Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-07-11
CHINESE BABIES.
When They Get Their Names-Clothes In
Summer and Winter.
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When They Get Their Names-Clothes In
Summer and Winter.
Household Words
One of the first things that happens to a
Chinese baby boy after he is born is to be
shaved A barber comes with razor, and
all the hair is shaved off the poor little fell
lows tender scalp. After that, baby has to
90 to the barber for his shave, just as a
grown man with beard might do in this
country; but he never seems to enjoy it,
and cries pitifully every time the sharp
razor mows down the hair. After awhile
when the hair begins to grow thicker, the
head is not shaved all over, but is left I'M
touched 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 above the middle of the
forehead, and one over each ear. When
the hair grows long enough in these tufts,
it is braided and tied with bright cord, and
then baby looks funny enough to foreign
er. for each little braid stands stif1iy up for
about two inches, and then lOps over. The
braids look 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 queue like
the men.
When baby is about a month old he is
given his first name, or mllk-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 90 to school, when new name
is given to him, and another feast Is offered
to the friends. The names given to the boys
are odd to us, but they seem all right to
them. Think of being called Ink-grinder,
or Promising-study! But even this name
is not kept, for when the boy grows up
and gets married he takes 4 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 papa be poor,
then the boy, very likely, will be tied to an
older sisters back with broad cloth, so
that his legs dangle down by her sides, and
his poor little head wobbles about over the
top of the cloth as if his neck were mad OF
india rubber. The little nurse goes about
her work or runs at play, and never seems
to give thought to her little brother and
his bobbing head, and he does not seem to
mind it, for when it looks as If his head
must almost be shaken of, he very likely,
is fast asleep.
If baby happens to live on boat, as a
GREAT many hundred thousand persons in
China do, his mamma ties n big gourd on
his back, so that he cannot drown ifhe falls
overheard, or he is tied by rope to some
part of the boat In summer baby wears |
as little clothing rs possible, but i'll winter
it is Just the other way; he wears all the
clothing that can be put upon him. EX-
cept in the northern part of China, near
Pekin, where it is bitterly cold i'll 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 the baby's legs and jack
ct after Jacket on his body, until by the
time he is clad warmly enough he Is quite |
us long as he is broad, and his little arms
stick straight out from his sides, so that he
waddles about, provided he can move at all,
looking like a red and green pillow with a
ball on top, and with smaller pillows on
each side where the arms are 1t makes no
difference to him 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, be-
cause in China girl babies are not thought
much of, and consequently all the good
times come to the boys.