Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1906-11-07

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lowed out until 1t is very light. A
quantity of grass Is put in; and in
this soft bed the baby laughs. sleeps
and plays with his simple toys all the
very long days. When his mother
goes to church, she leaves him out
side to keep warm in a hole made In
the snow, with faithful dog to drive
the wolves away Sometimes several
cradles are left in cluster, when the
children set up such chatter as to
disturb the meeting.
In Persia, when an Armenian baby
Is born, 1t is sprinkled with salt, and
left to itself, for nearly twenty-four
hours. This is done to harden it. The
baby is tied in its crib, and the little
feet are left bare even in the coolest
weather. The mothers blacken the
eyebrows and eylashes; and little
girls ears are pierced for rings often
when a day old, and always before
they are four days old.
The day Chinese baby is born, 1t
is called one year old. When the next
New Years Day comes, even If 1t hap
pens to be the day after 1t is born. it
is two years old; and thereafter every
New Years Day is its birthday. The
winter cradle is shaped like an hour
glass. open above and below. The
waist holds the child in, and the hands
are left free to play with odd-looking
rattles. If the baby is boy, the top
of his head is shaved when he is four
weeks old, and after that is shaved
once week.
In India the baby is rocked in .
swing. The mother takes long cloth
and ties the two ends together over a
small rafter in the low roof of the
house, and puts the baby into the
fold of the cloth. When they go
out to work in the field. the cloth is
fastened to the branch of some tree.
When it gets sick, the mother thinks
some one of the gods or devils that
the family worship must be angry, and
SO she calls sacred man, who wears
a yellow cloth and pretends to tell
secrets, and asks him what the mat.
ter is with the child. He takes two
or three little idols out of his bag,
and puts them down on the ground
before him, repeating some prayers
to them, and then pretends to hear
what they say. Then he tells the
woman she has not yiven her offer
ings properly, and makes her go and
bring few pennies, a little rice, and
even a chicken. These he takes for
himself and goes away, telling her
the child will get well.-Little Mis-
sionary.
1 OWLS.
/ All owls are birds of prey, and ac-
cording to their size and strength
they hunt and kill all manner of crea-
lures, from beetles and grasshoppers
to grouse, Canadian hares and skunks.
They capture and kill their prey with
their feet, and tear it to pieces with
their strong hooked bills. Witr the
4 flesh of their victims they eat more
or less Of the fur, feathers and bones
and afterward eject these indigestible
parts from the mouth in the form of
pellets.
4 In size the American owls vary
greatly, the giant great gray owl of
the North measuring sometimes thirty
inches from the tip of it's bill to the
| tip of its tail, while the tiny elf-owl
of southern California, southern Texas
and Mexico measures often but five
and ore half inches.
\ Most owls prefer the night and
the woods for their hunting excur.
sions, and the few species which are
the exception prove the rule. They
i are all strange-lookin birds, but the
strangest of them all is the barn-owl
or monkey-faced owl, as some people
call it. This weird bird, which is
\ found at least occasionally in almost
all parts of the United States, has a
faculty of hiding 50 skilfully in the
old wells, deserted mine-shafts, bell.
towers and hollow trees, In which ii
makes its home, that it is very sell
dom seen. The capture of specimen
often creates stir in the neighbor
hood. many people regarding the cap
tive as half bird and half monkey
Only few weeks ago saw a barn
owl described in one of the monthly
magazines as a freak of Nature" Its
lnbirdlike appearance is accounted for
largely by the conspicuous facial disk
which is very lightcolored, heart-shap
ed and beset with black, almost human
eyes and down-turned noselike bill
Almost all the owls are beneficial tc
the farmer, but this one is more Sc
than most of the others. preying chief
ly on rats, mice, gophers, ground
squirrels and cotton, rats.-March Wo
mans Home Companion.