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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1924-05-01, Page 7+r the and ' Girl GIRL BABY NOT WANTEI "Al -Yah l Unfortunate man tha am.' In what way have 1.ofended gods, that for the fourth time a is born to my wife?" Talking th to himself, Kim Cheng went out his little one -roomed house, and down with his long pipe. As he' smoked, his thought "What shall I do with her?" ' In Middle Kingdom (China) it would easily settled, A pail of water little gurgle, and all would be over "But this district belongs to white people and, according to th law, a` man may not destroy. his newly - born baby girl. Not only so, but when a child is born, boy or girl, the fats r must to the government office and info the clerk, who writes in a book a gives the father a paper informs him that, within a. certain time, child must be brought for the planti of the smallpox (vaccination) . "Strange, indeed, are the ways the white people! But they are wi too. ' Certainly it .is better to have mark on one's arm than to have one's face covered with„ pock marks. "If the gods will give -me a son I will send him, when old enough, to the white people's. school to learn their words and wisdom. I hope the women will find a way to dispose of the child." Music Helps in .Delicate Operations. Considerable interoet and astonieli= latent has been caused in both the Pro- fessions of music and medicine by a recent Letter in the I&,rittsh -Medical Journal from the peri of a doctor in ( Gloileester, advocating the practiceof I. I the mother had spoken. The others t I greeted her, gave her a seat, then the asked many questions about the teach- ill er to whom she had given her baby. us f`You would do well," said she, "to side Send the child there. My mother -in - sat law took my baby, and I have been there once to see her. Many children live in the school, and all are girls. gas' There aro Chinese girls who are he teachers, and who read and speak the be language of the white people. If you ' a are willing, I will go with Elder Sister and take the child to the teacher," heir "I am willing; ask my hsband if he too; is willing." oElder Sister went and told Kim Cheng their plan for the child. "As you please," he replied. She go returned and told the mother Kim rniidi Cheng's answer. It is well," said the mother. "Take ng the the child to the teacher." Instructed by the mother, Elder ng Sister opened a box from which she of took 'a garment and wrapped it well around the child. Then she beckoned se, to the mother's friend, and together a they left the house. As they passed Kim Chong, " Elder Sister said, "We go to take the child to the teacher." " It is well," "And he. tell the teacher to report to the government (register the child's birth). Let her bear all the trouble." Inside the house, two women were Thus from Kim Cheng's home went the little daughter he had. not seen and did not wish to see. As the women went on among the ting on a bench and a ,third was lying on a plank bed. They were dis- cussing what to do with the baby., Said one, 'I have heard, Elder Si tar, that there are rich merchants in the town whose wives give a good price for a baby girl." "Yes, I know, Younger Sister; but think of the trouble to find the one who will buy the child and then have to wait until she can go to the temple to inquire of the gods if it will be a profitable undertaking. And did you not hear Kim Cheng say that the chil is to be disposed of at once?" "Listen to me," said the mother. " have a plan. A friend of mine, w lives in the house by the rice shop gave her baby girl to .a white woman teacher living at a girls' school in th loam. I should like my baby to there. She will be well cared for an educated. I do not want her sold to rich people; her future would be un certain. - Go thou, Elder Sister, an call my friend here that we may in quire where the teacher lives." The subject of the 'women's discus Oen and of Kim Cheng's thoughts was peacefully sleeping, wrapped in a cot- ton garment of her mother's. No tiny baby clothes had been- given to the women in which to dress this, un- welcome babe. Elder Sister presently returned, bringing with her the friend of whom palms and across the rice fields, Mini Cheng rose and began to prepare the food for his pigs, feeling relieved that the child was disposed of without any trouble to himself. JUMPING RACE. The players are divided into equal groups, which stand in single file be- d. hind a starting line drawn at one end of the playground. Twenty feet from I this line a finishing line is drawn ho parallel to it; and on this line, oppo- site to each file of players, two balls, clubs or other objects are placed. At a signal the leaders in each file, who e g have been toeing the starting line, d jump forward with both feet to the finish line, when they stoop; pick up, - one of the balls and run back to the d starting -line. Each 'player, on running - to the starting -line, hands the ballto the next player in his file, who should - be toeing the line ready: to start, while he himself goes