Big People and Little People of Other Lands Part 3

The tables they have are very low. It would not do for them to have high tables, as they sit on the floor.

They have no knives or forks. They eat with spoons, and they use chopsticks, as the Chinamen do.

They have no water-pipes in their houses. In the towns men carry water in pails. They have no gas. For light at night they use candles.

They have only one kind of coin. It is a small piece of copper. It has a square hole in the middle. They put these coins on strings and carry them around their necks. It would take many such coins to make a dollar.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Korean Money.]

There are farms in Korea, where they grow wheat, rice, rye, tobacco, cotton, watermelons, and many kinds of fruit.

If you were in Korea, you would think it the strangest country in the world. They do many things very unlike the way we do them. With us bright-colored things are worn by women. In Korea the men wear bright colors. They have a funny way of selling eggs there. They place ten eggs end to end in a row, and put straw around them. Then they tie strings around the straw between the eggs. This is called a stick of eggs. When people go to buy eggs, they ask for one or two sticks, or as many as they wish. One stick of eggs costs less than five cents.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Stick of Eggs.]

Instead of a president they have a king. The king lives in the largest town. There is a thick, high wall all around this town. There are gates in the wall, and these are shut at night. After the gates are shut, no one can get in or out until they are opened in the morning.

The people show very great respect for the king. When they go to speak to him they throw themselves down on their faces before his throne.

The people love their country very much. They think it is the most beautiful country in the world.

INDIA.

How would you like to go to school at six o'clock in the morning? That is the time many children go to school in India. India is a large country in Asia. The children stay in school till nine o'clock. Then they go home for breakfast, and go back to school at ten. At two o'clock they go home for dinner. They go back again at three to stay till evening. You will think that this is a long time to be at school.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hindoo Children at School.]

In some of the schools they have no desks or chairs, but the boys and girls sit on the floor. In other schools they have long tables instead of desks.

They do not learn their letters as we do. The teachers write five letters in sand on the floor. Then the boys and girls write the letters in the sand. They write the letters many times, until they know them well. Then the teachers write five more letters, and so on until the children know all the letters. When they can make the letters in the sand, they next learn to write them on palm leaves with pens made of wood. The last thing they do is to write them on slates and on paper.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Native Children of India.]

In some of the large towns they learn to read and write English. But English is not the language that most of the people speak. They have a language of their own.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Hindoo Family at Home.]

The people of India are called Hindoos. They have dark skin, dark eyes, and dark hair.

It is so warm that most of the people wear very little clothing. Many of the boys and girls wear no shoes. The girls are very fond of jewels. No matter how poor a family is, they try to buy some jewels for their girls. So the girls in India always have jewelry to wear.

They have no Christmas in India. They have what they call the "Feast of the Cakes." At the Feast of the Cakes they have three holidays.

Then they have cakes of all kinds.

The boys are very fond of swinging. They are also very fond of swimming. In some places they have diving wells. The boys plunge from a high bank down into the water below.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Tiger.]

The rich people have very fine houses, with gardens and flowers and fountains. There are carpets, cushions, and tables in the houses, but no chairs. They sit on cushions on the floor.

The beds are very low, and the legs are often of silver or gold or ivory. They have no sheets or pillow cases, but covers of velvet or satin.

The people who are poor live in houses made of dried mud, with roofs of bamboo poles and straw. They have hardly any furniture. They sleep on mats made of palm leaves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cobras.]

In many of the houses they have no tables. They eat off of leaves on the floor. Their food is mostly rice. All the family do not eat together. The father of the family always eats first. When he has eaten, the mother and children sit down to eat.

The women do most of the work. So the girls have to learn to work.

But the men and boys do all the sewing. How queer this seems!

[Ill.u.s.tration: An Elephant Piling Lumber.]

There are a great many wild beasts in India--tigers, leopards, cobras, and crocodiles. The tigers are very fierce. They sometimes come into villages at night and carry off men, women or children, and kill and eat them. There are logs. They do work of many kinds. An elephant is much stronger than a horse. He can carry a far heavier load.

Sometimes all the family ride on one elephant's back.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Riding on an Elephant.]

LAPLAND.

Jingle! jingle! jingle! Where does the merry sound come from? It comes from a sleigh drawn by a reindeer. The sleigh is called a "pulk'ha." It is made of birch wood. It has no runners. It goes on a little keel like that on the bottom of a boat. The sleigh is very low.

It is pointed at the front like a rowboat, and is flat at the back.

There are no seats in it. The driver sits in the bottom. The reindeer draws the sleigh, and goes very fast. If the driver is not very careful the sleigh may be upset.

It is in Lapland that you may see this kind of a sleigh. The people who live there are called Lapps. They are short and stout. You would think the men and women were boys and girls.

It is very cold in Lapland. The summer is short, and the winter is long. So the Lapps have to wear warm clothes most of the year.

The men and women and boys and girls in Lapland dress much alike. In the winter they wear a long outside coat called a _kap'ta_. It reaches below the knees. It is made of reindeer skin with the hair left on. Under the kapta they wear warm clothes made of wool.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Lapp's Tent.]

Their shoes are also made of reindeer skin. They wear two pairs of thick woolen stockings. When they put on the stockings, they wrap their feet in dry gra.s.s. Then they put on their shoes. The gra.s.s helps to keep their feet warm. They also wear two pairs of mittens at the same time. One pair is made of wool. The other pair is made of reindeer skin. Their hats or caps are also made of reindeer skin.

They are lined with eider down. Perhaps you do not know what eider down is. It is the soft, fine feathers of a bird called the eider duck. A great many of these ducks are found in Lapland. Their down is very soft and warm.

Sometimes the Lapps have to go long distances in the snow. Then they put on skees. If you saw a pair of skees, you would think that a person could not walk with them. They are flat pieces of wood, four or five inches wide, and very long. Some skees are six feet long. Some are ten or twelve feet long. They are turned up a little in the front.

In the middle of each there is a hollow place. The shoe is strapped to the foot there, as you see in the picture. When the Lapps go on skees, they do not raise their feet from the ground. They slide along, one foot after the other. They have a long pole, or staff, in their hands to beep themselves from falling. They can go very fast in this way.

Sometimes they go ten or fifteen miles an hour.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Skees.]

In some parts of Lapland the people live in houses made of earth and stone. Each house has only one room. The Lapps have no carpets. They have no tables or chairs. They cover their floor with twigs of trees.

They eat and sleep on skins spread on the twigs. They burn wood for fires. The fire is made on the ground in the middle of the floor. The smoke goes out through a hole in the roof.