The learning continues...

I continue to read to James from the Garden of Verse before bed and I love the sweet language of these poems. Despite being English I am still unsure of some of the words! It is good for me to have my own vocabulary stretched. Today the Poem was Foreign Children. It described children from other countries and told about things they do like eating ostrich eggs. One of the nationalities was Sioux - I had never heard of this but they are the native North American Indians who ranged from Lake Michigan to the Rocky Mountains. It is pronounced "soo". It was a term first used in 1640 by Jean Nicolet, a Frenchman and means little snakes.

The Crow are a Siouan people who lived in the Montana and Wyoming area of the USA.They were called the handsome people by the French. They were known for their fine physical appearance and beautiful clothing. They were a horse riding, buffalo hunting people.

In the Marching Song there is a phrase that says "here's enough of fame and pillage". I also did not know what pillage meant. It seems to mean the act of stealing or plundering a place in war. This Robert Louis Stevenson liked his war and Indians!