# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1897_S35 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. 35 Ne OO EEE ————————————— Baby Days in Siam. | He replied, ‘Only one, and that was given to |me by a poor family unable to pay their doc- “Zet me tell you,’? writes a missionary, |tor’s bill.’ He took the baby as pay for doc- “how the Siamese kiss their babies. You| toring the family. would never guess. They kiss with the nose! ‘‘As soon as a baby can talk it is taught to| doors, an elderly man, with a peculiar kind instead of lips. Placing the nose close to,curse. I have seen a group of mothers, hay-| of wig known in that district, bright, smooth baby’s cheek they snuff hard many times, |ing a little one in their midst just able to walk} and reddish brown, accosted him: | |a little, teaching it curse words and laughing Scotch parson. The parson was proceeding from the manse to the church to open 3 new place of worship. As he passed slowly and gravely through the crowd gathered about the saying, ‘Chupe luk,’ meaning ‘kiss baby.’| Many of them love their babies, but others | aloud when it pronounced them. After awhile, do not, or they could not do as I have seen| when that baby uses those words in cursing them. j}its own mother, it will be cruelly beaten. “Once a dear little baby was born in a! ‘Now let us visit a home in Siam not far} ‘‘No, doctor, I must speak to you now; it bamboo hut near our home. It lived but a) from the little Christian chapel. It seems to|is a matter of my conscience.’’ short time, and as soon as it died its parents| be a happy home; all are glad to see you. ‘“‘Oh, since it is a matter of conscience, tell “Doctor, if you please, I wish to speak to you.”’ ‘‘Well, Duncan,’’ said the venerable doc- | tor, ‘‘can ye not wait until after worship?” drove a large nail into its head, then crushed! Not long ago their baby, dressed in white, | me what it is; but be brief, for time presses.” its little body into an earthen rice pot, covered it tightly, and set it afloat on the river. Why this cruel act? Because the love of Jesus has | not entered the parents’ hearts; being filled with superstition they { feared that the spirit of the baby would return and bring evil to their home, and took these cruel meas- ures to keep it from doing so. We have frequently seen rice pots thus laden floating upon the rivers. Some- times the bodies are cast into the streams and temple grounds to be devoured by the crows, vultures, and other animal scavengers. “The babies of Siam wear jewels about their ankles, wrists, and necks, but no clothing. I was once amused by two babies of a princess. They wore very large gaudy hats from Europe, decked with flowers, feathers, and ribbons, and these were all the clothing the babies wore. “The babies do not have very Sweet names; the most common are, Oang (red), Nod (rat), 7t (brick), Ma (dog). The mothers, instead of saying sweet, loving things to them, will say, ‘How ugly,’ or Na Kliet (hateful), Should they give pretty names, or express love or admiration, then the evil spirits would be so jealous that they would bring great evil to the babies. “‘Baby’s hair is not permitted to grow and curl, but the mother shaves all the hair from its head, often with a dull razor, causing baby to scream very loudly. Sometimes little tufts are left to grow, very much like those you have seen on Japanese dolls. Little bells are fastened to baby’s feet, so that when he kicks up his heels he makes music. A string of Seashells, old nails, coins, and pieces of coral are tied about his waist as charms to keep the Snakes and evil spirits from doing him harm. His food is soft boiled rice and roast bananas. “In former years the parents sold their little ones to get money with which to gamble. Tam glad to tell you that the present king has forbidden this. Once, a Siamese doctor came to visit us. I asked if he had any children. Treading out Corn in Palestine. was carried to the chapel and baptized. You now see it fast asleep in a nice swinging cradle, something like your hammock. The mother is seated beside the cradle with sew- ing in hand, and she pushes the cradle to keep it swinging that baby may sleep on. She is singing in her own language one of the sweet hymns you love to sing. ‘Why do you suppose this home is so different from others we have seen? Because Jesus has found a place in that mother’s heart, and when He enters a heart and home, what changes He makes! What love is then given, not only to the little baby, but to all others!’’ —>- oP oe The Grumbler Silenced. There are people that like to grumble and to find fault where there is no fault. Such a grumbler was once prettily silenced by an old ‘The matter is this, doctor. You see the clock yonder on the face of the new church? Well, there is no clock really there—nothing but the face of the clock. There is no truth in it but once in twelve hours. Now, it is in my mind and against my conscience, that there should be a lie on the face of the house of the Lord.”” ‘Duncan, I will consider the point. But I am glad to see you looking so well; you are not young now; I remember you for many years; and what a fine head of hair you have still!”’ “Eh, doctor, you are joking now ; it is long since I have had my hair.”” **O, Duncan, Dunesn, are you going into the house of the Lord with a lie on your head?” The doctor heard no more of the lie on the face of the clock. +o oo The Greater Folly. Were a house to be in flames to- morrow, and were a mother to seize her gold, and her jewels, and her rings, and rush from the flames with them, and forget her infant slumbering in its cradle, she would neither be so inhuman nor so inconsistent as that man who cares for the toys of a day, and thinks nothing and cares nothing about a soul that stands in eter- nal jeopardy every hour if not justified and pardoned. — Selected. 2 ~+0~