Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-05-26
queer Things about Babies.

From the Young Folks.
A great many curious things happen
to babies, in this round world of ours,
that the readers of our Young Folks
probably never heard of. One thing is
planting them. This is done by the
dark.skinned woman Of Guinea, and isn't
half SO dreadful as it sounds. The mother
digs a hole in the ground, stands baby in
it. and then packs the warm sand around
him to keep him in place, as you would
set out rose bush. 1t keeps him out OF
mischief and he can play in the sand
while his mother works. All the day
long he stays in his odd crib and at
night, when she is done with her work,
he is dug out. When this agricultural
mother wants to carry baby about, she
ties him into little chair which she
straps to her back. If it is some
very grand occasion, he is dressed
neatly in stripes of white paint and
ornamented with dozens of brass
bracelets and rings on arms and legs.
A funny looking baby he must be. If
you don't fancy crib of sand for a
baby, what do you think Of big shoe
stuffed with moss to make it comfortable
The drell little Lapps cradle their babes
in that way. The shoe is large, of course,
and made of reindeer skin. 1t comes
up high at the back, like the slippers we
wear nowadays, and is turned up at the
toes. The moss with which it is stuffed
is the famous reindeer moss, soft and
white; and the odd little black-eyed baby
looks very comfortable hanging from a
tree or slung across its mothers back.
Perhaps this baby who lives in shoe is
more comical than the baby who lives in
fur bag-another sober little black
eyed baby, away of in the shivery Es-
quimaux huts. Besides being cqddled
M in fur bag at his mothers back, this
round faced little fellow wears fur hood
and looks like some strange kind
of animal peeping out in the world.
You may have seen the Indian
baby or pspoose bound fat to board
moor little creaturel One tribe, the
Flatheads, make rRde sort of box of
bark or willow work, and wrap the baby
-" littIs man" they call HMM piece
of blanket, strap him tightly to the box,
and hang it across two sticks. Besides
this, the unfortunate little fellow has a
hoa I'd bound over his forehead to make
lin, Flathead. Even the kIssjan
peasant mother cradles her baby on a
hoe I'd hung from the wall by strings from
each corner, like the pan in p balance.
In India the funny little black babies
either sit Oh their mother hips and hold
on by clasping their hands over her
or they take airy rides in
haskell on her head. These babies are
elegantly dressed in armlets. bracelets
anklets and leglets (if one might make Q
word, finger rings, toe rings, and nose
rings. AS for clothes, they don't need
many when they wear so much Jew
elry. China babies--not Aells, but babies
that live in China--are sadly in the way
.1mopg the poor. Sometimes they are
cr, died in a bag on their mother S back,
and Aometimes they are tied to the backs
~ older children, who 60 about as though
lbev had no such load. Many poor Chi
, ese live ia boats ON the river, and the
"a 6y that eopes to such a family is tied
Nv q long rope 90 the mast. 1t IS long
s1ou oh 10 let the child creep around, but
NOT long enough toilet him fall overheard
Tbere Ia another curious egstom regard
nr babies which prevails in some parts
,f China. If one dies, it is not buried
IS elder people are; it is thrown oqt
,arelessly, and crackers are hred oh at
he door. Here and there, ut the cor,
iers of streets, charitable people build
mall houses with openings to drop the
neglected little bodies in, and that Is al
he burial they get.