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Ebook has 331 lines and 20411 words, and 7 pages

BIG PEOPLE AND LITTLE PEOPLE OF OTHER LANDS

EDWARD R. SHAW

Dean of the School of Pedagogy New York University

New York Cincinnati Chicago American Book Company

PREFACE This little book is designed to meet the child's natural desire to learn or hear of other people than those living in the part of the world about him.

It has been thoroughly proved in our newer pedagogical practice that the child in the first school year is much interested in descriptions of the Indian and the Eskimo. Whenever descriptions of the Indian and the Eskimo have been given him, they have not only fulfilled their purpose in furnishing material for reading and the interrelation of several activities of expression, but they have revealed to him the fact that there are other people in the world, who differ very much from those he has seen.

His interest in different peoples at this time is in their physical appearance, their dress, their ways of living, their customs, their manners, and it arises chiefly from the contrast which descriptions of these afford to familiar customs, conditions, and physical characteristics.

The child is not interested, at that stage of his intellectual development which falls in the first or the second school year, in the situation of countries. It does not matter to him exactly where, geographically, the people about whom he reads live. He is satisfied if some general statement is made to the effect that they live far away to the north, where the cold countries are, or in the south, where it is warm and sometimes hot, or on the other side of the world.

His desire, at this period, for new impressions and ideas gained from descriptions and accompanying pictures is as keen as his desire for sense impressions gained from the world of nature and activity about him. This wider range of information and ideas, it is believed, he may in some measure gain from this little book.

DRESDEN, July 15, 1899.

PEOPLE OF OTHER LANDS.

CHINA.

On the other side of this great round world is a country called China. When it is dark here, and we are going to sleep, the sun is just waking up the children in China and telling them it is morning. When we get up in the morning they are just bidding the sun good night. When it is light here it is dark there. So they have day when we have night.

Chinese children look like little men and women, for they dress like their fathers and mothers. Boys and girls dress nearly alike. They both dress in silk or cotton trousers. They wear over these long gowns reaching nearly to their feet. They wear odd-looking shoes with thick white soles. The boys' heads are shaved, except a small part on top. There a lock of hair is left. This lock of hair is braided and hangs down the back. A queer name is given to it. It is called a "queue." Girls in China do not go to school, but all day long they are busy; they help their mothers keep house; they tend the babies; they sew, and help with the cooking.

The schools in China are only for boys. The boys make a great deal of noise in school. A Chinese teacher thinks the boys are idle if they do not study their lessons out loud. So each boy shouts as loud as he can. When the boy has learned his lesson, he goes up and gives his book to the teacher. Then he turns his back to the teacher, and shouts out the whole lesson to show that he knows it.

The boys are taught to count. They learn by using balls set in a frame. The frame is like the frame of a slate. The balls slide on wires. With the balls they learn to add and subtract.

They also learn how to write, but they have no pens or pencils. They write with small brushes dipped in ink. Each boy makes his own ink. He puts some water on a stone and then rubs a cake of ink in the water. This makes a fine black ink called India ink. Then the boy fills his brush and begins at the top, right-hand corner of the paper. He writes toward the bottom of the sheet. He puts one word under another instead of beside it as you do. Then he begins a new line at the top, and writes to the bottom again.

Chinese books are printed in the same way. Where do you think a Chinese book begins? A Chinese book begins where our books end.

In China many girls and women have very small feet. When they are babies their feet are bound up tightly. They sometimes wear iron shoes. Then their feet never grow, but are so very small that they can hardly walk. Poor parents know their girls will have to work hard, and so do not bind their feet.

Chinese girls make beautiful paper flowers. They paint pictures. They sing and play. Some of them pick the snow-white cotton in the fields. Some of them take care of the silk-worms that spin the soft silk.

But they do not work all the time. They play many pretty games. Chinese boys, too, have many kinds of games and toys. One game is like battledoor and shuttlecock. They use their feet to strike the shuttlecock. They do this so fast that the shuttlecock hardly ever falls to the ground. The Chinese are fond of flying kites. Even old men fly kites. They fly their kites in the spring-time. Chinese kites are of all sizes and shapes. Some are like birds. Some are like fish. Some are like butterflies.

There is no other such land in all the world for lanterns as China. The lanterns there are made of paper in the shape of balls, or flowers, or animals. Some of the lanterns have a wheel inside. When the candle is lighted, the draft of air makes the wheel go round very quickly. When the wheel begins to move inside, the figures on the outside of the lantern begin to move. Then men are seen fishing or fanning. Sometimes children are seen dancing.

The Chinese are so fond of lanterns that every year they have a "Feast of Lanterns." On that day and night lanterns are to be seen everywhere. Bridges and houses and trees are covered with lighted lanterns.

They have fireworks, too, that look like stars and trees and flowers.

A Chinese dinner begins in the wrong way. They have fruits and nuts first. After this comes rice. They eat more of rice than of anything else. Then they drink tea without either milk or sugar. They use neither forks nor knives. Instead they eat with small sticks of wood or ivory. These are called "chopsticks." They hold them between the thumb and first two fingers. They use them to carry their food to their mouths as you use a fork or a spoon.

Do you know how they catch fish in China?

