Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-03

position. 1t is only the strongest babie
who can stand such treatment, anC
many Il little fiathead baby dies il
Its cradle. When it does 81
the cradle becomes its coffr
and It is laid in it on the water of some
pool which from that time becomes sa-
cred. The washing of these babies i:
always done with cold water, and the
mother performs the operation in the
same way that the Chinese laundryman
dampens his clothes. She fills her
mouth with water holds it there mo-
ment and then squirts il out in a spray
over the child. Among some of the In
dian babies are bathed as soon as they
are born IN cold water and the Alaskan
baby gets sea bath every day.
Others Of the Indian tribes along the
Northwest Pacific press the heads of
their babies into curious shapes in differ
eut ways There is i'll the museum a
board fastened with strings showing how
the deformity of the Chunks is pro-
duced. The bAby's head is placed in q
kind Of a wedge and il is strapped to one
hoard so tight that it cannot move and
another board is pressed down over
It's forehead so that Il continuous pres
sure is eXerted. The back of the head
board Is frightened from day TO day until
its end touches the nose. 1t presses the
head outward and makes il wider at the
front than the ordinary head, but il is
said not TO be painful and one of the
professors OF the museum tells me that
il does not seem TO affect the intelligence
Of the people. In some cases il is said that
Indians keep their children in these
cradles until they are year old. They
wash their babies with whale oil or other
grease before they bind them up, and
they take the greatest delight in showing
the success which they make in the COM
preston of the head. There is no
doubt but that they love their babies and
would die for them as much as would an
American mother. This head fiattening
IS not confined to American Indians. A
number of the tribes of the islands of the
Pacific fiatten the heads and the natives
of Sumatra fiatteC their tables noses as
well. They pull out the ears of the
babies TO make them staud at an angle
with the head, and in the Carolina
Islands il is said that the little girl babies
have their nostrils pressed out IN order to
make them beautiful. In Tahiti the
forehead and the back of the head of the
hoys are said 10 be pressed upward so
that the skull appears IN the form or
wedge, and in one part of Australia the
natives squeeze the head of baby into
the shape of a sugar-loaf, while in ST.
IBERIA head -fattening such as is found
among these Indians Is not uncommon.
Europe and America seem 10 be the
lands of cradles. The secretary of the
Japane legation says that no cradles of
any kind are used in Japan, and the |
Japanese baby is never baudnged. II Is |
wrapped loosely in a cloth of some kind |
and placed on q soft mattress on the floor. |
There it stays until it is old enough TO |
clasp the body of its mother with its legs |
when it Is tied upon her back aud carried |
Ground with her wherever she goes. The |
little japanese boy or girl has 10 take |
care of the baby of the family, and when |
but few months old these babies are |
strapped TO the backs of their brothers |
or sisters, and it is not uncommon in |
Japan osee little four=year- old boy |
tottering along with a baby on its back
AS soon as the baby is old enough TO walk
II is put in training for the next arrival.
a doll is fastened TO its back and the
weight of this is increased from day
to day until its shoulders become so
strong at the age of three or four years
that it can carry baby. The Greeks