Big People and Little People of Other LandsShaw, Edward R. (Edward Richard)
General
Big People and Little People of Other Lands
Shaw, Edward R. (Edward Richard)
Children's literature; Readers -- Geography
An Indian woman is called a squaw, and an Indian baby is called a
pa-poose'. You would wonder if you saw the Indian baby's cradle. It
is a bag made of skin fixed to a flat board. It is just large enough
for baby to fit in. The little papoose is wrapped up warm and put into
the bag. The mother carries the baby on her back in this cradle.
Often she hangs the cradle up on a branch of a tree. Then the little
red baby swings while its mother is cooking or working in the field.
[Illustration: An Indian Baby.]
The men, women, and children wear clothes made of skin. They often
wear blankets as shawls are worn by white people. Their shoes are made
of deerskin and have no soles. They are called moccasins.
[Illustration: Moccasins.]
In many places the Indians now have schools, and the little Indian boys
and girls go to school every day. Our government has sent teachers to
teach them. They learn to read and write and count.
But the Indian boys and girls learn a great many things at home. Their
fathers tell them about birds and beasts and trees and rivers. And
they teach the boys to hunt and fish, and train them up to be brave in
war.
The Indian boys and girls have a great many games. The boys play with
bows and arrows. They play "blindman's buff," and "hunt the slipper,"
and handball and football. The girls take part in the football. One
of their games is the "stick and ring" game. The ring is made of skin
and is sometimes covered with beads. Each boy has a stick, and he
throws it at the ring while it is rolling along the ground. The game
is to send the stick through the ring. Every boy tries to strike every
other boy's stick to stop it from going through the ring.
The Indian boys sometimes play at fighting battles. They form
themselves into two armies, and one army fights against the other.
They fight with balls of wet clay. Often the battle lasts two or three
hours.
Indian girls have dolls, and they dress them and sing them to sleep.
They play "house," and often have doll-house moving.
[Illustration: Indian Girls.]
Indian men and boys are fond of swimming, and they are very good
swimmers. They are also fond of sailing in their canoes. The canoe
is made of the bark of the birch tree. The Indians paddle their
canoes. They can make them go very fast.
Many of the Indians now live in houses and have farms the same as white
men, and they raise corn and vegetables and fruit. They have horses
and cows and sheep as other farmers have. And we may hope that before
long the Red Men will live in the same way as white men, and be as well
off and as happy.
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
The Philippine Islands are far away on the other side of the earth,
near China. There are a great many of these islands. Most of them are
small. But some of them are large islands, and many people live on
them. The largest of the islands is called Luzon. The largest town in
this island is Manila.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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