Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-08
ROCKING THE BABY.
Moses Ark Of Bulrushes Was Not the
First Cradle.

From the London Globe.
The cradle in some form or other. is, it
may be confidently said. one of the very
Oldest of human institutions Moses little
ark Of bulrushes 1t might be supposed, was
one of the earliest things of the kind, but
such superstition would be very erroneous
Moses little craft was pushed out on this
Nile 300, from that to LOO. years be-
fore the Christian era. But there are in
the British Museum some clay tablets found
few years ago the site of ancient
Nineveh, which, according to the archae-
ologists, make 1t quite clear that some
where about 1000 years before Christ there
was another infant hero exposed in another
little ark of bulrushes among the water
flags of another famous river. So that the
cradle that was found by Pharaoh's daugh-
ter, and which no doubt was only the COM
mon form of the thing made water-tight by
smearing of pitch, was comparatively
modern; and probably, If the light of his
tory could be switched on far enough back,
1t would be found that Sargon's cradle, to
which the clay tablets refer, was only the
latest development Of something far more
ancient still.
There are very few peoples on the face
of the earth who have not evolved some
sort of cot or cradle for baby. There are
some, though The Eskimo. for instance,
have nothing of the kind. When baby is
indoors 1t lies costly muffed up in the bear
skins of the igloo, and when 1T goes out for
an arctic airing 1t is just slipped-quite
naked-into the hood of Its mothers otter
skin cloak. There Is no cradle for the
Eskimo baby, and there are no baby
clothes The BARNS are allowed to be quite
naked until they can walk, and then they
are rugged out in a full suit of parky,
breeches and boots. exactly similar to those
of its father or mother, according to sex.
With the North American Indians. on the
contrary, the cradle is quite as important
an institution Ii is in the European
nursery, and the expectant mother will de-
vote world of study and taste to the maxi
ing of little receptacle of shrub-wood
poles and grass mating. and TO It's en-
Enlistment The Indian cradle assumes
different forms In different tribes. but the
essential feature everywhere is a board to
which the child may be dashed fiat on Its
back. The board is padded with nice soft
skins and dry moss and sweet grasses, and
the comfort of 1t seems to be highly ap-
preciated by the Indian papoose. Such Is
the power of habit and Of inherited custom
that the BARNS of the backwoods are said
never to sleep satisfactorily unless they are
strapped down In their cradles. Some OF
the tribes have a form of cradle which
seems to be specially designed for hanging
baby up perpendicularly on the branches or
trees An anonymous writer, telling the
story OF his travels twenty or thirty years
ago saws that when among the Sioux In
dams, he paused to kneel down and drink
at clear little forest stream, when sud-
denly his attention was arrested py queer
little cooling, snuffiing sounds up among
the trees He peered through the boughs.
and Just above him found five little pa
pooses slung from the branches. all alone
in their glory, and amusing themselves b.
staring and wfnking at each other, APP
parently all as happy as CLAIMS at high
water until they caught sight of the white
face looking at them. Then with one ac-
cord they set up such dismal and terrified
howl as brought six seven sQuaws
crashing through the underwood to the
rescue.