The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-DayChamberlain, Alexander Francis
Science
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day
Chamberlain, Alexander Francis
Child rearing; Children -- Folklore; Folklore and children
"One day Manabozho appeared upon the earth in an ill-humour. Walking
along, he espied a little child sitting in the sun, curled up with his
toe in his mouth. Somewhat surprised at this, and being of a dauntless
and boastful nature, he set himself down beside the child; and, picking
up his own toe, he essayed to place it in his mouth after the manner of
the child. He could not do it. In spite of all twisting and turning, his
toe could not be brought to reach his mouth. As he was getting up in
great discomfiture to get away, he heard a laugh behind him, and did no
more boasting that day, for he had been outwitted by a little child."
This characteristic attitude of the child has also been noted by the
folk-historians of India; for when, after the death of Brahma, the
waters have covered all the worlds, "Vishnu [the 'Preserver,' in the
Hindoo Trinity] sits, in the shape of a tiny infant, on a leaf of the
pipala (fig-tree), and floats on the sea of milk, sucking the toe of his
right foot" (440. 366), and, as Mrs. Emerson points out, "the feat that
Manabozho sought in vain to perform is accomplished by the more flexible
and lithe Hindoo god, Narayana" (440. 367).
In another Micmac legend, given by Leland, Gluskap appears somewhat more
to advantage. Of the Turtle [Mikchich], the "Uncle" of Gluskap, for whom
the latter had obtained a wife, we read (488. 57):--
"And Turtle lived happily with his wife, and she had a babe. Now it
happened in after-days that Glooskap came to see his uncle, and the
child cried. 'Dost thou know what he says?' exclaimed the Master.
'Truly, not I,' answered Mikchich, 'unless it be the language of the
Mu-se-gisk (spirits of the air), which no man knoweth.' 'Wel,' replied
Glooskap, 'he is talking of eggs, for he says, '_Hoowah! hoowah!_'
which, methinks, is much the same as '_waw-wun, waw-wun_.' And this
in Passamaquoddy means 'egg.' 'But where are there any?' asked Mikchich.
Then Glooskap bade him seek in the sand, and he found many, and admired
and marvelled over them greatly; and in memory of this, and to glorify
the jest of Glooskap, the turtle layeth eggs even to this day."
In Mr. Leland's collection, as in the later volume of Dr. Band, there
are many other delicate touches of childhood that show that these
aborigines have a large measure of that love for children which is
present with all races of mankind.
In the legends of the saints and heroes of the Christian Church we meet
with numberless instances of the wisdom and instruction that came to
them from the mouths of little children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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