246 TRAVELS THROUGH UPPER CANADA: 
swathed with cloths or skins, and being then 
laid on its back, is bound down on a piece of 
thick board, spread over with soft moss. The 
board is left somewhat longer and broader than 
the child, and bent pieces of w ood, like pieces 
of hoops, are placed over its face to protect it, 
so that if the machine were suffered to fall the 
child would not probably be injured. The 
women, when they go abroad, carry their 
children thus tied down on their backs, the 
board being suspended by a broad band, wdiich 
they wear round their foreheads. When they 
have any business to transact at home, they hang 
the board on a tree, if there be one at band, 
and set them a swinging from side to side, like 
a pendulum, in order to exercise the children ; 
sometimes also, I observed, they unloosened the 
children from the boards, and putting them 
each into a little sort of hammock, fastened 
them between two trees, and there suffered 
them to swing about. As soon as they are 
strong enough to crawl about on their hands 
and feet they, are liberated from all confine¬ 
ment, and suffered, like young puppies, to run 
about stark naked, into water, into mud, into 
snow, and, in short, to go wheresoever their 
choice leads them; hence they' derive that 
vigour of constitution which enables them to 
support the greatest fatigue, and .that indif¬ 
ference to the changes of the weather which 
