themselves in a little rudely-constructed miam. The old woman takes the child as soon as it is born, and puts it into a net or rug lined with dry grass, and rubs it with the dry grass, and makes it presentable as far as possible with that simple treatment. The father, on a given signal, approaches, and provides his wife with firewood, water, and sufficient food. The new-born babe has some sort of care bestowed on it. The umbilical cord is cut; it is powdered with a dried fungus; and after a time it is laid on its back and a dry stick is placed over its chest to prevent any misbehaviour. There it lies for two or three days, with what nourishment is not known; but generally it is not suffered to draw the natural sustenance from its mother until this weary time has passed.
As soon as the infant is given to the mother there is general hilarity in the camp. The father occasionally nurses the babe, and shows a proper amount of pride as he exhibits it now to one and now to another. The young girls eagerly contend for the honor of holding the charge; and for a short time the mother is a happy woman, and has a sort of pre-eminence which is gratifying to her; but the necessity for a sudden movement; the whisper of a war; the birth of one or more children—making other mothers happy—is enough to put an end to her brief period of enjoyment. All the cares of maternity fall heavily and suddenly upon her; and if she is a young mother and this her first-born, and the necessity arises for the tribe to travel, she contemplates with horror the pains and anxieties of a prolonged journey, during which she will have to carry and nourish her babe, as well as bear the burdens and perform the duties which her husband may impose on her.
Mr. John Green says that the new-born babe was put into an opossum rug, and it would appear that it thereafter became the charge of the mother, who,
patron or protector in the objects of nature—as Thunder, the protector of the Kaminjerar; a kind of ant, the protector of the Kargarinjerar; the pelican, a kind of snake, &c., &c., of other tribes—the father often confers the name of this protector (as the pouch of the pelican), or a part of it, upon the child. Grown-up persons frequently exchange names, probably as a mark of friendship.
"Children are suckled by their mothers for a considerable time; sometimes to the age of fire or six years; and it is no uncommon thing to see a boy, playing with his companions, suddenly leave off and run to his mother to refresh himself with a draught of milk. When weaned, he accompanies his father upon short excursions (unless he should be delicate and unable to bear the fatigue), upon which occasion the father takes every opportunity to instruct his son. For instance, if they arrive at a place concerning which they have any tradition, it is told to the child, if old enough to understand it. Or he shows him how to procure this or that animal, or other article of food, in the easiest way. Until his fourteenth or fifteenth year he is mostly engaged in catching fish and birds, because already, for some years, he has been obliged to seek for food on his own account. Thus he early becomes in a great measure independent, and there is nobody who can control him, the authority of his parents depending only upon the superstitions which they have instilled into him from infancy; and the prohibitions respecting certain kinds of food—for different kinds of food are allotted to persons of different ages—are enforced by their superstitions. The roes of fishes are appropriated to the old men, and it is believed that if women or young men or children eat of them they will become prematurely old. Other kind of meat they consider diminishes the strength of the muscles, &c., &c. At certain seasons of the year, when a particular kind of fish is abundant, the men frequently declare it to be rambe (holy); after which, all that are caught must be brought to the men, by whom they are cooked; and the women and children are not allowed even to approach the fires until the cooking is over and the fish are cold, when they may approach and eat of what the men choose to give them, after having previously regaled themselves."—H. E. A. Meyer. Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the Encounter Bay Tribe, South Australia. 1846.
