Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/150

 84 SCHOOLHOUSE ERECTED. him up in hopes of having Pelican released; but, of course, it could not he. Pelican’s wife and son wept bitterly, for it turns out he has been in prison before for the killing of a former wife. Strict guard was kept over the prisoners all night. 24th. To-day the trooper took his two prisoners in a boat to Wellington. (I afterwards interceded with the Government for Pelican, and got him released. Baalpulare got twelve months’ imprisonment with hard labour). 14th May. To-day the foundation-stone of the schoolhouse was laid by my eldest son. From this time until October we were busy building the schoolhouse. I and the natives burned the lime, raised the stone and cut the thatch. A mason and carpenter built the walls and did the rest of the work. On the 10th of October, 1860, we finished our schoolhouse and began to have school for the native children therein. We had at intervals taught them before, but now we began a regular school. The natives were ready enough to send their hungry and nearly naked boys and girls, and a wilder lot of pupils teacher never had. They had no notion of cleanliness, were very noisy from having always lived in the open air, were ravenous for the first few weeks from previous short commons, and were as active as monkeys, clambering along rafters, beams, and over walls with the utmost agility. At the same time they were good-tempered and eager to learn. The first step was to have them all well washed with warm soap and water, have their hair cut, and put on clean clothes. Their parents were very adverse to the hair-cutting process for the bigger boys. It is the custom of the natives to let a youth’s hair grow from the time he is ten years old until he is sixteen or seventeenthat is until he is made a young man, or narumbe; the consequence is that their heads become a revolting mass of tangled locks and filth. But I insisted that my pupils must have their hair cut, and after some scolding from their mothers I carried the point. Very soon after we began to have school the children voluntarily brought me