BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF CHILDREN

Summary

It may be imagined that the exigencies of savage life require that all the members of a tribe shall at all times be ready to move from one place to another–now for food, now for shelter, now to make war, now to avoid it. The sick man must rouse himself in times of trouble, even if his sickness be mortal; and as regards the females, they must obediently serve their masters in every season and under all circumstances. Certain events in their lives, however, claim the kindness even of their savage husbands, and the sympathy of their mothers and sisters. An Aboriginal woman, when she is about to give birth to a babe, if not treated in the same manner and with as much care as a civilized woman, is not neglected. The little attention she needs is given; the few comforts demanded are ordinarily provided; the help of some aged woman is not withheld.

When the time of her trouble draws nigh, some one of the old women is selected to attend her, and the two withdraw from the main camp and shelter 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.