Kingsborough’s Pl. LIX—here Pl. XXXV, treats of the time and manner in which the Mexicans instructed their children how they ought to live.
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY TENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXV
EDUCATION OF MEXICAN CHILDREN, THREE TO SIX YEARS.
The first section shows how parents corrected their children of 3 years old by giving them good advice, and the quantity of food which they allowed them at each meal was half a roll.
The three circles, a, indicate 3 years of age; b, denotes the father of the boy; c, the boy; d, the half of a roll; e, the mother of the girl; f, the half of a roll; g, the girl of 3 years of age.
The second section represents the parents employed in the same way, in instructing their children when they attained 4 years of age, when they began to exercise them by bidding them to do a few slight things. The quantity of food which they gave them at each meal was a roll.
The father of the boy is shown at h; the boy, 4 years of age, at i; j, a roll; k, the mother of the girl; l, a roll; m, the girl of 4 years.
The third section shows how the parents employed and exercised their sons of 5 years of age in tasks of bodily strength; for example, in carrying loads of wood of slight weight, and in sending them with light bundles to the tianquez or market place; and the girls of this age received lessons how they ought to hold the distaff and the spinning wheel. Their allowance of food was a roll.
In this section, n shows the father of the boy; o, two boys of 5 years of age; p, a roll; q, a roll; r, the mother of the girl; s, a roll; t, the girl of 5 years of age.
The fourth section shows how parents exercised and employed their sons of 6 years in personal services, that they might be of some assistance to their parents; as also in the tianquez, or market places, in picking up from the ground the grains of maize which lay scattered about, and the beans and other trifling things which those who resorted to the market had dropped. The girls were set to spin, and employed in other useful tasks that they might hereafter, through the said tasks and works, sedulously shun idleness in order to avoid the bad habits which idleness is accustomed to cause. The allowance of food which was given to the boys at each meal was a roll and a half.