Babies in Other Lands

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 18, 1906

Babies in Other Lands

THE Indian baby is strapped to a birch-bark board, and hung up in a tree or carried on his mother's back. He has no playthings; and, if he cries, no one seems to mind much.

In South America some of the cradles are made of palm leaves. A single leaf turned up at the edge holds the baby. This cradle is often hung up in a tree, and the wind rocks the baby to sleep.

In Africa the mother carries the baby in a leather pouch slung on her back. When she gets tired of this way, she makes a hole in the sand, under some shady bush or shrub, and tucks the baby into it.

An Eskimo baby is tucked up in his mother's hood. It is a warm place, and travelers say their chubby little faces look very good-natured and happy. When the child comes out of the hood, he is stuffed into a fawn-skin bag; and a string draws the garment together like a pudding-bag, keeping him safe and warm.

In Lapland the cradle is a piece of wood, shaped like a canoe and hollowed out until it 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 outside to keep warm in a hole made in the snow, with a faithful dog to drive the wolves away. Sometimes several cradles are left in a cluster, when the children set up such a chatter as to disturb the meeting.

In Persia, when an Armenian baby is born, it 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 coldest weather. The mothers blacken the eyebrows and eyelashes; and a little girl's ears are pierced for rings often when a day old, and always before she is four days' old.

The day a Chinese baby is born, it is called one year old. When the next New-year's day comes, even if it happens to be the day after it is born, it is two years old; and thereafter every New-year's 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 a boy, the top of his head is shaved when he is four weeks old, and after that is shaved once a week.

In India the baby is rocked in a swing. The mother takes a 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 the mothers go out to work in the field, the cloth is fastened to the branch of some tree. When the baby gets sick, the mother thinks some one of the gods or devils that the family worship must be angry, and so she calls a sacred man, who wears a yellow cloth and pretends to tell secrets, and asks him what the matter 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 given her offerings properly, and makes her go and bring a 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 Missionary.