234 MORE POT-POURRI 



made of dried and pounded bracken Fern if the husks of 

 oats are not available) is also used for washing a baby, on 

 a method which I think both safer and easier than our 

 English way. There is a large plain deal table, three 

 sides of which are surrounded by a rim as in our wooden 

 washstands. On the right and left of this table is placed 

 everything the nurse is likely to require for washing the 

 baby. On a little table next to this big one is a basket 

 with the clothes. In the middle of the large table is 

 placed the above-mentioned pillow covered with a piece 

 of mackintosh sheeting, over which is laid a large bath 

 towel. On this is placed the little naked baby, and it is 

 then the superior advantage of this system over the 

 English one becomes apparent. No one can see it done 

 without appreciating how much less experienced the 

 mother or nurse need be, as both hands are left free to 

 soap and sponge, and wipe and powder. After being 

 soaped, the baby is dipped, as with us, into the bath and 

 immediately laid back again on the pillow, where it looks 

 like one of the little Christian ' bambinos ' in sugar 

 or plaster which used to be sold in Italy at Christmas- 

 time. 



The child is wrapped in the bath towel and dried. 

 The mackintosh and towel are then removed, and the 

 really difficult process of dressing a very young baby is 

 safely and easily performed on the pillow. I saw it done 

 by a young and inexperienced nurserymaid of nineteen, 

 who certainly could never have been trusted to wash a 

 baby as we do it in England, and I came away greatly 

 impressed with the merits of the chaff pillow. 



A favourite trick practised by those who have charge 

 of babies is to cover or nearly cover over their faces, so 

 that the child breathes its own breath, which all educated 

 people know is poisonous. When you expostulate, the 

 nurse says : ' It makes the child sleep better ' which means 



