Show s 0 BABESOF THE wORLD I W The Cradles and Toys of a Dozen Different Nations HOW TURKS TREAT CHILDREN n ILe Baby Is Kins the World Over The Gold Crmllo of the Sultan Tho Dolls of Alaska WASHINGTON July 30 IS3oSpecial correspondence of Tat HKUAIUJ A new collection of dolls and cradles has been i lately received at the National Museum at i Washington W W Rockhall has brought In some information as to the babies of the wilds of Thibet Prof Hitchcock will shortly put forth a report describing babyhood n baby-hood among the Ainos or tho longhaired men of Northern Japan and Mr Niblack T of the navy has brought from Alaska a number of dolls and cradles showing how the little ones amuse themselves on Behring straits The babies of all the world have their representatives here and have spent several days this week among tho cradles of more than half of the globe TIlt MOST CURIOUS CUADLES are those of the flatheaded Indians They are of different shapes and sizes and most of them are intended for tho carrying of the baby on the back Ono is made much r like a sugar trough or a small canoe In this tho wood is scooped out until there is t a hole just big enough to admit the body of the child Toe top of the hole is a little higher than the remainder and it is upon this that the childs head must rest As it lies there its head comes just a trifle above the edge of the wood and a board swung on pivots falls down from the head of the cradle and presses against the childs forehead fore-head A spring is attached to this board t t and this spring is elastic so that a steady pressure is produced against the head of the child This continuous pressure forces t the childs head cut of shape and makes it i produce its tribes idea of beauty which is i that the face from the nose to the rown of the bead should go back in a straight Hne The baby is put into the cradle as soon as it is born and it is kept in it for eight weeks The cradle has a strap fastened to its back and its mother carries both cradle and baby around with her resting the burden upon her shoulders and passing the strap around her head When she wishes to nurse the t baby shOo turns the head board around to t the side and when she gives it a bath she R merely takes of its clothing from the waists waist-s down and leaves the remainder of the body t in position It is only the strongest babies who can stand such treatment and many a little flathead baby dies in its cradle When it does so the cradle becomes its coffin and it is laid in it upon the water of some pool which from that time becomes sacred The washing of these babies is always done with cold water and the mother performs the operation in the same way that the Chinese laundryman dampens his clothes She fills her mouth with water holds it there a moment and then squirts it out in a spray over the child Among some of the Indians babies are bathed as soon as they are born in cold water and the Alaskan baby gets a sea bath every day OTHERS OF THE INDIAN TRInES along the Northwest Pacific press the heads of their babies into curious shapes indifferent in-different ways There is in the museum a board fastened with strings showing how the deformity of the Chinuks is produced The babys head is placed in a kind of a wedge and it is strapped to one board so tight that it cannot move and another board is passed down over its forehead so that a continuous pressure is exerted The back of the head lies on a little pillow and this i other board is tightened from day to day until its end touches the nose It presses the bead outward and makes it wider at the front than the ordinary head but it is said not to be painful and one of the professors of the museum tells me that it does not seem to affect the intelligence of tho people In some cases it is said that Indians keep their children in these cradles until they are a year old They wash their children with whale oil or other grease before they bind them up and they take the greatest delight in showing the success which they f make in the compression of the head mere is no doubt out that they love their babies and they would dio for them as much as would an American mother This headflattening is not confined to American Indians A number of the tribes of the islands of the Pacific flatten the heads and i tho natives of Sumatra flatten their babies noses as well They pull out the ears of the babies to make them stand at an angle with the head and in the Carolina islands it is said that the little girl babies have their nostrils pressed out in order to make them beautifuL In Tahiti the forehead and the back of the head of the boys are said to be pressed upward so that the skull ap I peals in the form of a wedge and in one part of Australia the natives squeeze tho head of a baby into the shape of a sugar loaf while in Siberia head flattening such as is found among these Indians is not uncommon un-common Europe and America seem to be THE LANDS OF CllADLES The secretary of the Japanese legation says that no cradles of any kind are used in Japan and the Japanese baby is never ban daged It is wrapped loosely in a cloth of some kind and placed en a soft matress the floor There it stays until it is old enough to clasp the body of its mother with its legs when it is tied upon her back and carted around with her wherever she goes Tho little Japanese boy or girl has to take care of the baby of the family and when but a few months old these