Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1886-07-14
Chinese Babies.

One OF the first things that happen to
Chinese baby boy after he is born is
to be shaved. a barber comes with q
razor. and all the hair is shaved off the
poor little fellows tender scalp. After
that, baby has to 60 to the barber for
his shave, just as grown man with a
beard might 60 in this country; but he
never seems to eujoy 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 untouched in some spots. just as
the parents think will look pretty.
Sometimes there will be. three turfts,
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
turfcs, it is braided and tied with bright
cord, and. then baby looks funny
enough to forei gner, for each little
braid stands stif11y 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 q
queue like the men.
When baby is about month old he
is given his first name, or Nickname,
as the Chinese call it. A feast is pre-
pared, the friends are called in, and
papa gives baby his name. This name
is used only until he is ready to 20 to
school, when a new name is given him,
and another feast is offered to the
friends. The names given to the boys
are odd to us, but they seem all ri ght
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 is married he takes a
new name, which he keeps for the rest
of his life. If baby's papa is rich, ba-
by is well taken care of, carried about
tenderly and amused to his heart 8
content; but if papa be poor, then the
boy, very likely, will be tied to al
older sisters back with broad piece
of cloth, so that his legs dangle down
by her sides, and his poor little head
wabbles about over the top of the
cloth as if his neck was made 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 off, he, very likely is fast asleep.
If baby happens to live on a boat,as a
great many hundred thousand persons
in China do, his mamma ties a big
gourd on his back, so that he cannot
drown if he falls overheard, or he is
tie by rope to some part of the boat.
In summer baby wears as little cloth
ing as possible, but in winter it is just
the other way; he wears all the cloth
ing that can be put upon him. Ex-
cept 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,
dy, 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 pro-
vided he cln move at all, looking like
red and green pillow with ball on
top, and smaller pillows on each side
where the arms are. 1t makes no diff
erence to him then how cold it is, and
he sits in the open air on his little bam-
boo stool, with nose and cheeks very
red, and his body as warm as toast.