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

III N!sW'%I[IgaAsk y'4s4
sly
| infant as soon as it is born on q layer OF
moss in bag made of leather and lined
with hair-skin. The bag is then laced
up. 1t fastens The body of the child SC
that 1t cannot move, and makes it look
like an Egyptian mummy. Another
class of the EsquimauX put the child in q
bag and wrap it up so that it looks like a
cocoon. They do not wash it nor give il
anything to eat until three days after il
is born, and it ia never given any water
70 drink until it is old enough to help it
self. The indians Of Northern California
make very pretty basket cradle. 1t is
shaped like a slipper with square toe,
and it looks as soft and pretty as any
baby basket you have ever seen. There
is MOdoc cradle here which is also of
willow work. 1t is as round as q tele-
graph pole and the little baby is wrapped
around like a mummy and stuck in it .
He sleeps standing and his head is
often tied back with bandage.
This gives him fiat head. The Modocs
are very fond of their babies and these
cradles are very elaborately made. The
same is the case with the baby baskets of
the Montana Indians, and some of these
Indians fasten the baby to board, upon
which they SOW beads and tie bells. A
Montana baby board sometimes costs as
much as horse, and the indians have q
curious way of taking care of their ba-
bies. The board is first covered with
tanned elk skin and there are straps
fastened to its back so that the woman
can carry the baby with its face looking
out behind her as she goes about her
work. AS soon as the baby is born it is
washed and dried. II is then creased all
over, powdered with red ochre and then
wrapped up in shawl and placed upon
this board and carried from wigwam to
wIgwam in order that the rest of the
children may see it. 1t is taken out of
its wrappings every night and washed,
creased and painted, and it is kept tied
TO this board until it is about year old.
The babies are nursed by the mothers
until they are five or six years of age,
and there is scarcely a mother in the
world who does not keep her baby at the
breast longer than the American mother.
The japanese mother nurses her baby
until it is four or five years old, and the
African mother often nurses her baby
after it is able to walk.
like shoe. If you will imagine q big
shoe lined with soft deer skin on the in
side and covered with many beads on
the out and the whole fastened to a frame
which may be swung over the back you
will get q very fair idea of the Sioux
cradle. The Stats are painted yellow |
and the baby goes down in the bottom of |
the shoe and sticks its head out the top. |
The cradle Is ornamented with pretty |
pieces of ribbon and feathers, and the |
Indian mother sometimes spends months |
In making her cradle. The cradle is so |
made that the baby can be laced up in |
it, and as the mother carries 1t it stands |
erect and in such position as to give it
straight limbs and sound lungs. The
child is thus carried until it is about
year old, and the mother often takes 1t
with her when she rides horseback If
the baoy dies while in the cradle the
mother makes a mourning cradle
out of it and fills it with black
luIlls and feathers, placing these in the
pa where the chlld's body lays. She
,arries the cradle so decorated around
With her wherever she goes and she talks
% these feathers as though they were her
Jaby. No matter how heavy her load is
he will not lay down this cradle and she
lets just as though her baby were alive.
There are number OF illustrations in
he museum as to how women carry their
,sbies. All OF the Indians cart them
round uuon their backs and this seems
o be the method of more than half the
World. The Gypsies carry their babies
n the packs in which they carry goods,
M the Chinese bostwoman has her
ably strapped upon her back and it hobs
nd h. 1Hg |
7ater. The Japanese woman ties her
aby TO her with a string. 1t has no
upport for its head and this hobs I'D and
own in the rays of the hot sun. She
resses her baby in the same bright
olors as herself and its clothes, as soon
5 it is old enough to walk, are made in
he same way. The African woman car
les her baby in part of her dress, and
ir. Rockhill the Thibitan explorer.
ells me that the people OF that country
ut their babies into the bag formed by
laking the dress full in front and thus
AIRY them next to their skin. In Siam
he babies are carried on the shoulders or
fps of the mother and il is not an un-
Ommon thing to see child couple of
ears old sitting astride of Its fathers
smoking a cigarette.
Fully three-fourths of the babies Of the s
orld go naked until they get to be FIVE I
r six years old. The Canadian Indians '
eep their babies naked up TO q certain i
oint, and as for the little Coreaus, they O
ear nothing but q short skirt until they !
re as old as our school boys. Little a
of both sexes trot around with {
1T any clothes on aud the poorer classes
the Chinese children are often without I
othes. 1 have seen quite large boys I
Id girls naked in Havana, Cuba and
outheru California, or rather on the
alifornIs peninsula. The mother puts S
le child, at the age of q few mouths, {
itraddle OF her neck, and with his legs v
angling down in front thus carries him c
ON place TO place. These children are S