to the rear of the file. The second player, having received the ball, jumps to the finish line, puts down the ball, picks up the other one, and returns rns to his file, where he hands the ball to the third player. The file wins whose last player first gets back to the starting line HITTITES WERE INDO-EUROPEAN ti KINSHIP', TO CELTS AND TEUTONS CONFIRMED. Language Found to Bear a Striking Resemblance to Every Day English. A confirmation of the belief of some scholars that the ancient Hittites were Indo-Eurapeans and blood cousins to the Teutons, the Celts, the ancestors of the Greeks and Latins, is made in the translation of some 200 of their aau dating from, the fourteenth cen- tu B.C. Dr.George A. rY byg Barton, i<irofeesor of Semitios at the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania and of New Tes- tament Language and Literature at the Philadelphia Divinity School. In the work of translation Dr. Bar - ten had to employ German, French, Latin, Greek, Semitic and Celtic' philology, since the s•cientiflc world possesses: only .a rudimentary Hittite Vocabulary, Tho translations will be included in a forthcoming volume on "Archaeology end the Bible" which ho le preparing, Tho Hittite empire had its seat at Eoghas-)'rein, near modern Armenia, in the fotirteentli century. 13.0. It was there that Winckler some years ago uncovered what was once the Hittite 3toyal Library and several hundreds of their clay tablets.. Most .ofthese tablets a°e now in Constantinople. Their nnderstaniding, however, for -n long time til a5 ti "closed hook" to les archcieologisie beMee e the Ass yri• a eanieforin was used to :write their. language, which only lately has poen 0 0 a r b 0 'give' is pal, which is the same as our `pay'. The word for `Take' is 'doe which corresponds to the Greek 'didiomi' and the Latin `d"o' for 'give'. "The verb `esmi', which we know as 'tobe', is almost exactly the same as the Sanscrit, which is, of course, Indo- European. "The Hittite for "`moisture' is `wadar', which is readily seen to bear a close relation to our word `water'," Dr. Barton said the Hittite laws in no way affected or were affected by the Hebrew legislation. "Among them, however, are some that bear a striking resemblance," he said. The code is evidently a revision of an earlier one, and in almost every case the penalty is lighter, thus indi- cating a continually enlightened civ- ilizatian The Queen of the Driver Ants. The most mysterions personage in a colony of African driver ants is a creature perhaps an inch and a half long and three-quarters of an inch high. It is not au ant. In fact, so far as science is concerned, says, Prof. R. L. Garner in the Century Magazine, it is as yet unclassified. In comparison with the ants, con- tinues Professor Garner, it is enor- mous. 'I'll.e creature—there is only one to a colony -looks for all the world like a tiny elephant in a circus• parade as it Iumbers along in the rear part of the line of march Its b;ocly is about as thick as your fingers, and its legs are proportionately heavy, and help to increase t:ho resemblance to an ele- phant. There is always a bodyguard .five or six deep round it as it mareb.es. The thing is hardly a prisoner, for it has never been found anywhere except in a column of. driver -ants. What its, ea is, is doubtful.. Several of the driver ants were, taken to Germany a eve yoars ago and examined, but no mportant knowledge was gained. Per- sonally,.I have never captured one of elle creatures, but I strongly suspect hat if is really the queen of the col- ny. For in all species of the hynien- ptera, which Includes ants, the queen 'pears to be an anomalous creature, iany times larger than the other inem ers of the colony, and always differ- nt in feria, xiiscovered".to be Aryan. The Assyrian was Semitic. Common Ancestry, riiroln , a Bohemian scholar, has done most of the work in translating ,'elle Hittite remains," 1)5. Barton said rto•day,;.'lint 11111,01.1 Of it was unsa:tis- e'aotory, ,1-l;owever, he worked out a, tentatii+o grammar and the beginnings of a vaeabulery.. The vocabulary allowed a iniiaure of lurloli;uropean ,And .Mongolian roots. -' More <Wait a .i-elnarkable s'esean-i in Blanco, I found, in .rn ny of the words toOI. dIiP i .ry words we have In English. i doseamed14lany of them seamedto have a coin.' . ait<:ostry, The Hittite word Pori The Irnportnnoe of Appearances, He --"`The engine seems to be Miss - g, sweetheart," She ---"chat's all rigs: t, dear, It esn't show." He Who has begun has half dorm, instrumental muss • id 164 glcal skill. He argues that fox the development of manual dexterity, as in the case, for instanoe, of eye sur., gery, and indeed all, operations of a delicate character, there le no better training for the hand and wrist than. learning to pay the organ or piano— preferably the 'latter, ;Such a train Ing, he says, gives precision and ambl dexteritY, independance and flexibility of fingers and wrist, delicacy and lightness of touch in manipulation in a degree difficult to overestimate. Dr. Dykes Bower, the author of the article in