Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-06
ORDEALS OF MOTHERS
Among the Various Peoples of
the World.
IN FAR-0FF ANU LAND
Trials of the Women in Ba-
ganda.
OBEDIENT ESKIMO CHILDREN
Impressive Ceremonies at the Chris
Jennings and Other Critical Mo-
ments-Maternal Responsibilities.

Picture of pictures-mother and child
The frame Is the four walls of a matched
hut in the Punjab, somewhere west OF the
mighty Indus. A young mother, not day
over fifteen years, is iusily engaged in dig
ging small hole in the earthen floor OF
her home. 1t Is circular In form and short
ly, when she finishes 1t, tenderly picks up
her diminutive baby and places him upon
the floor, with his head in the hole then is
made the discovery that the shape of the
hole is just that of the baby's head
The baby is left in this position the pre-
scribed length of time, that the head may
eventually become fiattened and the neck
extended. thing much to be desired in this
corner Of the world. The mother who has
been lowering near while attending to her
simple household duties, eagerly snatches
up the child and begins to apply coAyrium
70 his beadlike eyes with a coarse needle.
This she does to make the eyes grow broad
and iarge-"round as Sallcers' as we would
say.
Or. sitting. not lying down. she nurses the
hungry mite; she believes that only when
she IS in this posture can the little fellow
keep from fattening his excuse for a nose
until II comes TO take that shape perma-
nently. Or the dimnutive body Is tenderly
out vigorously rubbed for full half hour
With mixture of native flour and oil until
the skin Is softer than the finest velvet and
the pink tnge is present everywhere, some
or IT having got somehow into the child
mothers face.
But perhaps it is time for the baby's med
icdne-whether ailing or bursting with
health he must take two doses day for
the hrst forty days that he is in this vale of
tears. Easy, now-down 1t goes, mixture
or drugs and two grains of cheese-and the
mother Is smiling lovingly, in spite of her
anxiety. at the con1ical little face that is
screwed up right under her own
Picture by a Hearthstone.
Close to the quaint fireplace In an Atnu
home in an interior village In Yezo Island
Is suspended from the roof wooden frame
that looks like nothing so much as the
WOODEN runners of an American boys
belIy-bouncer' Joined together with four
stout rungs- A little brown woman with
grotesaue mustache tattooed on the upper
lip OF her Slavic-shaped face, and wearing
dark-coiored flowing kfmona. enters the
room. removing as she enters the baby she
mas peen carrytngson her back all the day
that she has been stolidly working In her
garden and at the wood pile She walks
over 10 the thing that looks like a belly
bouncer. minus its top. and puts the baby
on hit Is cradle! Then she sets about
preparing dinner for her lord and master
whose particular delight is getting away
from work OF any sort
The mother is arranging the dishes which
nave iLol Deen washed since she started
housekeeping two years since when the
youngster in the cradle sets up a mighty
bowling. But the mother keeps placidiy
on at her task. Fifteen minutes pass and
the baby stin shrieking at the top of her
voice. the mother stops her work long
enough to look, as only mother can look
In the direction of the cradle and saws
softly TO herself:
Babies are like laxative men and wo-
men, they must have their say. Cry on
little one. II Is good for thy lungs, a part OF
thy up-bringing."
II is not until after dinner that the child
Is lifted down from her swinging nest AS
She nurses she kicks mightily-and, 10, the
little legs are badly chafed. The mother
arms herself with sharp knife. and, after
the blade has been TREMENDOUSLY poised sew
eral times, she quickly cuts the fat part or
each leg at the joint near the pelyis Then
she binds the wound with leather like lay
ers of fungus growth found on the elm
and then. perhaps, she gives away to a
paroxysm of weeping after the deed of love
Is all over. For II Is a deed of love in the
Ainu mothers eyes. 1t Is done for the good
of the child; II is not well for her to kick
or be chafed: and the Anu mother has thus
SCARED her offspring since her race began.
The Baganda Mother.
1T is boy" says the midwife 10
newly made mother OF the Baganda tribe,
living on the western side of that great
lake. Victoria Nyanza-
she VINO IS In ped llfts her big, dark eyes
happily.
Il am glad my husband is not the chief"
she breathes.
1t is Baganda custom to strange the
frst-born of a chief IL it happens to be a
boy. To let the child live. would surely lead
to the fathers death first. Soon there steps
UP 10 the mother one Of the husbands sew
eral relations who have been In the house
all the evening"
There is no need to fog you Is the
message that falls from the lips of the
aged man. You have been good, you have
not eaten the tabu foods. and SO the child
is without blemish disease. And the
child was born right-you have been faith
ful TO your husband"
look OF great relief springs into the
poor womans eyes. as she replies:
81 have always been and ever will he
faithful to my husband. and during the
time did not eat of salt. mineral or yege-
table; food baked in hot embers, sugar