The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-06-13
Queer INNINGS Abont nables.

A great many curious things happen to
babies, in this round world of ours. One
thing is, planting them. This is done by
the dark-skinned women of Guinea, and it
isn't half so dreadful as it sounds. The
mother digs 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 a rose-bush. 1t keeps him
out of mischief, and he can play in the
sand while his mother works. All day long
he stays In his odd crib, and at night, when
she is done with her work, and 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 baby, what do you think of q
big shoe, stuffed with moss to make it
comfortable? The droll little Laps, cradle
their babies in that way. The shoe is larger,
of course, and made of reindeer skin. 1t
comes 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 render moss, soft and white; and
the odd little black-eyed baby looks very
comfortable hanging from the tree, or slung
across its mothers back. Perhaps this
baby who lives in shoe is no more CONF
cal than the baby who lives in fur-bag,
another sober little black-eyed baby, away
off in the shivering Esquimaux huts. Be-
sides being cuddled up 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, OF
papoose, bound fiat to board-poor little
creaturel One tribe, the Flatheads, make
"a rude sort of box of bark or Willow
work, and wrap the baby-"little man,
they call him--in piece of blanket, strap
him tightly to the box, and hang it across
two sticks. Besides this, the unfortunate
little fellow has board bound over his
forehead to make him Flathead. Even
the Russian peasant mother cradles her
baby on square board. hung from the
wall by strings from each corner, like the
pan in balance. In India the funny little
black babies either sit on their mothers
hips and hold on by clasping their hands
over her shoulder, or they take airy rides
IN basket on her head.
The babies are elegantly dressed in arm
lets. bracelets, anklets, and leglets. Gf one
might make word, finger-rings, toe-rlngs.
earrings, and nose-rings. ASto clothes,
they don't need many when they wear SO
much jewelry. China babies-not dolls,
but babies that live in China --are sadly In
the way among the poor. Sometimes they
are Graded in bag on their mothers back,
and sometimes they are tied to the backs o.
older children, who go about as ifthey had
no such load. Many poor Chinese livein boats
in the river, and the baby that comes to suct
ri is long enough to let the child CREEP
around, but not long enough to let him fal
overheard. There is another curious Gus
tom regarding babies which prevails II
some parts of China. If one dies it is mo-
buried, like older people are; it is thrown
out carelessly, and crackers fired of at the
door. Here and there, at the corners Q
streets, charitable people build small