dren'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. They never seem to tire of the sport, and acquire amazing
dexterity at it. At the age of nine or ten they abandon the reeds and
adopt a heavier spear, with a wooden shaft and a point of hard wood or
bone. All kinds of interesting competitions are constantly organised to
test the boys' skill, the most valued prizes being the approbation of
parents and elders.

A small ring of hide, or creeper, is suspended from the branch of a tree,
and the competitors have to throw their spears clean through it at a
distance of twenty paces. All the chiefs and fighting men of the tribe
assemble to witness these competitions, and occasionally some little
award is made in the shape of anklets and bangles of small shells, strung
together with human hair. The boys are initiated into the ranks of the
"men and warriors" when they reach the age of about seventeen.

This initiation ceremony, by the way, is of a very extraordinary
character. Many of the details cannot be published here. As a rule, it
takes place in the spring, when the mimosa is in bloom, and other tribes
come from all parts to eat the nuts and gum. We will say that there are,
perhaps, twenty youths to undergo the ordeal, which is conducted far from
all camps and quite out of the sight of women and children. The
candidate prepares himself by much fasting, giving up meat altogether for
a