28 Conception, Birth and Infancy in 



imperial prince might be wrapped in purple. 132 Since the child's 

 arms as well as its legs are often and were often confined by the 

 swaddling-band, the resulting bundle would look almost as much 

 like the stone of Cronus as like an infant. 133 Even an Italian who 

 is in the helplessness of a first fatherhood should handle his infant 

 thus stiffly swathed without fear of breaking it, but he must be 

 sure which end is which, if he tries standing it upright in a corner, 

 as he may be tempted to do in the child's squally moments. When 

 one who is familiar with the art of Italy sees one of these bundled 

 babies, he will think at once of some favorite bambino made of 

 glazed terra cotta which he has admired in the tympanum over a 

 church door in Tuscany, or perhaps in some art gallery where a 

 room serves as a creche, shall we say, for the lovely children of 

 the Delia Robbias. 134 



The continuity of this method of clothing infants through hun- 

 dreds of years can be traced in Italian paintings, but nowadays 

 one must not look for exemplifications of it among babies who are 

 born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths. Tin- 

 spooned Mussolini may have been bundled in this fashion in his 

 humble birthplace at Varano di Costa, a hamlet overlooking Dovia 

 di Predappio, but we imagine that his own grandchildren received 

 a more ducal treatment and wore diapers. 



Among the ancient writers Pliny the Elder contrasts man in his 

 helplessness with all other animals, noting that they are born to 

 complete freedom in the use of their body, while the human baby 

 has all its limbs swathed in swaddling-bands. 135 The creature that 

 is destined to rule all others lies bound fast, hand and foot, in weep- 

 ing impotence. Naturally observers who come from lands of 

 diapered infants have often commented upon this Italian method 

 of clothing them. Hawthorne conjectured 136 that use of this binder 

 was responsible for an excess of dwarfs in the population of the 

 country, Charles Dickens that it produces cripples; 137 but a far 

 more trustworthy commentator, W. W. Story, held that it is whole- 

 some and that it accounts for good backs and fine straight limbs. 138 



In Terracina, where winter can be sufficiently severe, I have 

 watched little children, who were all but nude, playing gleefully 

 in a large puddle of water, thinly skimmed with ice, which they 

 broke with their bare feet. The representations of slightly clad 

 children in ancient works of art suggest that young Romans were 

 blessed with much the same hardiness. 



