Children of South America

by Katharine A. Hodge

The most interesting and useful animal to the Indian is the llama. He will travel for miles without food or drink, over precipitous mountains and rocky paths, carry his 100-lb. load, and not an ounce more; for if you should happen to impose upon him he simply lies down on the path and refuses to budge an inch. They are splendid “passive resisters,” these llamas, and will have no nonsense from anyone, though, of course, their Indian owners know better than to overburden their llamas with superfluous luggage.

The llama, known as “the Bolivian Railway,” can travel fifteen miles a day. When he dies his flesh is eaten, but the Indian loves his animal too well to kill him for food.

“In many places the Indians are ill-treated, deceived, and robbed by the white Spanish-speaking people. They are looked upon as mere brutes, fit for nothing but work, instead of human beings with immortal souls. They sometimes live together in villages, sometimes in isolated, quiet nooks, or it may be in clusters of huts where there are two or three families.”

Each Indian has a few patches of ground for himself, and in exchange for this cultivates a few acres of crops for his owner. He also has a certain number of animals to care for, but this is mostly the work of his wife and family. Little children of from four to five years of age are supposed to be capable of driving a flock, and when a few years older they are away on the hills all day alone with their flocks.

One scarcely sees an Indian, either man or woman, altogether idle. If they have no other occupation, they spin away at wool for the clothing of their families.

Though this is an open and very healthy climate there is much sickness among the people, chiefly because they do not know how to take care of themselves. It is very amusing to see what remedies they use for inward and outward complaints. Dirt, feathers, and anything horrible is the common ointment for sores or wounds. At a little ordinary warm water they laugh. Through the ignorance of their mothers, children, when sick, have a hard time. Some care very much, and would do anything to save their children; but others, rather than have the trouble of watching them, prefer that they should die, as a good many do.

“It is the condition of the little children that calls forth most sympathy and pity, and makes us long for the day when the True Light shall shine into the hearts of the people. The majority, unloved and uncared for, surrounded by dirt and disease, know nothing of the joys of childhood, nor of the blessing of home life.

“Mothers are continually seen carrying their babies, full of disease, about the streets, and, what is worse, sitting in the market-places selling meat and bread with their sick babies in their laps. Passing along one day, a child was seen without a shred of clothing, yet with its little body literally covered with smallpox.”

Mr Will Payne, a pioneer missionary of Bolivia, says it is quite a common thing to buy and sell children in this country. He tells of three little girls who were purchased for £2 each, “and are held by their owner until they reach the age of twenty-one, during which time they are compelled to work in the house, receiving their food and clothing in exchange.

“If they fall into the hands of a kind master or mistress they have an easy, happy time, and in a few cases are taught to read and write. Should they, however, find a cruel owner, there is nothing to prevent their suffering very much like the slaves of other days.