babies are strapped to tho backs of their brothers or sisters and it is not uncommon in Japan to ECO a little fouryearold boy tottering along with a baby on his back As soon as the baby is old enough to walk itis put in train ing for tho next arrival A doll is fastened to its back und the weight of this is increased in-creased from day to day until its shoulders become so t1onl nt the age of three or four years that it cnn carry a baby The Greeks had no cradles in the time of Plato and the first notice we have of cradles in tho classics is in the works of Plutarch The Turks used cradles and they spend great I deal of money in inlaying their babies cradles with mother of pearl Ono of the most valuable articles in the treasury of the Sultan of Turkey is a gold cradle stud ded with diamonds Itis kept under guard in Constantinople and in it a dozen Sultans have been rocked The Turks arc very fond of their children and they have a cur ious way of fastening them in the cradles The baby lies on its back with its arms straight down by its side its legs fastened down and its toes turned in It is placed upon a hard matress and it is wrapped up in bandages The only thing it can move is its head and it is left in the cradle for five tl crsix hours at a time Its mother gives it opium in case it is restless and it has a stick of sugar candy to suck between meals There are several hundred kinds of INDIAN CRADLES in the National Museum Many of these are in the shape of papoose bags and the Esquimaux put the infant as soon as it is born on a layer of moss in a bag made of leather and lined with hair skin The bag is then laced up It fastens the body of tho child that it cannot move and makes it 1 look ike an Egyptian mummy Another class of the Esquimaux put tho child in a bag and wrap it up so that it looks like a i cocoon They do not wash it nor give it i anything to eat until three days after It is born and it is never given any water to drink until It is old enough to help itself The Indians of Northern a California make avery a-very pretty asketcradle It is shaped Jikt I a slipper with a square toe and it looks as soft and as pretty as any baby basket you 1 have ever seen There is a Modoc cradle I hero which is also of willow work It is as I round as a telegraph pole and tho little baby is wrapped around like a mummy and stuck init He sleeps standing and his head is often tied back with a bandage Thisgives him a flat head The Modocs are very fond of their babies and these Ti 4 J r I t cradles are very elaborately made The I same is tho case with the baby blankets of the Montana Indians and some of these Indians fasten the baby to a board upon which they sew beads and tie bells A SIONTANA DAFT UOAJID sometimes cost as much as a horse and the Indians have curious way of taking care of their babies The board is first covered with tanned elk skin and there are straps fastened to its back so that the woman can carry the baby with its face looking out behind be-hind her as she goes about her work As soon as the baby is born it is washed and dried It is then greased all over powdered with red ochre and then wrapped up in ft shawl and placed upon this board and carried from wigwam to wigwam in order that the rest of the children may see it It is taken out of its wrappings every night and washed greased and painted and it is kept tied to this board until it is about a year old The babies are nursed by the mothers until they are five or six years of age and there isscarcely a mother in tho world who does not keen her baby at the breast longer than the American mother The Japanese mother nurses her baby until it is four or five years old and the African mother of ton nurses her baby after it IS abloto walk THE SIOUX INDIANS have a cradle shaped like a shoe If you will imagine a big shoe lined with soft deerskin I deer-skin on the inside and covered with many I beads on the outside and the whole fastened to a frame which may be swung over the back you will get a very fair idea of a Sioux cradle The slatsnre painted yellow and the baby goes down in the bottom of tho shoe and sticks its head out of the top The cradle is ornamented with pretty pieces of ribbons and feathers and the Indian mother sometimes spends months in making her cradle The cradle is so made that the baby can be laced up in it and as the mother carriesitit stands erect and in such a position as to give it straight limbs and sound lungs The child is thus carried until un-til it is about a year old and tho mother often takes it with her when sho rides horseback If the baby dies while in the cradle the mother makes mourning cradle of it and fills it with black quills and feathers placing these in the part where the childs body lay She carries the cradle so decorated around with her and she talks to these feathers as though they were her babj No matter how heavy her load is she ewill not lay down this cradle and she acts just as thoughber baby were alive There are a number of illustrations in the museum as to how WOMEN CARRY THEIR BABIES All of the Indians cart them around upon their backs and this seems to bo the method of more than half the world The gypsies carry their babies in tho pack in which they carry goods and the Chinese boat woman has her baby strapped upon her back and it bobs up and down as she sculls over the water The Japanese woman ties her baby to her with string It has no support for its head and this bobs