CHINESE BABIES
A difference is made between boys and girls in China, but it is not so
great as the following lines might lead you to think:
“When a son is born,
He sleeps on a bed,
He is clothed in robes,
He plays with gems,
His cry is princely loud,
This emperor is clad in purple.
He is the domestic prince and king.
When a daughter is born,
She sleeps on the ground,
She is clothed with a wrapper,
She plays with a tile,
She has only to think of preparing wine and food
Without giving any cause of grief to her parents.”[1]
In winter time little King Baby is rolled in clothes until he looks
like a ball, though his feet and part of his legs are usually bare.
When asleep he is laid in a bamboo cradle, on rough rockers which
loudly thump the floor. A red cord is tied to his wrist, lest he should
be naughty when grown up, and people should say, “They forgot to bind
your wrist when you were little.” Ancient coins are hung round his
neck by a string to drive away evil spirits and to make him grow up an
obedient child. When he is a month old, friends and relatives bring him
presents, a feast is made and Master Tiny has his head shaved in front
of the ancestral tablets, which stand on a narrow table at the back of
the chief room of the house. The barber who takes off the black fluff
from the little round head, receives a present of money; baby, for
his part, becoming the proud possessor of a cap, with a row of gilded
images in front, which is presented to him by his grandmother, together
with a pair of shoes[2] having a pussy’s face worked upon each toe in
the hope that “he may walk as safely through life as a cat does on a
wall.” Baby-boy also receives what is called his ‘milk-name,’ which
serves him until he goes to school. Some of the names given to babies
sound strange: Dust-pan, Pock-marked Boy, Winter Dog, One Hundred and
Ten. Ugly names are sometimes given, in the hope that the spirits may
think that babies so called are not worth troubling about and thus may
leave them to grow up unharmed. In the same way an ear-ring is put in
a little boy’s ear, and he is called Little Sister to make the demons
imagine that he is only a girl, and so not worthy of their notice, or
his head is clean-shaved all over, and he is dressed like a monk for
the same purpose.
Girl babies, like their little brothers, are shaved at the end of the
first month, but with less ceremony. They are called Water Fairy,
Slave Girl, Likes to Cry, Golden Needle, or some such name. Though
some of the little ones suffer from neglect and hardship, many of
them are happy in their babyhood. The people say, “Children are one’s
very flesh, life, heart,” and when the traveller sees a father or a
mother proudly carrying one of them about, or patiently bearing with
its naughtiness, he can well believe that they mean what they say.
Sometimes a mother pretends to bite her baby, saying, “Good to eat,
good to eat”; sometimes she presses her nose against its tender cheek,
as if smelling it, and kisses it again and again. The little things
have shining black eyes, with long dark lashes which look so nice
against the faint olive tint of the delicate skin.
When Master Tiny is a year old, another feast is made, and
brightly-coloured shoes and hats are given to him. After the feast
is over the little fellow is put on a table in the room where the
ancestors of the family are worshipped. Round him are placed various
things, such as a pen, a string of cash, a mandarin’s button, etc. Then
everyone waits to see which he will stretch out a fat hand to seize,
for it is supposed that the thing which he chooses will show what he is
going to be or to do in the world, by and by. If baby grabs the pen,
he will be a scholar; if the money takes his fancy, he will go into
business; but if his eager fingers grasp the shining mandarin button,
his father and mother hopefully believe that he will be a great man
some day.
[Illustration: CHINESE BABIES]
The Chinese are wonderfully patient and kind in treating their babies.
Much of the gladness of their lives and of their homes is bound up
with the boys and girls who play about their houses. They love their
children, in spite of things which sometimes seem to prove that they do
not When the little ones learn, at church or Christian school, to
know the Saviour, they bring a new gladness into the home. Not a few
Chinese children have been able to interest their fathers and mothers
and other friends in the Gospel, as you shall hear later on, and so the
words “A little child shall lead them,” have found a new meaning in
far-away China.
Here is the picture of two little twin-boys, four years old. Some time
ago, one of them said to his sister: “God does not sleep at night.” His
father, who had heard the words, asked, “Lien-a, how do you know that
God does not sleep at night?”
“The hymn says, ‘God night and day is waking, He never sleeps,’”
answered the little fellow.
“But can’t you think of something yourself which shows that God is
awake at night?” asked his father.
“I hear the wind at night,” said the child, after a little pause, “and
see the moon and stars.” He meant God must be awake to keep the wind
blowing and the moon and stars shining.
One day a friend gave each of the twins a bright new five-cent piece.
Their mother took care of the coins, saying, “I will keep them for you,
until we can get enough to use as buttons for your next new jackets,”
and the little fellows were ever so happy. Not long after, people were
gathering money to build a new church, and the little boys’ father said
to them: “Children, have you got anything which you can give to help to
build the new church?” The little boys thought and thought, then one
of them said, “Yes, we have our silver buttons.” So they gave their
treasured little shining pennies most gladly. But I think that God was
gladder still.