The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-05-23
Queer Things About Babies.

A great many curious things happen
TO babies, in this round world of ours,
that the readers of "Our Young Folks
probablyneyeT heard Of One thing is
planting them. This is done by the
dark-skinned women 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 day long he stays in his odd crib,
and at night, when she is done with her
work, he is dug out. When this agri-
cultural 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
ornamental with dozens of brass brace
lets and rings on arms and legs. A
funny-loOking baby he must be- Ii you
don't fancy crib of sand for baby,
what do you think of a big shoe, stuffed
with moss to'make it comfortable? The
droll little Lapps cradle their babies in
that way. The shoe is large, of course,
and made of reindeer skin. It 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 tree, or slung across its mothe's
back. Perhaps this baby who lives in a
shoe is no more comical than the baby
who lives in fur-bag,-another sober
little black-eyed baby, away off in the
shivery Esquimaux huts. Besides be-
ing cuddled up in fur-bag at his
mother back, this round-faced little
fellow wears q fur-hood, and looks lik
some strange kind of an animal peeping
out in the world You may have seen
the Indian baby, or papoose, bound fiat
to oard,-poor little creature F.! One
tribe, the Flatheads, make 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 fel
low has a board bound over his forehead
to make him a Flathead. Even the
Russian peasant mother cradles her baby
on a square board hung from the wall
by strings from each corner, like the
pan in a balence. 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.
These babies are elegantly dressed in
armlets, bracelets, anklets and leglets
if one might make word, } finger-rings,
toe-rings, earrings and nose-rings. AS
for 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 cradled
IN a bag on their mothers back, and
sometimes they are tied to the backs of
older children, who go about as though
they had no such load. Many poor
Chinese live in boats on the river and
the baby that comes to such family is
tied by long rope to the mast. It is
long enough to let the child creep around,
ibut not long enough to let him fall over
board. There is another curious Gus
tom regarding babies which prevails in