question, recalls• an ocba- cion, many years ago, when he, was go- ing the round of a hospital with a very eminent British surgeon. The latter asked one of the students. who accom- panied him to perous•s.,the chest of one of the public patients. After the stu- dent had completed the operation un- der the eye of the great man the latter said, "I think, young man, we may safely conclude that you do not play the pianoforte." Dr. Bower says the reader may well imagine what thee. effect of the student's rough and clumsy attempts at examination had. been on the suffering patient. It goes without saying that ,gentleness of touch, even when sureness and firm- ness are likewise necessary, are a great asset to a doctor•- in ,.gaining the regard of his patients. This writer also points out that all surgical operations—and certainly the more delicate and intricate ones devel- oped by the immense progress of mod- ern surgery—necessitates a high de- gree of manual dexterity. But, as one experienced in both arts, he says that even the most difficult and complicated. operative measures in surgery do not require anything like the manuat skill that is required of a pianist who plays a difficult work correctly and intelli- gently. It is, he thinks, fortunate that such is the case, for otherwise it would be a bad look -out for thevast`, number of persons who sooner or later come under the surgeon's knife. In general surgery there is in some cases a margin for error, but itt eye -surgery and' ether Special. Operations, little or none --,just as there is none for the musician in the Correct interpretation of the work. Therefore he urb e bud- ding surgeons to acquire the precision' of the musician if at all possible. Mandombi. In tlio :Princess Beatrice ward of the London Hospital a tablet to the mem- ory of Mandeenbi, former chief of Ni- geria, has recently been unveiled. The story .is a remarkable instance of self- sacrifice in the interest of humanity by a member of the so-called backward About thirty years ago l'Iandombi became a Christian. Shortly after- wards he was smitten with the ter- rible scourge of tropical countries, sleeping sickness. Realizing that he could not recover, •he conceived th idea of scariflicing the rest of his lif e y offering his body for experiment. He made his desire known to the mis- sionary who hadconverted him, and was brought to England and placed in the London Hospital under the care of the late Sir Stephen Mackenzie. Every four hours for two months the house physician examined the blood of the patient, and the researoh eostrib- uteri to the eventual discovery of the chief cause of the disease. Mandombi died, but his thoughtful sacrifice helped to save millions of lives. When it was' proposed to erect the permanent tribute to the black chief's valor no one could find any record of his name in the books of the hospital. Sir Stephen Mackenzie, it was learned, 'had taken away all the data of the case for use in preparing a lecture. For- tunately, one of the other doctors who had attended the case was able to.come to the hospital and point to the very bed in which Mandombi had lain—look- ing southward to his native land. The story of the chief reminds us once more that the way of progress is ever the way of sacrifice. • Progressing. "FIas that young man who is calling on you given you any encouragement, Emily?" asked the father. "Oh, yes. Last night he asked me if you and mother were pleasant to live with." We easily forgive our faults when they are only known to ourselves. The World's Most Curious Marriage Customs In many parts of India, particularly Bengal, after the wedding ceremony the bride and bridegroom are tied to- gether by the corners of their gar- ments and made to parade the full length of the village" to signify to all that they are united fol life. At a •Cingalese wedding the men anis women are tied together'by ° their s and in parts I thumb p r s of Northern India � the custom is to tie a piece of string or thread round the bride's w' ist. Another very ancient custom that is still observed in many marriages is that of placing the yoke of a bullock on the head of the bride for a moment in order to impress upon her the duty of complete submission to her hus- band. Married in a Stream. Among the Kurds, the bridegroom— no doubt thinking of the possibility of divorce, which is easily obtained— stands in a .stream of running water while pronouncing his marriage vows. This signifies that he washes away the binding nature --of the promise, and therefore the bleach of it is less sin- ful! The marriage ceremony in Afghan- istan Is simple, if nothing else. All r h its flowing blood. In Turkey, when the bridegroom un- veils his bride to have his first view of her after the marriage ceremony, they both look into a mirror and knock their heads together -so that the im- ages may appear united. In certain parts of..:China 'the, bride is 'carried` on a servant's back over a ,slow charcoal fire, on each side of which are arranged a pair of the bridegroom's gnoom s shoes. custom is that or lifting the brideer over the threshold