Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1884-07-23
Chinese Babies.


20 Chinese boy after lie is born is to
0e shaved. A barber comes with his
cazOr and all the hair is shaved off the
Door little fellows tender scalp. After
hat baby has to 60 to the barber for
MS shave just as a grown man, with
beard, might 60 in this country; but
le never seems to enjoy it, snd cries
pitifully every time the sharp razor
mows down the hair. After a while,
when the hair begins to grow thicker,
The head is not shaved all over, but is
left untouched in spots, just as the
parents think will look pretty.
Sometimes there will be three tufts,
each as big round as silver dollar;
one Just over the middle Of the fore
head and one over each ear. When
the hair grows long enough in these
tlfts, it is braided and tied with bright
cord, and then baby looks funny
enough to a foreigner, for each little
braid stands stifily up for about two
inches and then lops over. The bralds
.ook like horns on his head, and holes
are cut in his green and red cap to let
The horns come through.
When he grows older, he is allowed
to wear a queue like the men, and he
is just as proud then as American boys
are with their first boots or trousers.
When the child is about a month
DID, he is given his first name, or
milk-name, as the Chinese call it. a
feast is prepared, the friends are called
in; and papa gives baby his name.
This name is used only until he is
ready to go to school, when new
name is given him, and another feast
is offered to the friends.
The names given to the boys are old
to us, but they seem all right to them.
Think of being called an Ink-Grinder
Or Promising-Study But even this
name is not kept, for when the boy
grows up and is married, he takes Il
new name, which he keeps for the rest
of his life.
If baby's papa is rich, baby is well
taken care of, carried about tenderly
and amused to his hearts content ;
but if his papa be poor then he very
likely will be tied to an older sisters
back with a broad piece of cloth, 50
that his legs dangle down by her sides
and the poor little head wobbles about
over the top of the cloth as if his neck
were made of india-rubber.
The little nurse goes about her work,
or runs at her play, and never seems
to give a thought to little brother and
his bobbing head and he does not
seem to mind it, for when it looks as
if his head must be almost shaken off,
he very likely is fast asleep.
If baby happens to live on a boat, as
great many hundred thousand per
sons in China do, his mamma ties a
big gourd on his back so that he can
not drown if he falls overheard, or he
is tied by a rope to some part of the
boat
In Summer baby wears as little
clothing as possible, but in winter it is
Just the other way-he wears all the
clothing that can be put upon him.
Except in the Northern part of China,
near pekin, where it is bitterly cold in
winter, the Chinese people do not have
fires in their houses, even when it is
cold enough to freeze the water into
ice.
Pair after pair of trousers is put on
baby's legs, and jacket after jacket on
his body, until by the time he is clad
warmly enough he is quite as broad
as he is long; and his little arms stick
straight out from his sides, SO that he
waddles about, provided he can move
at all, looking like reC,-and-green
pillow with ball on top, and with
smaller pillows on each side where the
arms are. 1t makes no difference to
him, then, how cold it is, and he sits
in the open air on his little bamboo
stool, with nose and cheeks very red
and his body as warm as toast.
All this has been about boy babies,
because in China girl-babies are not
thought as much of; and, consequent
ly, all the good times come to the boys.
A poor girl-baby must work almost
as soon as she can toddle, and rich
girl-babies are really worse off. They
have their poor little feet pinched out
of shape, so that they walk very poor
ly, and cannot run at all - Youths
Companion.