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78
HONDA THE SAMUEAI.
tied up with strings round the ankles. Baby's body
was swaddled with coats, from neck to feet, made of
the smoothest and loveliest red, blue, and yellow
silk, soft and padded. Not a button was to be seen,
but the clothes were kept shut and in place, from
pretty velvet collar to thick, fat, padded bottom, by
means of a wide girdle or belt tied in a big bow of
velvet and holding at the right hip his amulet-bag.
When going outdoors, he had on a little cloth cap.
He was a ruddy, round, laughing baby, and as
healthy, happy, and jolly as a baby could be.
Well, baby grew up. He still wore boys' clothes,
without buttons, straps, or pins. Would n't all our
babies crow if they never had any pins sticking into
them ? Baby fed on milk, and that not " con-
densed " either. Cows never help Japanese mothers
to feed the baby. Japanese people never drank
cow's milk till foreign people taught them. Baby
never played on the floor nor crawled about. No !
Japanese nurses never let the baby crawl on the
floor. He does n't get any chance to eat what he
sees or to run the risk of swallowing pins and
buttons and all sorts of things. How do you think
baby Asahi was carried ? In his nurse's arms ? No.
On his mother's back ? No. In a box or bag, like
an Indian papoose? Do they hang the baby on a
tree or put it in the cradle ? No. They do not
have any cradles in Japan. In 1853 there was not
one in the country used by Japanese mammas.
Some of the country people put their babies in a
round basket when they go out to work ;
but baby