Mirr-n'yong, a kind of white radish bearing a yellow flower, is dug up and eaten by the children and adults in all places where it grows.
The children are made to swim in the waters of the rivers and creeks at a very early age. Both girls and boys of tender years are thrown into the water in sport, and they so soon acquire the art of swimming rapidly and well that it is only when the first experiments are made that the parents trouble themselves with them. A young girl will spring from the bank into a deep water-hole, and dive and rise again to get breath in such a way, sometimes, when she is pursued either earnestly or in sport, as to baffle even young active men. The natives swim differently from Europeans, back foremost and nearly upright, as if treading the water.[1]
The toy weapons which are made for the use and amusement of the children, the care that is taken in teaching the boys to throw the spear, to use the stone tomahawk, the shield, and the club; the instruction that is given them in climbing trees, using the net, and in digging for the wombat—make them even when young quite accomplished bushmen.[2] They are obliged to be observant of small things, which in their mode of life have a significance and a value unknown to civilized men. They are trained to follow the tracks of animals, and to recognise by the faintest indications the near presence of birds and reptiles. Botany, zoology, and topography are taught in the open air, and the
- ↑ T. L. Mitchell, vol. I., p. 270.
- ↑ In Southern Africa, Mr. Baines found, amongst the Ovambos, a child's toy made of the fruit of the baobab; Dr. Livingstone says that amongst the Makololo there are games practised by the children which are mostly imitations of the serious work performed by their parents; the children of the Wanyamuezi tribe have mock hunts, and play with the bow and arrow; the children of the Shooas have skipping ropes; the New Zealand infants and youths spin tops, fly kites, throw small spears, and dive and swim; the Mincopies make small toy bows and arrows for their young, teach them to use them, and exercise them also in diving and swimming; and the Fijians have such children's games as are common in Europe, and another game very similar to one known to the Australians:—"The players have a reed about four feet in length, at one end of which is an oval piece of hard and heavy wood some six inches in length. This instrument is held between the thumb and middle finger, the end of the forefinger being applied to its extremity. With a peculiar underhand jerk the player drives it horizontally, so that it glides over the ground for a considerable distance, the player who sends the missile farthest being the winner. In order that this favorite game may be constantly played, each village has attached to it a long strip of smooth sward, which is kept sedulously trimmed, so that the missile may skim along with as little resistance as possible."—The Natural History of Man, by J. G. Wood, vol. II., p. 283.
The Fijian children have many other games.
In Borneo the youths are proficient in games known to European children, and amongst all the savage nations there are proofs that the education of the young—with a view to the proper performance of such exercises as they conceive most conducive to profit and happiness—is not neglected by the parents.
ducks; whet-stones; yellow, white, and red ochre; pins for dressing and drying opossum skins or for net-making; small boomerangs and shovels for the children's amusement; and often many other things apparently of little use to them."—T. L. Mitchell, vol. I., pp. 332-3.
"The young natives of the interior usually carry a small wooden shovel, with one end of which they dig up different roots and with the other break into the large ant-hills for the larvæ, which they eat; the work necessary to obtain a mouthful even of such indifferent food being thus really more than would be sufficient for the cultivation of the earth according to the more provident arrangements of civilized men. Yet, in a land affording such meagre support, the Australian savage is not a cannibal, while the New Zealander, who inhabits a much more productive region, notoriously feasts on human flesh."—T. L. Mitchell, vol. II., p. 344.
