 
children are 4 to 5 years old, the boys follow the father, 
and the girls the mother. They are brought up like 
brutes. No politeness whatever is taught to them ; not 
even to say good-day, good-night, or to thank. When 
grown up, their accomplishments consist in knowing how 
to shoot with bow and arrow, to swim, to fish, to make 
baskets and the girls cotton hammocks. If a man gets 
wounded or ill, he will ask his brother, sister, or some 
relation, to abstain from eating such or such a thing. 
This would make their pain worse even if they were 50 
miles off. When the girl becomes marriageable, she is 
made to fast in her hammock for ten days, on dry cassava 
and a little ouicou. If the poor girl, pressed by hunger, 
should, during the night, take a piece of cassava, she is 
sure to be a sluggard and not likely to work. When one 
is to be made a captain, a bird called onachi is caught ; 
the father assembles the oldest of the tribe ; makes his 
son stand on a little seat, and, after exhorting him 
to vengeance on his enemies, he takes the bird by its legs, 
and breaks and smashes the head. He must show no 
sign of grief, otherwise he will pass for a coward. The 
heart of the bird is torn out, and he is made to eat it so 
