CHAPTER IX.
The children's sports--A terrible ordeal--Queer notions of beauty--How little girls are taught--Domestic quarrels--Telltale footprints--I grow weary--Off on a long cruise--Astounding news--A foreign tongue--Yamba has seen the girls--A remarkable "letter"-- A queer notion of decoration--Yamba as "advance agent"-- I meet the girls--A distressing interview--Jealousy of the native women.
I was much interested in the children of the blacks, and observed all their interesting ways.

It is not too much to say in the case of both boys and girls that they can swim as soon as they can walk.

There is no squeamishness whatever on the part of the mothers, who leave their little ones to tumble into rivers, and remain out naked in torrential rains, and generally shift for themselves.

From the time the boys are three years old they commence throwing toy spears at one another as a pastime.

For this purpose, long dry reeds, obtained from the swamps, are used, and the little fellows practise throwing them at one another from various distances, the only shields allowed being the palms of their own little hands.