of her new home. The men of Abyssinia usually carry their brides from their old homes to their new ones, no doubt imitating the ancient' -custom of taking wives by force. In somaiiland they have a queer custom of shutting up the bride and bridegroom for seven days after the wedding. At the Dagger's Pain'. Atter an Algerian wedding the bridegroom enters his home back- wards, hording a .dagger in his hand, and his bride follows him, touching the point of the blade with the tip of her finger. In the Gilbert Islands a man can demasd his wife's sisters in mar - sage, and he is also expected to take is brother's widows! The inhabitants of the Cook Islands ave for many years practised a very urious .marriage custom. A few days efore the wedding takes place the ride walks to the bridegroom's house n a path composed of members of her uture husband's tribe, who lie face downwardson the ground. On the wedding ng day theman walks to his bride's house over the members of her tribe. Should the distance be great, those lying at the back of the row wait until they have been walked over, then get up and run to the head of the line and lie down again! the man has to do is to cut off 'a lock of a girl's hair or throw•a sheet over her and proclaim her his bride! In Persia marriages frequently take place between boys and girls. One of the boys employed by the British Army 1n Kermanshah in 1919 was four- teen years old and had been married twice! When a Persian takes his oxide home, sheep aro usually killed as she steps over the threshold. A similar custom is prevalent among the Arabs, and when the bride reaches the thresh- old of her new home a sheep is killed and she has to step over a stream of h c ti b 0 i The color wheel should be studied y the woman who Is planning decora- tons for a small room. Technical inowledge of thevarying hues which re shown on the whoel Is not neoes- ary, but a few moments' considera- ion of them will make one realize pelt. different qualities. When colors fare studied as isolated examples coin- arison between several Is not pos- ible• The color wheel on which they rne grouped emphasizes the different fluence each one exerts on our oon- ioueness. Red, for instance, stands out prominently wherever it is used, but when we see blue placed next I to �t on the color wheel we realize more ban ever red's dominating character- istics. We have reiterated many times that pn impression of as much space as is ossihle should be given forth by the small room. The woman who dee- ee .r mil 'Millinntra ; rr9C meet= gcref all c lit iTh a uu Want to a .f , INIout.:ilom' a ecorti By•DOW)T ETiLEL W LSH!. 1 tilialeillSee ...,,, , . Zi1•strona�l 4titFto,rieq�11( Oaorna ,F.uenisrriag+u, idigl J!Q Mil s„lNFinantIl1< fE< `r it 1"i86Rliliii5nil glimi ••Tr�� if•ti i W1ReaRl iia Correct Colors for D140 ;mall .lioo.rn. orates ..the email room will therefore study her color wheel, and choose: those colors which are tha least prom- inont at first glance. When, like red,'; a colorattracts our immediate at -1 tention, it seems nearer to us than dol those of which we are not spade so quickly conscious. If then the small. room hag brilliant colors used on its. wallsand in its window hangings, both wake and windows will be made to appear nearer to the cthitor of the room than they areand thus the size of the interior is apparently restricted., Blue, green, gray and all neutral' tones fade more into the background than • do brilliant colors and so seem further away. They are the colors to use on; the large"areas of a small room, but. lest your xoom_: become monotonous' and drab introduce into it touches of brilliant color through small objects such as cushions end ornaments. First Eight AnYafid An air -race round the world, in whioh the immediate starters, an Eng- lishman, Squadron -Leader Stuart Mac- laren, and his rivals of the United. States Army Air Service, will be fly- ing in opposite directions, is likely to prove the greatest sensation in the history of flight. The Americans are starting from Los Angeles, flying westward to Japan, by way of the Aleutian Islands, and thence along the Chinese coast to In- dia, Egypt, and Europe. From Eng- land they will not attempt to take the Atlantic at a single bound as Squad- ron -Leader Maclaren intends to do, but will fly northward to Iceland and Greenland, returning to the United States by way of Canada. When Maclaren, flying aver much the same route, reaches Newfoundland, he will try to fly direct to the British Isles, landing probably in Ireland aP ter a flight of about 1,800 miles, eigh teen times the distance from London to- Birmingham, or ten times the dis- tanoe from London to Leeds. For this purpose he will take an board about 840 gallons of petrol, in two- gallon tins. Amid Arctic Snows. e World Their machine will be provided with • floats and a wheeled undercarriage which the pilot can raise or lower auto- matically from his seat. It will have two engines ef 360 h.p each. The ground organization for aero- planes landing at aerodromes in Eur- ope is fairly good, and the aviators will have