Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-07-13
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
THE BABY

-NHiiiioNh III the BACK OF the auto
mobile where he swings with the
b~reezes and motions of car is no more
ingenious than the woman of the
Holy Land who. as soon as her baby
is able to sit alone, places him as
trlde her shoulder, for she thus
teaches the youngster to ride horse
oack n gives him that fearless and
immovable seat in his saddle for
which the fastener is renowned"
says a bulletin from the Washing.
ton, ID. c., headquarters of the Ma
tlonal Geographic Society.
Besides this, her method has
many other advantages-it strength
ems the baby's back and legs, for he
must learn the proper grip in order
to maintain his balance as his moth
err goes unconcernedly about her
work, it leaves her arms FIRE,
strengthens and improves her figure,
expands her chest. and gives her
that grace and ease which charac-
terize the movements of Eastern
women.
Trains for Horsemanship
soon he loosens his hands from
her hair which at first he clutches
fra~ntically, having learned that trick
of holding on with his knees which
later enables a Bedouin, after a days
hunting, to produce from beneath his
knee a coin which he placed there
in the morning for safe-keeping
throughout the day.
The boys only are carried in this
fashion, the little girls never being
thus dignified. This is probably the
idea the Prophet Isaiah had in mind
when in describing the forthcoming
glory of Israel he says, Thy daugh-
ters on their shoulders shall be car
ried.'
Though the sculpture of ancient
Egypt and Assyria shows that this
method of carrying children has
been a custom for at least 1000
years, many Eastern women carrv
their children in a scarf slung ham
mock-wise over their backs, eipecial-
ly in their early infancy. Others
place their babies astride their hips,
as is done the world over.
Sits on Mothers Head
Many of the Arab women, when.
they fill their great e~arthenware lars
at the fountains have babies or small
children suspended in sheets from
their backs. the little fellows legs
stretched about their mothers and
their little heads peeping out at
the curious world. When the jar has
Deen filled, 1t takes the place of the
Daby on the woman's back, and the
youngster mounts his mothers
shoulder or her head, from which
em1nence he may gaze out over the
pain in envy of a father who is ga
looping across the sands to exercise
his horse and amuse himself with
rifle practice.
Among the tailed people of Nj
gerla a mother carries her newborn
baby around in a calabash shell
which resembles a guord. Though the
fathers of the tribe are said to be
fond of their children, they are new
e rgullty of carrying them.
The kagoro women may be said
to wear their children attached
somewhere about their bodies. When
the baby is very young the mother
puts him on her back and holds HJm
on, but he soon learns to hang on
without any assistance. # she is GO
ing any great distance, however, she
usually lends him a little support
by tying one end of \ sail-shaped
carrier made of leather to her neck
n the other around her waist. He
car thus stick his legs out on each
side of her body and rest comfort
ably in the sling.
Indians Portable Cradle
Everyone knows what the Ameri-
can indian baby's portable cradle
looked like. The Indian father US
ually made his new baby a wooden
framework basket which his grand
mother covered and ornamented with
designs done in beads or quilts. But
the infant practically never stayed
in this cradle when he was not on
a journey of some sort. At home he
developed the muscles in his arms
n legs by rolling around on a bed
or the grass.
The Terra women in the interior of
Africa carry their children slung in
their waistcloths behind them and
V their little heads with Gala
bash shells in order to protect them
from the sun. For a year after the
Bayaka babies are born they are not
washed and the fathers must also
abstain from additions during that
period.
Sings From House Roof
The New Guinea mother weaves
a Melted bag much like a large cro-
cheted shopping bag, places the
baby in the bottom of it on a small
sleeping-mat, and hangs it from the
root of the house, where it is swung
gently to and fro by anyone who
cares to pull the string. When the
mother is going on a journey she
hangs the bag from her head sus-
PClltCu III lioit VI lCi diit Will ilCt
teeth holds a mat over the infant to
keep him from the sun and wind.
She must tie a long ,streamer or vine
to her skirt which trails along after
her during her journey. for if the
child's spirit should wander from it's
body, there must be some convenient
way of it's crawling back from the
ground.
But the little Eskimo baby has
the real 'cinch' when it comes to
having a soft place to ride and to
sleep in. Its mother makes for him
! a bag of baby-reindeer skin and lines
it with fur. and hen stuffs him,
feet first, into the hood at the back
of her fur garments. From its
depths his beady black eyes peer out
from over her shoulder. When he
gets too heavy she dumps him out
of her hood into a snowdrift and he
chuckles and COOS as he grabs
kandfuls of snow: when he whim-
pers she can very easily dump him
out of the hood head foremost to
feed him or she can gently shrug
him to sleep"
WIRE ME. AND I'LL WIRE YOU
1897