Children of South America

by Katharine A. Hodge

The first thing to be considered was what to give baby to eat, and the second problem how to get her to the mission-station a hundred miles away. Finding that no Indian woman would help him in the matter of nursing and feeding her, he saw that he would have to be both mother and nurse to her himself.

What could he give “Brownie”? Well, God showed him what to do, so she was kept alive on rice water and goat’s milk, which the missionary gently squirted into her mouth from his mouth, and on egg and milk, these being the chief items in Baby’s diet.

After miles and days of riding on horseback, with five Indians to show the missionary the way, they at length reached the mission-station, and Baby was handed over to a kind motherly missionary. I am sorry to say, however, that Baby Hope (for that is the name the missionaries gave her), was taken ill six months afterwards, and died, and she was laid to rest on the banks of the River Paraguay.

How sad it is to think that there have been many of these little ones who were not so fortunate in being rescued from a living grave like Baby Hope! But these Indians are learning that Jesus loves the little children in the Chaco. For nearly thirty years the missionaries of the South American Missionary Society have been working here for the preserving and uplifting of the children, and to-day they are being rewarded by seeing many Christian Indian homes established.

There are day-schools, Sunday-schools, and schools of industry where the older boys and girls are learning how to become useful men and women. Carpentering, house-building, agriculture, cooking, laundry, and housework are now taking the place of wandering, hunting, dancing, and feasting, which, with them, have now become things of the past.

There are many other Indian tribes in Paraguay yet to be reached, so we will leave the Gran Chaco, and once more crossing the river we come back to civilization—but not to stay, our destination being Santa Teresa, in South-Eastern Paraguay. We must travel on horseback now, for there are no smooth roads; so, accompanied by Mr John Hay, of the Inland-South America Missionary Union, we proceed on our journey. For the benefit of those who did not go with him he wrote an account of his experiences. In his diary he says:—

“When we entered the dense forests the Indian tracks soon became impassable for men on horseback. We could no longer ride, and in some places we were obliged to travel barefoot, in deep mud, leading our horses as best we could, while we stumbled on over the roots of trees and interlacing bamboo creepers.

“Led by a native guide, we found the Indians hidden away behind the shelter of almost impassable swamps, across which we could not take our horses—amid the most savage conditions, and in great poverty. Some of them had a little maize, but for the most part they appeared to live on wild fruits, roots, reptiles, caterpillars, or anything procurable by hunting and fishing. For clothing, they wore only loin-cloths, and bands of women’s hair twisted round the legs below the knees and round the wrists.

“Their faces were painted in curious patterns, with some black pigment, and in some cases mutilated by a hole in the lower lip, through which a long appendage of resinous gum protruded, hanging down in front of the chin. They were armed with long powerful bows, from which they can shoot, with deadly effect, arrows pointed with long, hard, wooden barbs. Some of these arrows measure over six feet in length.

“Some of the women were busily weaving their little loin-cloths, made from fine cotton fibre, on rude square frames made with four branches of a tree firmly fixed in the ground.”