the advantage of the Royal Air Force organization over 4,000 miles of their route from Egypt to Calcutta. After that, however, they will have to make their own arrangements far de- pots for refuelling and the 'replacing of necessary spare parts, until they reach the Canadian zone, when the Canadian Government will help them on their way. Bully Beef and Biscuits. But, however spectacular the fli may prove to onlookers, it will be any- thing but a joy -ride for the partici- - pants. Apart from the tremendous nerve us strain n of six to eight hours a day in the air, it means anything from three to six hours hard manual labor on the ground for the entire crew, far it is no light task to fill two 360 h.p. engines with petrol, oil, and water, all of which must be carefully strained. be examined and readjustments made examined and readjustments made where anything has worked loose. Maclaren and his companions are taking the precaution of carrying fishing lines and rifles, In addition to their iron rations of bully beef and biscuits, in case they are stranded. No mention of this flight would be complete without a tribute to the late Captain Sir Ross Smith, who, with his 'brother, Sir Keith, flew from England to Australia, a distance of 1,400 miles, tin twenty-eight days. He had almost completed his preparations to fly round the world when he met his death in the cause of aviation. To him is due credit for the pioneer work ear - Apart from ,this big jump, the com- petitors need never fly more than about 500 miles at a stretch, a matter of some eight hours in the air. The Americans, by saving them- selves a twenty-four hours' flight, will have the disadvantage of having to fly in barren Arctic regions, which are ice -bound except for a few weeks in summer, and where facilities" for land- ing are few and far between. Maclaren will be accompanied by Flying -Officer W. N. Pien.derleith, who will navigate the machine in much the same way as a ship is navigated at III sea, and Sergeant Andrews, who will act as rigger and mechanic. lied out over the route. Well Meant. Once upon a time there was a long spell p I oE dry weather. What made it all the more wonderful is the fact that this astonishing event took place in Britain. Strange, but none the less true! After several weeks of incessant sunshine there was a refresing shower of rain, "This rain will do a lot of good, Patrick," remarked Mr. Blank to his Irish gardener. "`It will that, sir," returned Pat, "'shure, an hour of it now will do more good in five minutes than a month of it would do in a week at any other time." A Valuable Mother, A fond mother, to whorl her young- est son was indeed a Joseph, asked I him one day why he •associated with; "those low persons who live under the hill by the railroad tracks"? He re- plied by introducing his mother to Mrs. Timothy Bryne, whose claim to fame rested in her parenthood of Timmy, Jr., the leader of the "gang," "This, mother, is Mrs, Byrne, an' she's teachin' Timmy to be a policomali, ten' if he gets licked in a fight she Iicks him. Timmy ain't been itciced in moral]. a month now, Mother, she's a ' grand woinan, an' a great help to Timmy." li to d cl Airs. Arthur .ltiurplly is the first Canadian woiltail to occupy a. judicial 50 post, being the magistrate of the juvenile court at Cai'fyar, . Alberta. She is t1 Y also an authoress, her writings, being pittblislioti tinder the nom do Winne of fo "Sauey Canuok." ar , th Knew the Place, A young bride -elect was ordering er trousseau hi London before going New Zealand to be married, The ressmaker suggested only very w u'm othing, and when she demurred, es - sting that the climate was beatitt- illy mild, she was immediately in - rifled: "1 assure ;sola, liiadeni, you o mistaken. New Zealand is where e frozen moat conies from," f. . Are you remembering always that there is magic in your think- ing? Every day you are helping to create the world you live in by the thinking you do. Your own face is being changed by the thoughts that flit through your misd. If your thinking is beau- tiful there is a beauty in your face tlia.t has been created by that thinking. Think for a moment about men and women you know who have been blessed with one ,steadfast dream. Has it not left its mark upon their faces? Have not the ideas they entertained day after day manifested themselves in. action or in material form? if as a child you believed in fairies, you should have no trouble in believing now in the beautiful magic of good thotights, Do you worry? Are you niak- ng'yourself unhappy by "think. ing back"? Isere is an uplifting thought from Emerson for those tvho make themselves unhappy by worrying over: the pnst;••-•- "Finish every day and be cion With it. You .have' done what you could; Baine bliindere and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you Can,. T morrow is a new day; Yon shall begin It well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old non- some." Life without its ideal is nothing hot stagnation.--..lylts• Stanley Baldwin. A pian should be co:nrtiended a.c cording toils wisdom; 1