up and down under the rays of the hot sun She dresses her baby in tho same bright colors as herself and its clothes as soon as it is old enough to walk are made in tho same way The African woman carries her baby in part of her dress and Mr Rockhill the Thibetan explorer tells me that the people of that country put their babies into the bag formed by making the dress full in front and thus carry them next to their skin In Siam the babies are carried on the shoulders or hips of the mother and it is not an uncommon thing to see a child a couple of years old sitting astride of its fathers shoulder smoking a cigarette Bully threefourths of the babies of the world go naked until they got to be five o r six years old THE CANADIAN INDIANS keep their babies naked up to a certain point and as for tho little Coreans they wear nothing but a short shirt until they are as old as ourschool boys Little Egyptians Egyp-tians of both sexes trot around without any clothes on and the poorer classes of the Chinese children are often without clothes I have seen quite large boys and girls naked in Havana Cuba and in Sputh ern California or rather on the Californian peninsula the mother puts the child at the age of a few month astraddle of her neck and with his legs hanging down in front thus carries him from place to place These children are cradled in turtle shells and they go to sleep by the rocking of this quite as well as our babies do One of the curious curi-ous things in cradles shown in the National Museum is the Siberian baby jumper It is a sort of a skin basket which is furnished with strings at each corner and which is tied by these to an elastic polo set in tho walls of the cabin As tho baby moves back and forth this pole dances up and downand its mother thus gives it a ride with little labor Very near some of these cradle cases of the National Museum aro HUNDREDS OF DOLLS and I see that the children of all the world are alike in their love for toys Some of tho finest dolls come from Alaska and nearly every tribe has its Different kind of dolL Many of them are carved from ivory and they are made to represent the people who make them The doll of the flatheaded Indian has a flat head and the one from Southern Alaska will have a hole through its lower lip with an ivory pin bit to represent repre-sent the custom of the ladies of Alaska who pierce their lip in this way These dolls of tho Indians are of both sexes and not a few of them are tattooed One of the Alaskan dolls has a ring in his nose on which are strung red white and blue beads and other dolls are made of straw or grasses The prettiest doll in tho world perhaps is the Japanese doll and from tho doll you can study the customs of the country coun-try The little bunches of hair on tho different dif-ferent parts of a Japanese colts head enable en-able us to tell just how old it is and you can tell a Japanese childs age by its hair Some of the babies have their heads entirely shaved with the exception of two little wisps of hair under the cars These are very young babies After they grow a few months old a ring of hair is allowed to remain re-main about the crown and so they keep on adding until the whole of the head is covered cov-ered It is the same in Siam Such dolls as the little girls use correspond to tho people and there are long haired dolls and dolls with their hair cut At a certain time in the life of tho boy of Siam he has his head shaved and the dolls represent him before and after this hair cutting The Corean boys all wear long hair and Corean dolls wear Corean costumes The Co roan children are very fond of toys and there are pin wheels and tops and kites in the Corean collection which has lately been opened in tho National Museum NONE Or THE ALASKAN DOLLS have hair and none of them caff cry The faces of many of them are wonderfully carved and these little images in ivory have faces of a variety of expressions They are all dressed and they are put in i miniature cradles of the finest material Thn Alaskan women all wear trousers and boots and these Alaskan dolls all have these garments on them 1 saw one doll which represented Alaskan mother with a miniature baby on her back and I was mueh interested in tho Zuni dols These are painted the colors of a stick of candy They are trimmed out with ribbons and arc so the museum authorities say used in i religious worship There aro also dolls made basket work There are dolls with rings in their noses and I doubt not that i if you would go to India you would also find dolls with bells on their toes Thu collection collec-tion of toys in the National Museum constantly con-stantly increases and the lesson that is ever before you in going through its won dols is that the world is very much alUo after all and that the Indians and tho Chinese tho Siamese and the Egyptians tho African and the South American are much the same as we are ISo people on the globe love their children so much as the Chinese and Japanese and nowhere do children so respect their parents The Cor cans laugh and chat with their children and the Burmese mother pets her baby and sings lullabys The Turks spend hours in playing with their children arid tho most savage of tho Indians spend time in making toys for their babies There is no country in the World which time squalling infant does not rule and on the shores of every ocean and the centre of every land the baby is king God bless him Miss GnuNDT Jit I |