They have a bird which swims and dives into the water. This bird lives on fish. Every time he dives he catches one. He is trained to bring the fish to his master. A tight ring is put round the bird's neck. This is to keep him from swallowing the fish. When enough fish have been caught, the bird is given some to eat. This bird is called a cormorant.

A Chinese fisherman lives in his fishing boat. But China is a very crowded country. So other men as well as fishermen live on small flatboats in the rivers near the big towns. Ducks and other fowls are raised on these boats. The people on the water are as busy as the people on the land.

In China houses are one story high. They are built of wood. The roofs slope, and are made of sticks woven together. The churches are called pagodas. They are not like our churches, but are tall, like towers. They are usually nine stories high. They have little bells hung all around the roof. These bells ring when the wind blows them back and forth.

Between the houses are narrow streets without sidewalks. There are no wagons. If a lady goes to make a call, she sends for a sort of covered chair. This has long poles on each side. The chair is set on the ground before her door. After she gets in, men lift the poles to their shoulders. In this way they carry her. Baggage and heavy articles are also carried on the shoulders of men.

But perhaps the most wonderful thing in China is the Great Wall. It was built by kings a long time ago. They wanted to keep savage people from coming into the country. The wall is built very high and very wide. It is so wide in some places that eight horses can be driven on top of it side by side. It is hundreds of miles long. The people of China think it is very wonderful. They think there is nothing so wonderful in all the rest of the world.

China seems a curious country. Boys shout out loud in school. They read and write backward. Men fly kites, like boys. Women have feet as small as babies' feet. At dinner nuts and fruits are eaten first. Men work like animals. There are many ways in which the Chinese are different from the people in our country.

JAPAN

How would you like to ride in a wagon drawn by a man instead of a horse? That is the way people ride in Japan. Japan is a country a long way off, near China. You would think that a man could not run very fast drawing a wagon. But in Japan some men can run as fast as horses. The wagon is like a buggy, but it has only two wheels. They call this wagon a jin-rik'i-sha.

The streets in Japan have no sidewalks. The houses are only one or two stories high. They are built of wood. They have no windows or doors. Strange houses, you will think. The walls outside and inside are made like sliding doors. They slide back so that the people can go in and out, and from one room to another.

The Japanese have very little furniture in their houses. They have no chairs. They do not need any, for they sit on cushions on the floor. They also sleep on the floor. When it is time to go to bed, they spread soft quilts on the floor, one over the other. The last quilt on the top is the cover. These beds are very nice. But you could never guess what kind of pillows they have. The pillows are blocks of wood the size of a brick. You would not think them nice at all. But the Japanese seem to sleep very well on their wood pillows.

Many of the things in the houses in Japan are made of paper, They have paper fans, paper lanterns, paper hats, paper cups, paper umbrellas, paper napkins, and paper screens.

They have no stoves. Instead of stoves they have boxes lined with brass. In these boxes they burn charcoal to heat their rooms. But they do not cook their food in these brass boxes. They cook in little ovens made of clay.

When it rains in Japan the people look very funny. The men wear rain coats made of rice straw. They also have big straw hats and paper umbrellas.

They wear blocks, three inches high, fastened to the soles of their shoes. These keep their feet dry. So on a rainy day everybody looks three inches taller.

In Japan they do not wear shoes in the house. When they go into their houses they take them off. Their shoes are made of wood or straw. Some of the people have shoes with gold braid.

Perhaps you would like to know how they dress in Japan. Boys and girls dress very much alike. Both wear long gowns, like skirts, of blue or gray cotton or silk. These gowns are open at the neck. A sash is worn around the waist. The girls tie their sashes in a bow at the back.

The children of Japan are very strange looking, not at all like you. They are like the Chinese. Their skin is yellow, and their eyes are slanted. Their hair is black and straight.

You will wish to know what they eat in Japan. The food is much the same as in China. They eat a great deal of rice. They have fish, and they drink tea. They use chopsticks in eating, as the people in China do.

The people in Japan are very fond of flowers. Every house has a garden around it. The boys and girls walk and play in these gardens.

Boys and girls in Japan have many nice toys. One of their toys is a little oven with real fire in it. Peddlers go round with these ovens and with sweet dough to bake in them. For five cents the boys and girls can get the use of an oven, and dough enough to bake little cakes. They often make cakes shaped like animals. The peddler makes the letters of the alphabet in dough. Then he bakes them in the oven for the boys and girls. With these cake letters they often learn their a, b, c.

The boys in Japan, like the boys in China, are very fond of kites. But in Japan they have fighting kites. They mix broken fine glass with glue, and rub it on their kite strings. When the strings become dry they are hard and sharp. Then the boys fly their kites. One boy tries to cross and cut the string of another boy's kite with the string of his own. The boy who cuts down a kite gets it as his prize.

In Japan they have a day like our Flag Day. On this day the boys have toy soldiers with swords and guns. They form these soldiers into armies, and have battles. Then the parents and teachers tell the boys about the great soldiers of their country, and the great battles they fought.

The girls have a day for themselves. They call it the "Feast of Dolls." Every girl has a set of dolls. On that day they take out their dolls and doll houses. Then the girls play with them, and show them to one another.

They have schools in Japan just as we have. The boys and girls must go to school until they are ten years old. Some of their lessons are very hard. They have forty-seven letters in their alphabet, instead of only twenty-six, as we have. Don't you think it must be hard for the boys and girls to learn to read?

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